A Stake to the Heart

Publication

April 14, 2004

Length

104 pages

Format

Trade paperback

Series

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Classic vol. 17

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Slayer, Interrupted

Creative team

A Stake to the Heart is the seventeenth and final volume of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Classic trade paperbacks, collecting issues sixty to sixty-three of the comic book series. It was originally published on April 14, 2004, by Dark Horse Comics.

Synopsis[]

Buffy Summers has faced vampires, demons, and monsters, but now she must face the scariest thing of all: the divorce of her parents. No vampire is safe as the tortured young Slayer takes her anger and frustrations to the streets of L.A., all the while being closely watched by the mysterious vampire with a soul, known as Angel.

In a failed attempt to alleviate her pain, Angel accidentally unleashes the Malignancy Demons upon her and her family, each of which personifies and draws its power from particular bad feelings.^[1]

Stories[]

Behind the scenes[]

Production[]

This is the third book of the Buffy: Year One trilogy, the last story arcs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Classic, about Buffy as a Slayer before her arrival in Sunnydale.^[2]
Editor Scott Allie declared about this title: "we entered into [the final part of the Year One storyline] knowing it was going to be the end of the monthly series. The TV show was ending, we'd just done a series in a mental institution [in Slayer, Interrupted, Part One–Four], and we all felt we were doing the best work the monthly had seen. Our disappointment with having the book end was reflected in the extremely dark storyline."^[2]