In fact, all the X titles seem completely unrelated at this point.

I was hoping for some Kitty Pryde in Joss's X-Men. As surprises no one, she's my favorite character. (What? A small, bookish, Jewish performer-type with headaches? No!) I'm so relieved to see she will be old school Kitty and not this new thing I've been told is Kitty. (I'm a bit of a crappy X-Men fan, as my current reading of comics has me only caught up to around 1984.)

ETA: Also the computer-nerd thing has no small part in my Kitty love, and where I see a big Kitty-Buffy parallel is dealing with superpowers while your parents are mid-divorce. All the while being expected to go to school, and trying to have a nice, normal life with a boyfriend who's too old for you. (Granted, there's a big difference between 200 years older than you and 5 or 6 years older than you, but still.) Which, by the way, I never forgave Colossus for Secret Wars. (I'm all out of order in my reading of X-Men related stories...)

Just a reminder to everyone that Tales of the Vampires #4 is supposed to be in the stores today.

There is also a decent interview with Sam Loeb, who wrote a story for issue #5, up at The Pulse.

Remember folks, it's not what you know, it's who you know.

Two pages of artwork from Joss's comic.

Is there any way this isn't a dig at the first movie (white fonted):

Scott: Sorry Logan, Superheroes wear costumes. And quite frankly, all the black leather is making people nervous.

Once again -- I really liked the Jane Espenson story but actually both stories were good. I'm not sure I understand what it is that the kids have suddenly understood in the framing story.

Sumi, I think the vampire storyteller has mesmerised his captors, and they're bringing him the children as dinner.

Ah! Then I wonder why he hasn't also mesmerized the children -- or is this what the storytelling is all about?

I think he had mesmerized the one who he caught by the throat.

I know it's not Jossverse, but it does have vampires, witches, humor and pop-culture (as well as literary) references: White Wolf is putting up a novel by Kevin Andrew Murhpy on their website in 8 parts. Parts 1 and 2 are up now.

The following is an exchange between the main character and her familiar:

“How did we get home?”

“I drove,” my cat said smugly, not turning around.

I paused, digesting this information. He drove. My cat drove. I blinked. After all, I don’t see why I should have been so surprised. Only last week he’d evinced a talent for playing the piano, and on the rare Saturday nights when we’d stayed home and watched television (like this past winter when I’d had the flu), Mister M had taken a particular liking to ‘Toonses the Driving Cat’—though I hadn’t realized he’d been taking notes. I thought of what it would have looked like to anyone out on the streets last night—an authentic Stutz Bearcat with a drunken Goth-witch passed out in the passenger seat while her black cat familiar stood on his hind legs and drove the car.

Even without Mister Mistoffelees’ black cat bone, there are some sights which warrant a ‘somebody else’s problem’ field on their own, no magick needed, and that is definitely one of them. I’m certain that any number of people had sworn off alcohol and several other drugs after seeing us, and if I hadn’t previously dealt with similar things, I might just join them—and I still think I might regardless. “Umm…” I said, realizing something else, “…hadn’t you tied one on yourself?”

“Yes,” Mister Mistoffelees admitted, “but the Stutz was sober.”

(Edited to fix formating)