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Serenity Comic Book Series
stoolpigeon writes "CBR News is reporting that Dark Horse will be publishing a 3 comic series to provide material that bridges the gap between the Firefly T.V. show and the Serenity film. From the press release: 'The plot of the comic book series centers on the crew members of the ship known as Serenity, who once again find themselves broke and on the wrong side of a number of very large firearms when a heist goes awry, and some old enemies catch their scent. After facing one failure after another, Malcolm Reynolds becomes the target of a conspiracy between government and mercenary forces, and a tense and divided crew must try to unite behind their compromised leader...'"
Serenity is the movie sequel, scheduled to come out this fall.
The entire series is centered around an interesting crew of renegade smugglers in the distant future. There are strong elements of the Wild West. It's basicly a space opera, like star wars, but without all the lame acting.
the DVD is well worth the purchase price. If you don't believe me, grab a torrent of the first episode off http://www.isohunt.com/ and check it out.
Obligatory Soundbite Catchphrase
Firefly is a fantastic series that FOX, it its wisdom, decided to cancel after less than a full season. It's a relatively gritty sci-fi show set in a sort of 'manifest destiny of the galaxy.' There are many parallels to Westerns not only in content but in directorial style. Their FX, though used sparingly, are very well done, and they adopted the same camera techniques for the CG work as they used in the show proper. The characters are likable and very well defined, and the dialog is perfect. Not-quite-modern English with western throwbacks and (mostly) Mandarin swearing. There are only 16 episodes (4 DVDs), so find someone who has the set and borrow them (or, better yet, take my word as the gospel truth and go buy a set).
Firefly is the best damn TV show you never saw!s eries)
http://www.whatisfirefly.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(television_
Trailer:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/serenity/
It's the other way round. Universal won't allow Fox (or anyone) to make a new TV series for the duration of the movie deal (potentially up to three films). After that the rights revert to Fox and they can do whatever they want, including making a new TV series. If they're smart they will, and I think they will, but because they're not smart they'll make it with a different cast and crew and it'll be terrible.
So we're imagining that:
1. Fox sent the episodes out of order, destroying the arcs.
2. Fox changed the timeslot around.
3. Fox interfered with the creative process.
4. Fox didn't bother airing in WS even though the episodes were actually filmed to be viewed in WS.
This is all in our imagination. The series had a real chance to find an audience? If you really believe that, what happened when the DVD came out and sold like hotcakes, and why are there at least one movie being made?
Actually, I believe the the thesis "the series never had a chance to find its audience" fit the facts much better!
Since the press release neglected to mention it, I looked up the release date of the first issue on Dark Horse's website.
Issue #1 hits July 06, 2005 at a cost of $2.99.
Saying a series is fantastic based on a pilot would be a fallacy.
Yes, that's right: we imagined all these things.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Yup, not too many people watched it initially. But even a dumbf*ck would have to admit that the way the show was presented is a textbook case of bad handling:
-a sequential show was being shown out of order
-a sequential (ie story-arced) show was frequently pre-empted
-an action/sci-fi show was put on friday nights...hardly a normal timespot for it's demographic
-the show was hardly promoted
So it's not surprising that not many people watched it.
Fact is though that the show has sold phenomenally well on DVD (and that's not just for a show hardly anyone watched...that's dvd sales, period), showing it has a huge following now.
The studio fucked up, you gotta admit it. Hell, a movie coming out for a cancelled show is pretty much proof of that.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
"Whores are intrinsically not high-class; this has a basis in human psychology, and is consistently reflected in the way human societies are structured."
Absolute bollocks: there used to be frigging temple prostitues, who used to be highly respected.
True, that's the classical example, but even up to a couple of decades ago the japanese geisha was a highly respected proffesion (now it's merely respected, if looked on a mite strangely).
And let's not forget old Venice and many other good examples.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
Historically, Dark Horse:Ocean::Comics:Video Games w/r/t their rabid craze for licensing.
I learned from 80s Marvel Star Wars comics and 90s Dark Horse Star Wars comics that just because you have the rights doesn't mean you have the capability of producing quality material.
That and they have the same problem DC does with their Vertigo line - extremely high quality covers with interior work that has always, in my professional opinion, had a rushed or unfinished feel to it (work for hire, DH rates, contracts, bills, making a living, etc, etc.).
I'll probably check it out, despite my traditionally itchy experiences with Dark Horse - Whedon's {co}writing it and it's only three issues - it's not like they're pulling a Marvel and hoping to suck us in for a ten year run of recycled crap with new writers, pencillers and inkers every three months.
Except for the pilot, each episode was prefaced by a video montage to cover for the fact that the pilot hadn't even aired. And the montage had a voiceover:
"Here's how it is -- the Earth got used up, so we moved out, terraformed a whole new galaxy of earths. Some rich and flush with the new technologies, some... not so much. The Central Planets, them as formed the Alliance, waged war to bring everyone under their rule. Few idiots tried to fight it -- among them, myself. I'm Malcolm Reynolds, captain of Serenity. She's a transport ship, Firefly class. Got a good crew: fighters, pilot, mechanic. We even picked up a preacher for some reason, and a bona fide Companion. There's a doctor, too; took his genius sister out of some Alliance camp, so they're keeping a low profile. You understand. You got a job, we can do it -- don't much care what it is."
There's your setting, and the central premise, too.
Wow, you must be completely unfamiliar with huge swaths of history. And as a guy with a history degree, that really grates on me.
Read about Courtesans in China and Byzantium, read about Geisha culture in Japan. Then explain how your human psychology studies fail to explain their high class status.
In China. these women were the counsels of rulers and nobility, trained to be artistic, clever, insightful, and cunning conversationalists. They were supposed to be relaxing counsel with no strings attached. Many of the gentry class preferred to hang with the courtesans because they could have actual conversations, because women were still prohibited from getting "normal" schooling. So the elite house of pleasure was the only way to actually have an equally educated conversation between the sexes.
BTW, Inara wasn't a whore. That was a derogatory term that Mal used, and one she didn't particularly care for. While there were whores in the sense that you mean, she was a Companion which meant a lot more than sex.