Happy New Year

The subject of this article is non-canonical. While created as part of licensed material, it has not been confirmed as part of the "real" Buffyverse.

Happy New Year is the fifth issue of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Classic series. It was written by Andi Watson and illustrated by Hector Gomez.

Synopsis

This New Year’s Eve is going to be one to remember for the town of Sunnydale. When a cursed Puritan rolls into town, looking to break a hex placed on him centuries before, trouble follows: in the form of a giant Hellhound! Mania and mayhem ensue! Continue the adventures of the hit television show every month from Dark Horse Comics.^[1]

Continuity

• As this story takes place at New Year’s Eve, it takes place before the Christmas episode "Amends" and after the return to school in "Gingerbread".

Appearances

Individuals

• Cordelia Chase
• Nathaniel Filmer
• Robert Filmer (Only mentioned)
• Rupert Giles
• Xander Harris
• Ben Johnson (Only in flashbacks)
• Mariana Johnson (Only in flashbacks)
• Mangus
• Daniel Osbourne
• Willow Rosenberg
• Buffy Summers

Organizations and titles

• Dingoes Ate My Baby
• Scooby Gang
• Slayer

Species

• Dog (Only mentioned)
• Hellhound
• Human
  • Werewolf
• Witch (Only in flashbacks)

Events

• New Year’s Eve

Locations

• New England, USA (Only in flashbacks)
• Sunnydale, USA
  • The Bronze
  • Sunnydale High School

Weapons and objects

• "De Praesigis Daemonum"
• "Dictionaire Inferal"
• "Witch Trials of the New World"
• "Witchcraft and Demonology: The Idiot’s Guide to Alchemy"
• Crossbow

Rituals and spells

• Black-dog curse (Only mentioned)
• Hellhound curse (Only in flashbacks)

Death count

• Mariana and Ben Johnson, burnt at the stake for witchcraft (in flashback).
• Nathaniel Filmer and Mangus, fell from a church tower.

Behind the scenes

Production

• The photo cover features a promotional still taken from episode "Welcome to the Hellmouth".
• Differently from other representations, at this point the comic issues had vampires also able to transform into green creatures with red eyes, pointy ears, a wide mouth, and long teeth.
• The Bronze, differently from the TV show, appears as a large building in city centre, and has a sign identifying it as “Bronze Club”.

Distribution

• Happy New Year was the 37º best selling comic issue in its publishing month, with 48,288 sales in January 1999 at comic specialty stores.^[2]

Goofs, bloopers & continuity errors

• Sunnydale is mistakenly written as “Sunnyvale” in some dialogues.

Collections

• "Uninvited Guests"
• "Omnibus: Volume 3"
• "Classic 17: Happy New Year"

Pop culture references

• Buffy says “American werewolf in Sunnydale” in a reference to the movie An American Werewolf in London (1981).
• Xander mentions the romance writer Jackie Collins.
• Giles owns a copy of the book Malleus Maleficarum (1486).
• Xander mentions the reality television series When Animals Attack!.

Gallery

Cover artwork

Randy Green main cover

Original photo cover’s picture

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Preview

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References