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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...'"
Can't wait for these. About time too.
Any word of a date or release?
If the film does well and with DVD sales going strong (currently ranked #48 on amazon, not too shabby), is it possible that the series will come back to TV?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
..will there be explosions? what about a grizzled cigar chomping bad guy with a heart of gold? Nekkid chicks?
oh! and what happens on page 23?
Starsucks
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/
Age old question: How can you tell if the movie/show you're watching is science fiction or fantasy?
Easy. If it's fantasy, there will be dwarfs and men with beards in the cast.
If it's sci-fi, the script will talk about mercenaries a lot. If it calls them "mercs," it's a dead giveaway.
Breakfast served all day!
I mean, I love Firefly, and I'm really looking forward to Serenity... now I have to excited over some silly comic books without which I won't get the full story?
That's sad. It feels like Joss Whedon has sold out, something like the Matrix people did with all their product tie-ins before the final two movies (they even made cartoons for god's sake).
Oh well, money is money.
(Please browse at -1 to read this comment.)
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.
;-)
Or... all that in 2 words
You can't take the sky from me...
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.
In Fantasy, the hot chicks are scantily clad because you want them to be.
In Science Fiction, the hot chicks are scantily clad for a reason central to the internal logic of the universe.
Remember kids, any sufficiently advanced Science Fiction is indistinguishable from Fantasy.
A: Who Cares?
/. article? OH for Gos's sake...
I do
B: Who Cares?
My friends do
C: Who Cares?
My friend's friends do.
D: Who Cares?
Many other nerds reading slashdot do.
E: A comic issuing constitutes as
News for nerds. Stuff that matters.
Frankly, I just don't think you are nerd enough. Please return your nerd membership card and exit this site. (You can keep the toaster)
-Em
RelevantElephants: A Somatic WebComic...
I hate Buffy. And Angel. Pure rubbish. I even tried to watch it after Firefly was canceled, to see if my opinion had changed. It hadn't, it's still rubbish.Firefly, though, was excellent. It was good on TV, and GREAT on DVD.
try to ignore the goodwill you have towards Joss because of the first 3 seasons of Buffy, and realize that Firefly was pretty lame
Okay...
(Ignoring...)
Yep, Firefly still rocks.
Truth is, I didn't really care that much for Buffy or Angel. They were kinda sorta clever--"better than a lot of stuff on TV," as you put it--but not half as good as Firefly.
It is cowboys in space, for crying out loud! What could be better? It has interesting characters, can be funny and serious at the same time, an interesting plot... Definitely one of the best series that's ever been on.
And you think it's lame? I'm glad you at least conceded that it was better than a lot of stuff on tv. I want to pull my hair out whenever I see yet another Who Wants to Marry a Bachelor Idol Apprentice crapfest, or I see a bunch of press given to the end of another Everybody Loves My Formula Sitcom show. At least Firefly was somewhat original.
But that's just my opinion. I hope you have at least rented and watched the first one or two DVDs before you passed judgement. Fox really did screw up the series while it was running by not airing the episodes in order and constantly pre-empting it. What can you say about a network that airs the pilot--the exposition of the series--as the fickin' last episode!? It's not quite this bad, but can you imagine how confusing it would be to watch a season of episodes of a show like 24 all scrambled up?
For example, how big is the Firefox universe? Is it a galaxy? A group of star systems? A single system?
The Firefox universe consists of Firefox, Mozilla, Thunderbird, Bugzilla, and Camino...
Yes, but at least Star Trek: Voyager/DS9/Et al had the name cachet to keep going - had being operative, given that even recognition couldn't keep Enterprise on the air. So, no matter how horrendous those shows actually were, they were given the chance to keep going...Fox just up and pulled the plug because costs of production weren't commensurate with diminishing returns. Whedon and co. had all of 16 episodes to create as much of a universe as they could, so if there were inconsistencies and holes and confusions, they probably were under the impression they'd be given more time to flesh it all out, fill in the gaps and create something more cohesive...*shrug*
There exists a distinct possibility that these movies will serve as a natural extension of the overall story-arc that had been intended by the writers...hell, they may even be enhanced by the larger budget, more concentrated medium (two hours to tell a sotry that they might have planned on telling over half a season or longer), and a creative team that is reinvigorated...but we won't really know that until we see them.
