I'm all for filling in backstory. And, where Buffy the Vampire Slayer is concerned, I'm happy to see new stories, whether they're set in the time before, during or after the cult-pop television series.

But A Stake to the Heart, which is set in the time just before Buffy and her family moved from Los Angeles to Sunnydale (post-film, pre-series), has a major strike against it that louses up the works from page 2 to the bitter end: Dawn.

OK, now it's no secret I think Dawn was a bad character to begin with. She might have worked if she wasn't such a constant ("Get out! Get out!! Get OUT!!!") whiner, but writers of the series, including creator/god Joss Whedon, never seemed to know what to do with her once her primary story arc (Glorificus and the Key) played out. But let's remember, folks, that Dawn didn't exist in Buffy's life until she was surgically inserted into everyone's memories at the start of the fifth season. She wasn't actually there for anything that happened before then. So making her such a big part of a story that took place several years before she existed -- well, that wasn't the wisest move on writer Fabian Nicieza's part, was it?

OK, let's accept the blunder and move on. Is it a good story?

Stake deals largely with the announcement by Buffy's parents that they're divorcing. Angel, the vampire with a soul, and his good demon sidekick Whistler are watching from the sidelines -- Buffy hasn't met them yet -- when Angel decides to "help" her out by casting a spell to unleash malignancy demons on the Slayer.

Alas, Angel thinks the demons will feed on Buffy's angst and help her to feel better, but really they do their best to create more angst because, well, they're really hungry, I guess.

But the way it all played out, and the methods by which Buffy eventually defeated the demons remains sketchy by the end. Frankly, I wasn't always sure exactly why certain twists occurred, or why some plot developments were simply ignored or forgotten a page or two later.

The art, though, is good: Cliff Richards handles the basic pages, while Brian Horton glosses up some panels with a vivid, painterly touch.