Did you know that there are Jericho, Season 3 comics? Don’t feel bad if you didn’t. Even I, whose job it is to know such things, only learned of this amazing fact in June this year, when a copy of the limited series’ sixth and final installment landed on my desk.

“A Jericho, Season 3 comic?” I was heard to exclaim, in some amazement. “Really?”

Now, I have to admit that I was never the biggest fan of the dystopic CBS series on which this comic was based. I watched the pilot, and caught a few other episodes here and there, but it never really managed to grab me throughout its two valiant seasons -- and, besides, there’s just something about that Skeet Ulrich that unsettles my nerves. But I remember being vaguely aware that things ended on a cliffhanger back in 2008, and that the relatively small but nevertheless vocal online viewership of the show demanded closure. But for a comic house -- in this case, first Devil’s Due and then IDW -- to agree to give them that closure… well that’s a pretty big something.

Of course, it’s no new thing for a TV series to be continued in print form, particularly if it ended… abruptly. Sure, there’s the inevitable fanfic that follows the end of almost any show, but there have also been quite a few occasions upon which a concluded -- whether precipitately or not -- storyline has been carried on textually, often in officially sanctioned ways. Roswell ended after three seasons with Max (Jason Behr), Isabel (Katherine Heigl) and Michael (Brendan Fehr) outed as aliens and on the run from the Men in Black, and there are four follow-up novels that give devoted fans some semblance of a Happily Ever After. FOX canceled Dark Angel after two seasons, despite its James Cameron pedigree and the ceaseless appeal of Jessica Alba in leather, and two sequel novels that sought to finish off a storyline left dangling dangerously were quickly released -- although the books, written by the usually reliable Max Alan Collins, didn’t quite succeed in their purpose. Quantum Leap, of course, saw release of a “finale” novel called Mirror’s Edge that actually managed to give Dr. Sam Beckett’s well-wishers some much-needed satisfaction. And in the absence of long-promised TV movie to wrap up Stargate Atlantis, we have Fandemonium’s Legacy Series, following events on Earth after the Ancient city-ship left the Pegasus Galaxy behind in the series finale.

But this is all just the purely written word. Comic book continuations are a whole other thing.

More than one truncated TV show started out as a series of comics or graphic novels anyway -- like Showtime’s Luke Perry vehicle, Jeremiah, FOX’s recently canceled Human Target and Patrick Warburton’s hilarious live-action form of The Tick, just to name a few -- and so reading those titles, even after the show on which they were based has ended, can sometimes feel like it never really died. Also, many, many shows have had, and continue to have, regular monthly titles featuring original stories that largely take place throughout their series’ run (there are Star Trek and Doctor Who comics in their hundreds, of course; and True Blood has comics now!). However, it is the fairly recent move towards continuing TV show narratives in graphic novel format is our focus here; and in many ways -- and as with many, many things that are cool and fun and awesome -- this trend can be traced back to Buffy.

Without the success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8 (which our K. Burtt has extensively, lovingly detailed here), it is profoundly doubtful that any of these other comical continuations would have ever seen the light of day. Beginning publication in March of 2007, these Joss Whedon-scripted and approved adventures in the Buffyverse gave Dark Horse Comics a big, often sell-out hit; 43 comics and almost four years later, the season came to an end, this past January. The season saw many changes for the Scooby Gang: Buffy and the Junior Slayers are fugitives, Dawn and Xander get together, Buffy kisses a girl (and she likes it), we visit Oz in Tibet and discover that Angel is evil again (except, not)(except, maybe).

Elsewhere in comicland, Angel was also having an ongoing story arc in the Angel: After the Fall series and its follow-ups, from IDW Comics. In these books -- which began publication in November of 2007, and which also enjoyed Joss Whedon’s input… for a while, at least -- Gunn is a vampire, Wesley’s a ghost, and Spike is a kind of mob kingpin, as a post-demonocalypse LA deals with the nightmarish realities resulting from Angel’s, not to put too fine a point on it, willful idiocy in the show’s fifth and final (totally kickass) season.

After the 17-issue, canonical After the Fall, and a plethora of continuing spin-offs (Spike, Illyria, etc.), IDW put out their final Angel comic (a one-shot, Angel Yearbook) in May this year, and now the license has returned to Dark Horse, who on August 31 will release the first in a projected 25-issue series: Angel and Faith. At the end of Buffy, Season 8, Angel was left pretty much catatonic; will the enduring bad-girl hotness that is Faith manage to pull him out of it, and set them both back on the road to the ever-elusive redemption? Dark Horse is betting that a good many fans want to find out, much as they hope that Buffy, Season 9 -- which begins September 14 with Issue #1, “Freefall, Part 1”, written by Whedon -- will again see spectacular sales to loyal fans, many of whom are hardly the typical comic buyer.

Indeed, even before Season 8, avowed Buffy aficionados were lured into comic stores the world over when Whedon’s limited-run Fray -- detailing the adventures of a future-Slayer in a world in which the existence of vampires, demons and beasties is no longer exactly on the down low – saw the first of its eight issues released in 2001. Whedon went on to write, if not continuation comics, then certainly backstory-fill in ones, based on his much adored Firefly: the 3-issue each Those Left Behind (2005) and Better Days (2008) stories show us what happened to the crew of Serenity between the end of the show and the beginning of the movie. And in November of last year, Zack Whedon gave us The Shepherd’s Tale, which finally answered the questions of the enigmatic Book’s mysterious past… not entirely satisfactorily, it must be said.

