Autumnal, set in the early days of Buffy's college career, is described on the back cover as "the darkest, scariest, and deadliest collection of Dark Horse Buffy stories ever, collecting two spine-chilling tales from the best-selling comic-book series."

Meh.

Perhaps they just shouldn't have sold it so big. Because, actually, these are both pretty good stories. But "darkest, scariest, and deadliest"? I don't think so. "Spine-chilling"? Maybe if you're already sitting with your back to a draft.

It doesn't help that the scary demon in the first tale, "The Heart of a Slayer" by Chris Boal," looks more like something from an old Scooby-Doo cartoon than anything we can take as seriously frightening. Sure, he does have a nasty habit of leaping through time and space, a menacing woman with a sword and breastplate hard on his heels, and it does seem like he has a grudge against our Buffy. But he just doesn't look all that oogie-boogie.

That said, I didn't see that conclusion coming. Nice work, Chris.

The second tale, "The Cemetery of Lost Love" by Tom Fassbender and Jim Pascoe, is likewise described on the back as including "a cemetery showdown that's disturbing, deadly, and grosser than gross." Well, that sounds great, Tom and Jim -- but again, it doesn't live up to the hype. The plot here -- and the identify of the villain -- show some clever writing going on, but the folks are Dark Horse really shouldn't oversell their product so much that it leads to disappointment.

Cliff Richards, the regular artist on this series, provides art that's up to his usual fine standards. There's little else to say about it.