Thanks to Wonder Con we have a bit more information on the next “seasons” of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel in comic book format along with some cool images. Lets start with the two teaser images:

Now, on to the actual info. Buffy will be titled “Season 9″ while Angel will be “Angel and Faith”, and both will last for 25 issues. Angel will be kicking off first in late August with Buffy following in September. I’m assuming this is to allow the last issue of the new season to be in Buffy with the books crossing over. Hopefully we’ll see a lot of connections throughout the run.  Earlier in the year Dark Horse announced that Buffy would continue after Season 9 into a 10th season.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 will be co-written by Joss Whedon and Andrew Chambliss, one of Whedon’s Dollhouse writers. The season continues off the final issue of Season 8 (SPOILERS) which sees Buffy and the gang, including Willow, Xander, Dawn, and Spike residing in San Fransisco. Thankfully, Georges Jeanty will be returning to draw the series after handling the art in Season 8. His style is clean and works well for the Scooby Gang.

Angel and Faith will be written by Christos Gage while being overseen by Whedon with art by Rebekah Isaacs. I’m not familiar with Gage’s work, but I like what he says about the upcoming season. He describes it as a “supernatural noir” title, much like how Angel the series was in its earlier seasons. The new series sees the title characters living in Gile’s home in London. No other Angel characters have been confirmed for the series, but I have to imagine that we’ll see some surviving characters like Connor at some point. I have tried very hard to ignore the horrible Angel run over at IDW, so I hope the new season at Dark Horse can shed some light on the fate of other Angel characters like Gunn and Illyria.

I’m counting the days until the new seasons of both Buffy and Angel. I’m really excited that they are both under the same roof again and that Joss will be able to bring the characters together with no conflicts. I just hope the books are interconnected. We shall see.

This is the end, my only friend, the end…

The last Smackdown on the road to Wrestlemania and my last regular column. With just the Mania live blog and going away column after this I’m starting to get wistful. I know next to nobody reads this but I hope you’ll miss me too. The show opens with a rematch for the Intercontinental Championship. Wade Barrett come to the ring alone. We get some decent wrestling. Kofi Kingston escape Barrett’s Wasteland Finisher and hits his own, Trouble in Paradise. But as he covers the champ the rest of The Corre run in and attack him for a DQ. That means Barrett keeps the title. Santino and Kozlov run in to make the save but can’t pull it off until Big Show and Kane join them. And Kofi will be in some kind of Battle Royal dark match at Wrestlemania. They usually have one to throw everyone on the card for the big show. Dark means untelevised by the way.

We recap the Cody Rhodes attack on Rey Mysterio before Matt Striker interviews Cody. Not as good as some of Cody’s recent work but he works in that he’ll have both the face mask and the knee brace for Wrestlemania. I expect he’s going to lose anyway. Todd Grisham and the Bellas are at Fan Access, probably taped well after Smackdown itself. Todd introduces the HHH/Undertaker promo video. A commercial is followed by another promo. This one is for CM Punk versus Orton. The Score reveals that Sin Cara debuts on RAW Monday. I guess they want him away from Rey Mysterio for now. Now the Road Warriors video again. Is this a clip show or something? Then they have a promo for playing the recap of The Rock, Miz and Cena from RAW coming later tonight. After another commercial we get a recap of the Jack Swagger versus Jerry Lawler match from I’d like something live to happen so I can start a new paragraph. If I were at this show live I would be demanding a refund.

Ok at least Jerry Lawler is coming out to talk. Cole has vamoosed. Boy is Lawler looking old. Lawler cuts a fine promo reminding Cole just why he’s mad at him and also that Stone Cold Steve Austin will take care of Jack Swagger at Wrestlemania. That will leave just him and Cole. And Lawler will do what the entire WWE universe wants: shut Cole’s mouth.

Wrestlemania press conference. This is a sad Smackdown to go out on. Now a long, long HHH/Undertaker recap from RAW. Now we get The Miz on Conan O’Brien. It’s cool but I’m just sour on the whole show by this point. Sin Cara video. We’re seeing more from Fan Access than a live show. Maybe there was no Smackdown taping this week and the little ring action we’ve seen was taped before or after RAW. Snooki storyline promo. Chaperone trailer.

Del Rio and Edge get a promo and, woah, we have another match! Cody Rhodes will be in action. More Rhodes recap before that. Rhodes’ opponent is Chris Masters so this shouldn’t be much of a match. And with 22 minutes left and the Miz, Cena Rock recap still to come this will be the last Smackdown match I cover. Cole is coming back, accompanied by security. Cody is in total control. He wins easily but Rey Mysterio runs in. Back and forth affair until Rhodes is in the 619 position and he reveals a knee brace of his own. But Rhodes slinks away and Mysterio is denied vengeance. Recap of Chris Jericho on Dancing With The Stars where Jericho is tied for fourth.

Fan Access trio throws us to the last video of the night. The promised Rock, Cena, Miz promo. I can stand watching this again. What exactly The Rock’s roll will be at Wrestlemania is one of the big questions left. Plus there’s Austin to watch for. And Trish is back in the ring. The Hall of Fame class will be introduced but will HBK have an even larger role? This was one the weakest Smackdowns of all time but I’m still psyched for Mania.

Wrestlemania Predictions

• Triple H versus Undertaker – Undertaker
• John Cena versus The Miz – John Cena
• Edge versus Alberto Del Rio – Del Rio
• Lay-Cool and Ziggler versus John Morrison, Trish Stratus and Snooki – Snooki
• Sheamus versus Daniel Bryan – Sheamus
• The Corre versus Big Show, Kane, Santino and Kozlov – The Big Red Ukrainian Cobra
• Cody Rhodes versus Rey Mysterio – Mysterio
• Jerry Lawler versus Michael Cole – Lawler
• CM Punk versus Randy Orton – CM Punk but it could easily go either way

Sunday is my last column. I hope you’ll drop by.