So, two good pieces of news for those who like Joss Whedon’s work (and hey, if you don’t, I don’t want to hear it).

First, I picked up the first collection of Buffy season 8 today from Forbidden Planet (one of the advantages of my job is working around the corner from the UK’s greatest comic shop and Forbidden Planet isn’t far away either). It collects issues 1-5 of the Dark Horse series and it’s really rather good.

Then I get home and find out that Fox (yes, Fox!) have commissioned not just a pilot but seven episodes of a new Whedon TV show – Dollhouse – that will star Elisha (Faith from Buffy) Dushku. When we’ll get to see it – given that not only is the US film & TV industry facing a writers’ strike, but the Directors’ Guild and the actors’ union also have big negotiations coming up that could lead to a perfect storm with all three unions out either consecutively or all at the same time – is still up in the air. But on the whole this is good news.