Fray, by Joss Whedon, Karl Moline, and Andy Owens
I pretty much grew up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I also grew up watching old Dracula and Frankenstein movies. Without my mom, I’m not sure I would have become the horror movie fanatic I am today — and I definitely wouldn’t be the horror novel genre fanatic I am. Because of Buffy, I fell in love with Joss Whedon, and I have seen almost everything he’s done. (Did you know he wrote the screenplay for Toy Story? His cool points skyrocketed when I found that out!)
So when I found out that Mike’s coworker Ary is also a huge Whedon fan, and when she offered to let me borrow Fray™, I couldn’t resist.
Fray™ is set two-hundred years after Buffy, in a post-apocalyptic world full of mutated humans and animals, and without very many demons — but there are the lurks, the world’s new name for vampires.
Melaka Fray is the new Slayer, but doesn’t know it yet; she hasn’t had any of the dreams or visions that all Slayers get. When Urkonn, a demon, comes to find her and tell her of her heritage, she blows him off. She just wants to continue living life the way she always has, grabbing for a water demon to make a living.
But when her past turns out to be entwined with her future as a Slayer, Mel doesn’t have a choice. She has to embrace her Slayer strength and use it to fight against evil, or let her little village come to an end.
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I loved Mel’s spunky personality. She reminded me of Faith, attitude-wise, and of Buffy because underneath the thieving and wisecracks, Mel has a heart of gold. (That’s not to say that Faith isn’t good underneath it all. Everyone know I love Faith more than I love Buffy. 
)
I also loved the beautiful artwork and brilliant color used throughout the book. As usual, Joss’s writing is a blend of humor and of a great narration that brings the world and characters to life. Even though the graphic novel was much shorter than a season of television, he still had a great handle on the world and characters. (And why shouldn’t he? Buffy is his baby, after all.)
I loved every second of Fray™. It never got dull, and the concept that the climax brought on was pretty interesting. The book really expanded the Buffyverse, and was pretty kickass for Joss’s first venture into the comic book world. (Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure it was the first, from what I read in the author’s notes and bios.)
I give Fray™ a “Freaking Rocks!” stamp and five big golden stars. What did you think?
I’ve never read a graphic novel before and I think it would be very interesting. What would you recommend for me? This one sounds good because I have watched a couple of Buffy shows. I watched the Angel show more though. If you have other suggestions for my first one, please tell me!
(I actually am interested in the Twilight one too and am planning on buying it since I enjoyed the series.)
I didn’t know they were making a Twilight graphic novel… Hopefully it will be better than the movies!
You could definitely read Fray without having seen much Buffy or Angel, and it won’t spoil anything you haven’t seen, so I strongly recommend Fray. Are you a Stephen King fan? His Dark Tower series has been made into a comic book series, his Talisman novel with Peter Straub has been made into a comic book series, and his novel The Stand has been made into comic book series, too. And of course I always recommend The Crow, which is my all-time favorite graphic novel, and Watchmen, which is my second favorite. There are so many good comic book series and graphic novels!
Yea, it sounds like it! I really think the Crow would be a good one as well. As for the Watchmen, it was one of the books we had to read for my English class, freshmen year of college…but I had switched professors, so I didn’t get a chance to read it.
As for the twilight one, they just posted something about it on google. And yes, I hope it is better than the movies. heh!
I just did a quick Google image search and the Twilight graphic novel looks like it’s going to be manga. I used to be into manga but I’ve grown out of it and now prefer other comic book art styles. So I guess I won’t be bothering with the Twilight graphic novel — although the art looks pretty nice, and less like the character design in the movies.
I recommend the sandman series, I have The Sandman Endless Nights, and what I love about it is the meaning behind each character, and how the characters are like their names. So it has a deeper sense to the stories.
I haven’t read Fray, I’m still new to graphic novels, but I also have Marvel 1602, which was also by neil gaiman, another excellent series.
I really want to read Sandman! Which is the first?
That I can’t tell you,it’s a LOT of books, Books A Million has a REALLY big book of all the issues of sandman, its a hundred bucks, and EVEN THAT isn’t all of it! So, I have no clue really! I just bought endless nights because it was the only one I saw and knew of, but geez it was good.
Will I know what’s going on if I pick that one up?