Magical Mystery Tour, Featuring the Beetles

"Magical Mystery Tour, Featuring the Beetles" is a supplemental e-comic featured on the Dark Horse website. It shows Spike travelling with his bug in their spaceship.

Characters

 * Spike
 * Drusilla (mentioned only)
 * Bug One
 * Paolo (Bug)
 * Elizabeth (Bug)
 * Frisky (Bug)
 * Bub (Bug)
 * Lester (Bug)
 * Jumpy (Bug)
 * Fido (Bug)
 * Irene (Bug)
 * Spotty (Bug)
 * Rick (Bug)
 * Buffy Summers

Plot
After the events of the Last Gleaming arc of Season Eight, Spike and his bugcrew chase a giant demon through space. When the bugs inform Spike that their chase will take about a thousand hours, Spike impulsively decides to fire what he thinks is a weapon. Though the bugs reveal that it is a device used to impregnate Space Whales, it nevertheless destroys the demon.

Through the destruction of the creature, the spaceship becomes covered in demon goo and their return to Earth is delayed. In the 62 days that Spike is stuck on the ship he, amongst others, names the bugs, reads bug literature, teaches the bugs about Earth poetry.

Behind the scenes
Although the story takes places between Last Gleaming Part IV and Part V, the E-comic was actually the first story published under the banner of Season Nine.