"Melaka (FRAY) calls Buffy sister in the first few pages, and we pick up several days after they've met or what appears to be several days, since Buffy has changed clothes and now has her own place. When she called Buffy sister, for a moment, I thought she was referring to her real sister and that this was not Buffy, took another read to realize that no, this was Buffy, and the sister was meant as slang."
Um, I think you are mistaken about this: Melaka (Fray) really does have a big sister, who is a cop in their world, and I believe she is who Melaka was talking to and referring to as her 'sister'... Unfortunately the artist is not so good at making separate looking blonds so it makes it hard to keep those two separate characters straight.
In fact I was convinced that the mad woman they were discussing was Drusilla, so when I saw Willow dressed like Drusilla I thought at first that it might just be a bad drawing, but no... really was Dark(ish) Willow!

I'm liking BtVS S8 a lot more than you are, but then I absolutely adored 'Dr. Horrible' too.

I agree w/you about Brian Lynch's Spike: After the Fall being absolutely wonderful. I got to ask (online) Brian why Angel had found it so easy to communicate w/the dragon while Spike couldn't.... and he responded that that was a good question, but then he didn't answer it! I'm hoping we'll get more information about Angel's relationship to the dragon soon.
Oh and I was thinking that that might be Lindsay's eternal torment at Wolfram&Hart, but of course I don't know.

And, like you, I'm loving the Butcher comics. I think I said before that I don't care that this artist isn't so good at drawing characters because I think he is a genius at drawing animals! All the animals at the zoo, and Mister too, were all superb. I do love Butcher's story telling, but I've never tried anything other than his Dresden series... have you?