Buffy Updates: Buffy Versus Fray, Animated Buffster

So, I picked up the latest issue of the Buffy versus Fray "Season 8" comic, in which Dark Willow of the Future is revealed on the very last page (Whoops - is that a spoiler? But you totally know it's her all the way through the issue.) I'm enjoying this plotline - where Buffy learns that fairly sad state of slayerhood far in the future, and Fray's ongoing struggle with her evil twin.

And, via Television Without Pity, I learned about a YouTube version of the Buffy animated series pilot. It's good, not great, but still entertaining in that "I miss Buffy" sort of way.
Here's the story:
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/telefile/2008/08/buffy-summers-reanimated-corps.php#more
and the YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnUvZP7-5LM

Kurosowa's The Hidden Fortress, and new comics!

After not being blown away by "The Seven Samurai," I finally got what Kurosowa fans love about him after watching "The Hidden Fortress," apparently one of the main inspirations for George Lucas' Star Wars: A New Hope. A spunky teenage heroine probably helped endear the film to me, as did repetitive use of curse words and slapstick humor by the two peasant/clown characters - who were the models for C3PO and R2D2. He had a great eye, a good sense of humor, a way with scoring, and a way of making a movie visceral and satisfying. If you haven't seen it, "The Hidden Fortress" is a suprisingly fun popcorn flick. I also felt that, besides the resonances to A New Hope, I felt there were echoes of the film in Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke.

A new comic series called "Fables" has been called to my attention, in which different folk and fairy tale characters come to life in the contemporary world, and I finally got my hands on the last three Buffy comics (I've been living too far from any comics stores for six months now...) And I read there's going to be a Buffy/Fray crossover soon, which is good, since I became very attached to Fray's character.

Buffy Comics - Season Eight Issue 2 and 3

A brief review of the second and third issues of the Joss Whedon post television show Buffyverse comics - in which Dawn is a giant, Amy is attacking Buffy with a dreamscape haunted by Ethan Rayne (and images of Spike and Angel) and Buffy must be awakened by the kiss of true love (who can that be?) Andrew continues to be Andrew with the slayerettes, and did I mention Willow comes back but is then sucked into a portal?
These comics definitely keep the appeal of the show - clever dialogue, the easy comaraderie of the "Scoobies" and our curiousity over what these guys have been doing since Sunnydale blew up. Not quite as good as seeing it "in real life" - or in a television or movie format - but definitely the Buffy fix I have been looking for. I hope the series just keeps getting better. My only complaint is that there are too few pages and that sometimes I can't tell Buffy is Buffy because of the way they draw her - sometimes distinctly like SMG, sometimes just like a generic cute blonde, which can be confusing.
I have actually pre-ordered the 4th issue from a real-life comic book shop down the street.