And rounding out the Whedonish quartet, Dollhouse also made it to comic book form with a miniature graphic novel filling in some of the time between the end of the series narrative and the two “ten years later” episodes found at the end of both seasons. Written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, who also wrote episodes “Epitaph One” (01.13) and “Epitaph Two” (02.13), the original comic was made available only with purchase of Dollhouse: The Complete Season 2 on DVD, but Dark Horse -- knowing well the power of Joss -- picked up the title as an ongoing concern, and in July released the first of a new mini-series called Dollhouse Epitaphs, penned by Dollhouse writer Andrew Chambliss.

There can be no doubt that the world building of Joss Whedon has assuredly found a new home among the four-color crowd, and has doubtless contributed to the growing number of other ended shows finding themselves a publishing deal. That said, however, Buffy and its stablemates were hardly the first TV shows to carry on their stories, or tie up their loose ends, in comic form. For example, the cult 1967 British series The Prisoner -- which ended after seventeen episodes with its titular character, a former Intelligence operative known largely as “Number Six” (Patrick McGoohan), still held captive in the sinister, Stepford-like idyll of The Village -- got itself a DC Comics four-issue sequel in 1988-89, known collectively as Shattered Visage. Set twenty years after the conclusion of the series, the storyline sees Number Six and his perpetual nemesis, Number Two, finally duke it out, it provides a number of satisfactory explanations for some of the series’ more perplexing moments, and in the end, Number Six is finally the “free man” he had long claimed himself to be… or is he?

But despite this earlier outing, and a haphazard speckling of others, Buffy, Season 8 was the first title released that not only continued a TV show, but could also be considered utterly canonical, since the series’ creator, and several of its writers, were actively involved in its production.

Since then, other such comic continuations have seen the light of day, and there has been much rejoicing. In 2008, BOOM! Studios began turning out Farscape comics. When the TV series was abruptly canceled by the then-Sci-Fi Channel back in 2001, there was a wailing and gnashing of teeth heard throughout the shows loyal fandom; enough that the series got a slice of eventual closure in TV mini-series form, The Peacekeeper Wars. This was not enough for the fans, though -- there can never be enough Farscape! -- and so with series creator Rockne S. O’Bannon scripting and overseeing, and Farscape novelist (and media tie-in novelist extraordinaire) Keith R. A. DeCandido doing the actual heavy-lifting, a succession of comic mini-series detailing events aboard Moya, and elsewhere, has been a very welcome return to the world of Crichton, Aeryn, Rigel and the gang. Now published as collections (the first three in lustrous hardback form), the Farscape comics, along with their companion Scorpius and D’Argo tales, are an absolute must-read for the show’s adherents, and feel very much like episodes of the show.

(In other comic continuation news, BOOM! also released a line of Muppets-based comic books, creatively named The Muppet Show Comic Book, that were essentially new episodes -- and far more entertaining than the short-lived and unmissed Muppets Tonight. Sadly, the title seems to have come to an end after only two four-issue mini-series, but… they were very cute.)

Meanwhile, the comic books that make up Charmed, Season 9 began publication in June of 2010 (as always… Charmed, just a few years behind Buffy), and its next issue, #13 “Piper’s Place”, is due out on August 31. Released by Zenescope Entertainment -- a comic outfit best suited to the endeavor, really; they’re just as fond of hot girls in revealing halter tops as even the Halliwells could wish – the books have had a mixed reaction from fans, but since this “season” is under the creative control of show tie-in and Official Episode Guide author Paul Ruditis, these further magical mishaps of the Charmed Ones are probably as good as anyone had a right to expect.

Besides, let’s face it, even a bad comic continuation is better than none at all… right? Especially when fans have been left with questions unanswered and plotlines as yet unresolved by pesky, cancel-happy network executives. And the medium of the comic book is such that it can really benefit the tale being told, even more so than had the show in question gone on to another live action season. A big battle the likes of which a TV budget could never have encompassed can play out easily in penciled panels. In Buffy, Season 8, the gang live in a freaking Scottish castle at one point, and witchy Willow’s spectacular spell-power is not hampered by mere CGI (not to mention Dawn’s frequent transformations into mythical creatures: giant, centaur, etc.) In many ways the comic format is perfect for this purpose.

And with Jericho leading the charge for genre’s even more cultish favorites than things Whedon, Charmed and Farscape, what other genre shows might -- or should -- get their runs extended in comic form? Reaper? V? Remember those cliffhangers left unresolved in Now and Again, The Pretender, Invasion and Tru Calling? Don’t they merit at least a limited run? (If the Buffy comics have proved anything to us, it is that Eliza Dushku is still smoking, even as a mere drawing.) Just as an example, a Pushing Daisies, Season 3 comic was announced in 2009, but has been held up due to the closure of DC’s WildStorm imprint. And don’t you think Veronica Mars needs a new comic season, like, immediately?

Regardless of what may or not be coming our way, however, one thing is certain: at least now, when our beloved shows are cut short in their prime, we have a realistic hope that perhaps someday their creators will turn to the graphic novel format to finally see things through.

Lost in Space, Season 4, anyone?

  -- Rachel Hyland