Buffy, the Eighth Season?

Before you fanboys and fangirls get too excited, there's not an eighth season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" coming to TV or DVD anytime soon. Buffy's saga is continuing, however, in a new series of Dark Horse comics being written by none other than Joss Whedon himself (hurrah!).

This was presented as old news at Aintitcool - via the great popwatch blog from Entertainment Weekly - but it is new to me and very, very welcome.

Though I love "Buffy" more than any grown man should, I found the seventh and final season to be highly disappointing. They were clearly in a hurry to wrap things up, and it never really developed a cohesive feel.

The finale, however, was fantastic. To refresh your memory, just as Buffy is about to go into her final battle, Willow works her Mojo to make all potential slayers into actual slayers, creating a whole new army of superbad young heroines. And then, after a great battle, it ended ... until now.

According to EW, Whedon's comic will pick up right where the story left off, and even though she has plenty of help in the fight against evil, our Buffy apparently still has plenty to keep her busy.

Though I usually "borrow" any image I want to share with the good people who read this blog, the cover image for issue No. 1 nabbed by EW had a genuine feel of exclusivity to it. Check it out for yourself here.

Your more highminded critics might put out that artist Georges Jeanty put the "Buffy" logo right where most fanboys were drawn on the show, but on the upside it definitely seems he hasn't let Buffy follow the road to bulimia with Sarah Michelle Gellar.

To me she just looks tough as hell, and she still has that axe, ready to do battle once again. Welcome back, old friend.

Frank Miller and "The Spirit"

Apparently its just a red letter day for comic fans. Word comes this morning from Comingsoon.net that comic book artist extraordinaire Frank Miller will adapt and direct "The Spirit," based on Will Eisner's classic strip.

Miller is apparently a man with endless energy. As he casts his eyes on this project, he's still working with Robert Rodriguez on a "Sin City 2" and "Sin City 3," based on his own fantastic graphic novels.

I'm not terrribly familiar with The Spirit, but here's what Comingsoon had to say about the character: The comic, which debuted in 1940, tells the story of a masked detective who is believed to be dead. Using a mausoleum as his home base, Eisner's character fights crime in the dark shadows of Central City, using cunning and ingenious forms of punishment.

Sounds right up Miller's alley. Like almost everyone I know, I just loved "Sin City." I thought it started a little slow, but once it got going I was hooked and definitely wanting more.

Thankfully, Mr. Miller seems plenty willing to deliver the goods, again and again.

T.I. and used cars

Apparently no longer satisfied with being simply the self-proclaimed king of the South, none-too-modest rapper T.I. now wants to be king of the world.

According to Variety, T.I. and his partner Jason Geter have sold a pitch to New Line set in the world of used cars. It will be the first project for the film division of T.I. and Geter's company Grand Hustle Entertainment.

"For Sale: is set at an Atlanta used-car lot considered the last place in town a car would go; T.I. would play one of the salesmen.

Though this has the potential to be very funny, I can't get too excited after having to sit through "ATL." The movie was just a huge disappointment, mostly but not only because T.I., though a charismatic rapper, is simply a horrible actor. His modus operandi in "ATL" seemed to be that to show an emotion, any emotion, all he had to do was squint.

No one, however, could have saved that disaster. Maybe with better material he'll loosen up and learn how to cut up on screen. Here's hoping.