Alex Spencer

It's New Comics Day, which means a new #oneweekonecomic! This week's pick: BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #1, by @whoajordie & @Danmora_c. An illustrated thread of stuff I dug about the issue (including some spoilers) follows. #BuffyTheVampireSlayerpic.twitter.com/oNbJMwOwxm

This is the first instalment of @boomstudios' big Buffy revamp (pun intended) and it's fascinating to see how even its design plays around with the familiar. Gone is the TV's dusty-old-book title sequence. Instead it plays up the teenage aspect, and emphasises this is modern day.pic.twitter.com/azSQWhFG7M

In comics terms, think of this as Ultimate Buffy – grabbing all the best bits of the original series and remixing them to create something fresh. Like a high-school-age Willow who already knows that she's into girls.pic.twitter.com/BCWOKQe4gO

It takes stuff that worked in later seasons, like Anya as magic shop owner, or Buffy as fast-food employee with superpowers, or even the underlying presence of Wolfram Hart, and puts it right at the beginning.pic.twitter.com/gLls7Eu77L

But the big question for any Buffy adaptation, even a remix, has got to be... well, does it feel like Buffy? And, friends, I can answer that with a single image:pic.twitter.com/6FoMEBCEHJ

It certainly helps that Mora’s likenesses are spot on. The big close up panels have photoreference feel to them, but he goes much looser for zoomed-out shots, without losing any of the essence of those characters/actors.pic.twitter.com/f3wiGHPO8f

(This Willow is notably less dorky, both in what she wears and how she’s characterised, and while I’ll miss seeing her gradual glow-up, I suspect it’s linked with that self-identification stuff, and that’s cool.)pic.twitter.com/NiWWsxuc1r