Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales by Various

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales Reviews

• 
  Sophia

  So many powerful, emotional stories! With many characters you could relate to in some way. Which makes what happens to them so shocking or fascinating. I loved seeing the in depth history on characters such as the First Slayer or how the Watchers used to be taught.
  
  They do have some short and funny stories but I feel like most of the tales leaned more towards being thought-provoking.
  
  I basically took a year long break from this omnibus because I'm extra and like to try to read everything in the 'right order'. I would definitely read this again, hopefully without the long break!
• 
  Tamsyn J

  Love LOVE love the illustrations in this book -- As a Buffy fan I may be slightly biased but all I can say is FANTASTIC!!!
  
  
• 
  David

  This is a collection of short stories all set in Joss Whedon's Buffyverse, and so just as "canonical" as the "Season Eight" comic series from Dark Horse Comics, but mostly they are independent shorts focusing on Slayers throughout the ages, and a few little vignettes about secondary characters. The volume opens with a few pages showing the First Slayer, then skips through various periods of history, each Slayer Tale written and illustrated by a different team.
  
  Righteous is about a Slayer in medieval Europe who saves a town from a master vampire, but finds that the town is less than grateful. Echoing frequent themes in Whedon's work (fear of female empowerment), it's one of many of the stories that has a rather dark ending.
  
  The Innocent features the Slayer hunting vampires on the streets of Revolutionary France, and being betrayed by very human evils.
  
  Presumption is an Austenesque romp with a vampire and a Slayer dancing at a Regency ball, with a twist ending.
  
  The Glittering World takes place in the Old West, with a Navajo Slayer hunting a Navajo vampire. As a bonus, we get a first glimpse of Sunnydale and an old friend from the TV series.
  
  Sonnenblume is one of the more disturbing and yet more heroic stories, as the Slayer this time is a German girl in Nuremberg in 1938... and a member of the Hitler Youth.
  
  Nikki Goes Down stars Nikki, the 70s Slayer who appeared in the TV series, in a pulp adventure romp where she rides a pteranodon into the NYC subway (seriously!).
  
  Tales is set in Whedon's future-Slayer Fray universe.
  
  Broken Bottle of Djinn stars another WWII-era Slayer, this time an American (presumably the replacement for Sonnenblume) saving the world from a Big Bad Djinn.
  
  The second half of the volume collects the Tales of the Vampires series, which made individual vampires characters. Of course they are all evil, but sometimes you can almost sympathize with them. These stories also range throughout history, though with more focusing on the modern day, and a few of them involve characters from the series: Spike and Drusilla make an appearance, as does Angel, and there's a humorous tale with Buffy going to rescue Xander from Dracula. This is where the book ties into the events of Season Eight more, as there is frequent mention of Harmony Kendall's "outing" of vampires and making them cool and popular while turning Slayers into public enemies. Some vampires are happy about the new rules, some aren't.
  
  Overall, I enjoyed this book very much -- more than I enjoyed a lot of Season Eight. You can tell some really interesting stories about new characters who happen to exist in the Buffyverse in just a few pages, and the occasional filling in of events referenced but not described in the series lets the writers go off on tangents they couldn't in the main storyline. Since this is a collection of several series going back over ten years, there's a wide range in writing and drawing styles.
  
  Definitely recommended for Buffy fans, even those who didn't like Season Eight or would prefer not to think of it as canon.
• 
  Ellen

  Good short story comics that give some background on the lore of the series with some fun cameos of characters we love. Basically, it made me want to watch the series again.
  
  2017 challenge: a book that's been on your TBR list for way too long
• 
  Samantha Matherne

  Connecting the dots of slayers and vampires within the Buffyverse from years past was an amazing trip. These comics feature plenty of new characters as well as fill in some gaps for old favorites such as what happened to Spike and Dru in Prague. The last tale, “Carpe Noctem”, even has a couple quotes from Brave New World that relate to the storyline. I loved reading these tales.
• 
  Dana Berglund

  As a huge Buffy fan, I probably give this more stars than it deserves. It's a collection of comics/stories about Slayers (first half of the book) and about Vampires (second half). Some are crossovers, or involve characters with whom we are acquainted. Others are surprising or stand alone. They are uneven, since they were written and illustrated by multiple writers and artists. Some of the art is stylized for the time and works very well, such as the one set in the West, or horseback. Others felt out of sync, and I wondered where these artists came from.
• 
  Daniel Kovacs Rezsuk

  I jumped on the Buffy train only recently - started watching the TV show while simultaneously reading the Dark Horse omnibus editions - and it totally caught me by surprise how well constructed these short stories are. One of the best horror, or more like horror-themed comic anthologies I've read so far.
• 
  Ava

  *4.5 stars
  This was such a fun read!!
  I loved this! I didn't love every story in here, so I can't give it a full 5 stars.
• 
  Carolina

  Muy bueno! El hecho que tenga diferentes estilos a lo largo de cada historia, le da un plus que se suma a lo particular de casa narración. Historias de valentía, fuerza y por sobre todo, equilibrar la balanza entre el bien y mal que a veces no viene solo en forma de vampiros y demonios.
• 
  DeAnna Knippling

  As a collection of short tales, okay, sure, this was all right, but nothing special. Nothing really stood out, and the only thing I remember was that there was a tale-within-a-tale thing, and I liked the frame story, but it ended up being less than stellar.
  
