Cold Turkey

The subject of this article is non-canonical.
While created as part of licensed material, it has not been confirmed as part of the "real" Buffyverse continuity.

Cold Turkey

Publication

November 25, 1998

Length

22 pages

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Classic #3

← Previous	Next →
Halloween	White Christmas

Colorist(s)

Guy Major

Letterer(s)

Janice Chiang

Cold Turkey is the third issue of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Classic comic book series. Written by Andi Watson and illustrated by Joe Bennett, it was originally published on November 25, 1998, by Dark Horse Comics.

Synopsis[]

Buffy Summers' horrific holiday season continues as Turkey Day rolls into Sunnydale. The day before begins as hectic as any past Thanksgiving, save for one exception: some strange goings-on around the house have set Buffy's mind a flutter. What happened to the vampire that survived the fateful Halloween massacre? Who's been digging through her family's trash at night? And why do so many people wait until the last minute to go grocery shopping?!^[1]

Summary[]

After a bad dream, Buffy wakes to see that her Halloween costume has been stolen out of the trash. She asks her mother if she had fished the costume out of the garbage, who denies doing anything, but tells Buffy to trash it because of all the "fake blood." As she is leaving for an overnight buying trip, Joyce assigns her the task of grocery shopping for Thanksgiving.

Buffy goes to school and complains to the Scooby Gang about the task during a Home Economics class. Cordelia interrupts with her baked cake while being petty and talking about being richer and prettier than Buffy only to have her cake fall. Later, Buffy, Willow, Xander and Oz are all at a picnic bench outside the school while Buffy complains about having to buy Glace Cherries and Willow offers Oz a piece of the cake she made in Home Economics that apparently isn't very edible.

In the library, Buffy and Giles discuss her feeling that one of the four vampires from the Spooky House on Halloween got away. Buffy drools over a replica of a medieval goupillon flail, to which Giles complains she uses a weapon once and then abandons it for a "piece of kindling." Meanwhile, a starving vampire, who may be Selke, eat rats in a graveyard.

Buffy talks to Willow on the phone to try and stay awake so that she can get the Thanksgiving shopping done in the early morning so that the stores are empty. An alarm clock wakes her at 2:30 am and she goes to All-Nite-O-Mart where she finds her shopping companions to be the crazy and deranged. Including a woman walking an empty dog leash and speaking to it. With a shopping cart full of shopping, she leaves the store to be attacked by a vamp wearing Buffy's Halloween costume. Kidnapped and taken to the crypt by the vamp, Buffy is tied up while the vamp teases her about being Thanksgiving dinner. The vamp is Selke from the Spooky House on Halloween and wants revenge for her friends that are dust in a plastic beach pail.

Buffy fights the vamp off with the contents of her shopping cart, getting the best of the vamp with her large turkey. Suddenly, the crypt is in flames and Buffy narrowly escapes only to happily enjoy that same turkey with her mom.

Continuity[]

This story is established as taking place during Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 3.
These events take place during Thanksgiving, therefore a month before the Christmas events of 1998 ("Amends," White Christmas).
Buffy and Giles discuss the escape of an injured vampire during Halloween, Selke, who surprises the Slayer robbing and wearing the costume from their previous encounter (Halloween). She also has collected her friends' ashes, slayed by Buffy in the same event.
Buffy and Joyce Summers have their Thanksgiving dinner together; in the next year, Buffy will dine with the Scooby Gang while Joyce is out of town ("Pangs").

Appearances[]

Individuals[]

Organizations and titles[]

Species[]

Events[]

Halloween (Only mentioned)
Thanksgiving

Locations[]

Sunnydale
- 1630 Revello Drive
- All-Nite-O-Mart
- Cemetery
- Sunnydale High School
  - Sunnydale High School library

Objects[]

21DW407 (Only mentioned)
Medieval Survivalist Magazine

Death count[]

None.

Behind the scenes[]

Production[]

The photo cover features a promotional picture taken for Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 2, in montage by Dave Stewart.
Buffy wakes up with a crop top with a "Neck" logo, a parody of the brand Nike.
Differently from other representations, at this point the comics had vampires also able to transform into green creatures with red eyes, pointy ears, a wide mouth, and long teeth. Although, this seems more like an artistic choice, not having direct consequence to the stories.
Although a full moon during the story, it actually had been only in the previous week of November 26 (Thanksgiving), 1998.