Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight is a comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics. The series serves as a canonical continuation of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and follows the events of that show's final televised season. It is produced by Joss Whedon, who wrote the first arc, "The Long Way Home". The first issue was released on March 14, 2007. The series was originally supposed to consist of about 25 issues, but series editor Scott Allie stated that they were already "up to about 50, could go a little higher", before it was finally decided that the series would have a 40-issue run. The series is ongoing. On September 24, 2009 Joss Whedon announced the series would continue into Season Nine. While Allie and Whedon discussed the potential for a spin-off limited series to play out side-stories too far outside of Season Eight's narrative, only a Willow one-shot has been announced thus far. The success of the series prompted IDW Publishing and Joss Whedon to publish a concurrent continuation of the Angel television series, titled Angel: After the Fall.