  The art, though?
  
  A lot of it was striking, really striking. For some reason (I'm not a person who normally notices this kind of thing), the colors stood out as being just amazing, with a really cool frame of a garishly underlit face that I really liked.
• 
  Artemy

  A surprisingly enjoyable collection of short stories set in the Buffyverse, both from the slayer and vampire perspectives. I liked slayers' half a bit more, just because the stories seemed a bit better-written. But the whole book is actually really good. Much better than most of the main Season 8 crap. Also an incredible set of artists here, too. Almost every story looks gorgeous.
  If you are a Buffy fan, I highly recommend this book. It was a really enjoyable read.
• 
  Lucy (The Countess of) Monte Cristo

  My Real Rating: I was stuck between giving this a 2.5 and and 3. But 2.5 it is.
  
  I thought the art in this book was absolutely beautiful, but the stories just didn't deliver. Some were quite unique (Sonnenblume, Spot the Vampire (which was completely adorable), The Thrill and Carpe Noctem) the others were dull.
• 
  Jennifer

  Amazing! I can't believe this one flew under my radar last year and I just now discovered it. I loved the Christmas themed one.
• 
  Aubrey

  Pre Season 8 and considered canon, this collection contains the stories of Tales of the Slayers and Tales of the Vampires, written by Joss and other writers of the show.
  
  I'm not sure what took me so long to but I'm so glad I got around to these stories. They aim to richen the history of the slayer and depth of the vampire by telling stories of both sides.
  
  You get a look back at slayers through time, beginning with the first slayer and up until Fray, and see their experience of being a slayer in their time. There were a handful of standout stories in that section but it was easily the Tales of the Vampires that really did it for me. Those of which start with one vampire telling a group of children (and future watchers) tales of vampires, so as to prepare and train them for their watcher duties.
  
  In those stories we get some great cameos and backstories of characters we know and love in the Buffyverse. Not too surprising, but some of the stories I enjoyed most were written by Joss himself, especially that of 'Stacy.' We got more of Spike and Dru's love story, a story from Season 8 when Harmony has her TV show, more Dracula (love it!), young Giles and fun little stories like 'Spot the Vampire.' We also get backstory of the slayer and vampire history, providing answers to things pondered about, like why only one slayer is chosen and how it could be possible for a vampire to live in the daylight.
  
  I honestly wasn't expecting to enjoy it near as much, knowing there were various art styles and that these would be (mostly) stories not much involving Buffy characters I know and love. Yet in doing so it allowed me to see that I love the characters equally as much as the world and the style of storytelling Buffy offers. I would definitely recommend it to any fan of Buffy and I think this collection is a great way to go from issue to issue.
  
  4.5/5.0
• 
  Heather

  I borrowed this book from the library. When Liam and I saw it, we both pretty much said the same thing -- "That's a big book." Inside the cover of this big book are tales of slayers: past, present, and future. Also, tales of vampires: (you guessed it) past, present, and future. Some of the stories were good, some okay, a couple of stories were really good. Speaking of good, the slayer origin stories start with the first slayer, who I particularly love. I have always thought her story would make an excellent novel. Righteous, a story of a devout slayer from the dark ages, is my favourite of the bunch. There is a theme running throughout the slayer stories that is neatly tied up through the final story of future slayer Maleka Fray. That is all I will say about that.
  
  We get some Buffy, we get some witchy Willow, we get some Maleka Fray, we get a young Giles in a don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-him cameo. However, there is definitely something missing. That witty writing that I come to expect from Joss Whedon being my main criticism. The magic is just not there for me.
  
  The second half of the Tales deals with the vampires. I think I liked these stories a bit better. There is also a theme that ties all of the vamp stories together (ish) in a sort of Watcher way. (You can't have slayers and vamps without Watchers.) There is a Dracula/Buffy/Zander-the-Manservant story that was everything I was missing from most of the other stories. The Angel story was as intense as you would want, cuz it's Angel. My favourite vamp story of the lot was about Dru and Spike. It added a new dimension to her backstory and I loved it. Like the first slayer, I think Drusilla's story is one of the richest in the Buffy-verse and would make an excellent novel. I'd definitely buy it!
  
  The artwork is beautiful, creative, sometimes dark, sometimes colourful, and always awesome, of course. Overall, an impressive (and big) tome.
• 
  Jessie (Zombie_likes_cake)

  Speaking of using books as weapons, I was sheer astounded by the size of this when I picked it up from the library. I was used to the very traditional and moderately sized Buffy Comics and there they hand me this giant murder tool.
  
  At first I thought there is no way I am going to read this, it is just too huge and I am not that interested. But with taking it slowly, story by little story, I made my way through this. I don't think I would have been up for a single novel in this size but in short story form it actually wasn't so bad and I ended up enjoying myself. I would say the quality of the stories has a wide range, both in art and plot, quite the mixed bag, and opposed to the cover there is no Buffy-Angel-Spike story. But as a fan I think this was a good time if read slowly. There are the tales of the Slayer and the tales of the Vampires, and sadly I think the Vamps beat her.
  