"How like you to drag your keyboard to a gun fight." - Aaron Bedard (BANE)
I think if you manage to think of her as more than a "whore" -- which is what Mal and other use as a put down -- and instead think of her as the companion she is, you will see that there is precedent in real life in the Geisha.
As always in Firefly, western and eastern culture meet somewhere...
Belief is the currency of delusion.
It depends. I may be wrong, but I seem to remember that in some cultures in some eras of our history, whores were considered respectable women. (Examples, anyone?)
Besides, the Companions in Firefly weren't exactly high- or low-class, they were sort of in between. You could always tell that Mal had sort of a love-hate relationship with Inara. He really liked her, but he absolutely hated her profession. Even though many held her in high esteem, you could tell that some did not. Watch the episode "Shindig" to see this sort of high-class/low-class duality of the job.
Also worth noting is that not all "whores" in the Firefly universe were respectable, only registered Companions. There were presumably the cream of the crop, women of such exquisite quality that they were very well thought of. They also weren't "whores" in the sense of the word that you simply paid them for sex, they were also very highly educated women, trained in many arts and skills, who provided a sort of relationship fulfillment service, not just mere physical pleasure. Watch the episode "Heart of Gold" to see how the non-Companion whores were treated. They were low-class outcasts. Even today in the United States, this whore class system exists. The prostitutes at the brothels in Vegas are much better thought of than the whores on Seventh Avenue. Some porn stars are held in extremely high regard in a weird sort of way.
So I guess my point is that although it's different from the way we think of prostitutes today, it's not really too farfetched an idea.
And no, I didn't memorize all of the episodes of Firefly, I cheated.
Any American citizen has a chance, you know. Just make the right choices, and I'm sure your dream will come true.
"I am a fictional character."
You know, comments like this remind me of that guy who used to stand outside the studio gates with a sign that said something along the lines of "I HAVE WRITTEN THE FUNNIEST SCRIPT IN THE WORLD" and was continually surprised that the people who drove past him didn't stop and buy his script for millions of dollars.
... and this might shock you ... take the fucking things off the internet and start sending them to agents and script editors?
For one thing, sparky, it's not a matter of luck. Whedon put in a lot of time writing other scripts, making other series, polishing other people's writing. He has what is known as a "track record." People have an idea that he can write, that he can create a successful series, and so on.
Or, in other words, people who aren't persistent think that the people who are are lucky.
And for another thing, it's not exactly a secret as to how to get into the system. It's hard, but I have a dozen books that all say, in essence the same thing:
Go to where the market is. Send your scripts to agents and script editors. While you are waiting for agents and script editors to get back to you, write more scripts. Write scripts for series that you didn't create. Write scripts for movies that won't take eighteen billion dollars to create. Write. And, when you've written, send them out. Eventually, if you're any good, someone will call you back and say "Hey, want to come in and pitch a story idea for this series?" or "Hey, we liked that movie script, but we need it to have a role for a wise-cracking dwarf and two funny animals." or something like that.
At which point, you still won't be able to get *your* script ideas made in the form you want them to be. But - and this is the important thing - you'll have started establishing a track record for your work.
Alternatively, you can write a script and make your own movie, like _Pi_ or _Clerks_ or _Primer_. Or, to be blunt, like eighteen million crap cheap movies that suck money out of their creator's pockets because they're just not any good. That's the other route.
The only sure route to failure is to write wish-fufillment scripts that feature characters JUST LIKE all the ones from Robotech or Hellsing or Bubblegum Crisis or whatever series is causing anime geeks to develop wrist injuries this week, except for the one character who all the women adore and who, coincidentally, looks and sounds JUST LIKE the author of the script.
If you've written a bunch of scripts that *aren't* cheap ripoffs of popular series, great. Why not see if you can edit a few into something you can afford to shoot with your credit limit being what it is? Or rewrite it into a radio drama and get some friends (if you have any) together to produce it. Or
Or would you just rather sit around and feel superior and unappreciated?
