When reading a graphic novel based on a movie or television show, there's one aspect more than any other that will make or break it: do the characters in the book look like the characters on the screen?

Artist Cliff Richards gets mega-bonus points for his work on Crash Test Demons, a story set during the third season of TV's wildly popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. The people who populate Sunnydale, both living and dead, look like the actors who portray them, right down to Sarah Michelle Gellar's cute button nose.

This might seem like an obvious point, but I'm often amazed how often I see iconic characters in comics who look nothing like their real-life models. It seems to me an obvious test for artists, before giving them the job: give them a photo of the major players and see how well they draw 'em. It would solve a host of problems.

The story deals with Selke, a semi-regular of the Buffy books, who was transformed herself from crone to Vampirella through the modern miracle of medical science. Spike and Drusilla come into play, and an evil Buffy clone (who will figure more strongly in a future collection) makes her debut.

Not only does Richards earn high marks for this one, but so does writer Andi Watson, who deftly captures the rapid-fire dialogue and bantering tone of the series. Although I've only recently begun reading the Dark Horse Buffy series, I can tell already that Watson and Richards is a team to watch for.

by Tom Knapp
Rambles.NET
23 September 2006