  The stories that stuck with me the most:
  -"Righteous": Slayer meets Witch trial
  -"Presumption": A play on "Pride and Prejudice"
  -"Tales": A look into the future where the slayer doesn't know who she is
  -"Father": A caring vampire who does not leave his son behind now that he is undead
  -"Stacy": Geek turns vampire
  -"Taking Care of Business": Very dark, Vampire meets someone scarier
  -"The Thrill": Liked the art style, people and vampire try to co-exist, where does that leave the slayer?
• 
  Steven Shinder

  After reading a few issues of DC's I, Vampire, I was reminded that I had some Buffy comics in my digital collection that I still had to read. Funny enough, the last issue of I, Vampire that I read was titled "Nudge," and there's a story with that title here.
  
  This volume is full of tales of multiple centuries. There's even an old west one with an amusing ending about the naming of Sunnydale. There's a lot of room for artistic experimentation, and some of the art styles are some you might not expect for Buffy. Some of it works, and some is not for me. I do think that some of the stories suffer from being too short for me to care much about characters I had never met before. I also spotted in anacronism in "Carpe Noctem." I believe it takes place in 2006, but, as funny as the reference is, there is a Twilight poster.
  
  Anyway, it's a 300-ish-page book, so you're bound to find something you like.
• 
  Highland G

  Next to no buffy character references here. The book follows one story of a vampire telling other stories. The small parts with known characters dont really do much and are short like one issue or less length each and the fray story is way too short to explore anything.
  A lot of poem/rhymes focused stories that I personally just didn’t enjoy much.
  Overall a nice idea but outside of the first read through, I don’t see myself coming back to it.
  Seeing fray in ohc makes me want a library edition of that separate book though.
• 
  books-on-a-wire

  Probably not the first BtVS comic I should have started out with, but I saw it at the library and needed a 90s read, so... Not really a 90s read, this was more about every other Slayer, who came before Buffy and truth be told, I wasn't really that into them. I did love the Spike and Drusilla backstory that was mentioned in the show! Some of the stories were interesting and it was great to see some of the writers contributing. I know it was a collection, but the inconsistent artwork pulled me out as well.
• 
  Marisa

  Boy, has my head been in the sand! I love the Buffy series, but I've had no experience reading related comic books/ graphic novels until recently. This was a great introduction! Every story was complex and surprising, thrilling and crafty. I have to agree with some of the reviewers- the stories were too short! But still, this book offered a wide variety of art and lore. Reading this was a great way to end the year!
• 
  Amory

  Almost all of these were very strong stories, and I liked the art style for most as well; there were a few that weren't great, but that's par for the course for larger anthologies like this. I really loved the Spike/Dru comic showing them just before coming to Sunnydale, and loved recognizing a Loeb/Sale comic in here; I love the duo's work for Marvel and DC and hadn't realized they ever worked on Buffyverse comics!
• 
  Max Ostrovsky

  So, okay, wow. I loved this and its surprising connectivity. I was expecting unrelated tales of slayers throughout time; however, this collection had an ongoing theme, told tales from Vampires perspectives, and were connected in a solid story - that story might not have been the traditional plot line story, but it was still connected and each made all the others better.
• 
  Maia

  I loved loved all the different stories within this fantastic book. I loved seeing how all the different Slayers were portrayed. One of my favourite parts was the vampire aspect of the book since there was a story on Spike and a story on Angel. Both of which were fantastically written and drawn. I was able to understand even more about them as their stories progressed.
• 
  T. Renee Doty

  This was such a fun collection! It told stories of previous Slayers before and after Buffy. I loved that each Slayer got a unique art style for their story. I also think all of the writers did a good job, but I did have styles I preferred over others. It's been really fun to dig into some of the comics for even more lore.
• 
  Joshua Gross

  This was a nice quick read. These were mainly short stories of either other slayers or vampires. I liked the variety of art styles, and I liked the overriding story arc that brought together the vampire stories. There were some that were too short to really enjoy but some pretty good ones as well.
• 
  Jamies

  Enjoyed all the Tales of the Slayers section. Some of the vampire stores were out there and odd but most were good too. Dracula's story was odd cuz it takes place after/during the comics right? I know they go see him for help and his hair is fine like before. Still Love Buffyverse!
• 
  Kimberly

  Great collection of slayer & vampires tales set in the Buffyverse. You see a couple of familiar characters or you can trace a direct line from these stories to our beloved Scoobies. The vampire tales are stronger. This is a fun read for diehard Buffy fans.
• 
  Cristina B

  Includes both Tales of the Slayers and Tales of the Vampires. Loved the different styles of writing and art since its written/illustrated by different authors! Fun short stories about vampires and slayers past and present. Some cameos from characters you might recognize from the show.
• 
  Isabel ✰

  My sister and I have been working on collecting the dark horse Buffy comics, so I got this giant book for her birthday (and of course read it myself) and I loved the variety of art styles and all of the little vignettes set in the Buffy universe.