If the blue sun is a main sequence star (and not a supergiant), then it's stellar mass will be around 50 and it's biozone range (the range where liquid water can occur) would be between 500-750 AUs. That's freaking huge. It should be enough to fit in the hundreds of planets that livable range.
However, don't take the science too seriously.
"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?
I'll state right off that I watched all of Firefly recently, and I loved it.
Firefly kind of reminds me of a cross among the two anime series Trigun and Cowboy Bebop (both originally released in Japan in 1998) and old post-Civil War setting westerns. Trigun can be classified as a sci-fi western. Bebop doesn't lean quite as heavily on the western genre, as it's all over the map as far as influences go, but the world as presented seems similar in nature to that of Firefly.
Firefly resembles Cowboy Bebop in that you have a ragtag crew of misfits and folks with questionable intentions travelling in an old beat-up secondhand spaceship going from job to job trying to make money wherever they can, in some cases only enough to keep the ship running. The ship Serenity even kind of reminds me of the Bebop somewhat in how it is designed. Also, Cowboy Bebop's settings involve various terraformed planets, but most of them have a reasonably near-future level of technology apparent. In Firefly, the settings are mostly old Western in nature on the border worlds, like Trigun's world in the apparent far future after human extra-planetary colonization goes horribly wrong. The firearms used are sort of like both, in that both current and antiquated weapon designs are used with a little futuristic flair to jazz things up.
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.
...either the film or the comic book after visiting the web site.
I get the feeling that Joss Whedon has a genuine desire to tell his story in it's entirety, since he wasn't able to do that with the TV series.
I don't think he's doing it for any financial incentive... the film industry tends to pay a bit better than the comic book industry, in case you didn't know.
"But the cars are all flashing me, bright lights are passing me, I feel life passing me by" - Stiff Little Fingers
Yet more proof that you want the rewards without doing the work. To wit:
You have been told exactly how you go about achieving your goals.
You go to where the industry is: this is not a matter of luck, this is not a matter of "Gosh darn, that guy was just SO FORTUNATE to have decided to move to LA and sleep in the gutter until he manages to get work." This is How. It. Works. Unless you manage to build a writing career elsewhere that makes them sit up and take notice - and that means makes someone a fair chunk of money - you go to LA. Period.
You send printed scripts in the format that the agencies and script editors demand. If you can't do something as basic and as simple as that, then you're more trouble than you're worth to them, and they won't bother with you. The writing staff of any series want to find people - and according to the people in the industry I know, some of them are pretty desperate to find people - who will make their jobs easier, not harder. Reading a script on-line is hard, because it's not the way the industry is set up. Expecting them to print your scripts is hard, because a: printing takes them *time*, and they're already working eighteen hour days - when they have work at all, and b: it costs them money, and they don't know you from Adam, so they have zero reason to spend the money. You might be broke - but you want something from them, and they don't particularly want what you've got to give them, which is attitude. Your post basically screams that you think that "I'm So Talented That Everybody Must Adjust To Me." Which, quite frankly, is an attitude they have enough of in the industry, and they don't need to be bringing any more in.
Your scripts might be good. I don't know. I don't especially care, because I *do* know that the people who sign the checks want to know that they're likely to make their money back and then some. To *know*. To be able to go to the stockholders and say, even in the case of failure, "We did everything we could to make sure we weren't wasting our money."
You aren't willing to give them that. You aren't even willing to make the most basic of concessions to them. "I'm so talented that someone with eighty million dollars to invest in a TV series should come to my website and print out my scripts because I'm too fucking lazy to print and mail them myself."
It's always easier to cry and claim that if it weren't for these immense hurdles that you'd show them, show them aaaallll than it is to actually try to surmount those hurdles, isn't it?
It's not luck in your case, Sparky. You're convicted by your own words. You're just lazy. Face facts.
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.
thats why the technology is non-consistant - its about telling the story, one which isnt entirely compatible with its setting.