A Slight Apocalypse

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1. Loki

   If it’s not canon, it can be better than tumbling the Virgin Mary, I’d still not read it… (And it’s obviously not canon…)

   6. February 2008 @ 05:17 ( Permalink )

2. Amras Elensar

   I’d love to read it, but sadly I haven’t the time at the moment. I’m hoping I’ll maybe get around to it in March, though. That’d be neat

   6. February 2008 @ 12:30 ( Permalink )

3. Loki

   Non-canon material kills me. Really. It melts my brain, I’m so anal, I can’t take it. I either dislike it and disgust myself for having spent time and energy reading/seeing it when the sucky thing didn’t even actually happen to the place so that it could at least be relevant for later stories, and additionally in some small way forever will be sullying my experience of the universe it’s trying to take place in, OR I actually like it, and spend the rest of my life pathetically hoping that it somehow, someway, can be integrated into continuity and have an impact on the later stories or at least be recognized by them.

   6. February 2008 @ 16:19 ( Permalink )

4. Amras Elensar

   I’ve pretty much resigned myself with the fact that there won’t be more Firefly, except maybe in the form of comics and the like, and though it seems like I should care about it being canon or not, I just can’t bring myself to do it. It would have a higher priority if it was canon - that much is true - and I can’t promise I’ll read this. It’ll probably depend on whether I remember it exists at the time and whether I’m up to reading it on a computer screen.

   Interesting trivia about this entry: Seeing as my link appeared in the comment section on DreamCafé, a lot o’ Browncoats managed to click though to my blog! There were in fact so many that I bordered on a thousand unique hits (I average at about 350-400 nowadays).

   7. February 2008 @ 10:22 ( Permalink )

5. Loki

   Well, Browncoats, when they go, tend to go en masse.

   7. February 2008 @ 12:04 ( Permalink )

6. Loki

   Also, while I myself strongly doubt there being any more Firefly-related on-screen stuff in the next five to ten years at least, I wouldn’t completely discard the option somewhere down the road. The entire cast seems to be willing (a lot of them even eager) to make something new in the ‘verse, as does Joss.

   And there WILL be a lot more canon stuff in the form of comics. There’s a new miniseries coming out this year in fact, and I strongly doubt they’ll stop for good after that one.

   7. February 2008 @ 12:12 ( Permalink )

7. Amras Elensar

   “Well, Browncoats, when they go, tend to go en masse.”

   I love how “en masse” works in both French, English and Norwegian (f. eks “armeen gikk en masse “). Erikson uses it all the time, and I always end up pronouncing it in Norwegian. XD

   Yeah, I’ve noticed that everyone WANTS to make more Firefly, but somehow they CAN’T. It’s frustratin’, it is. I expect I’ll see reviews of the miniseries on your blog, though, and I’m looking forward to seeing if it’s any good. Who’s doing ‘em?

   7. February 2008 @ 12:19 ( Permalink )

8. Loki

   Well, it technically doesn’t work in English, it works as a French expression implemented into an English sentence. Much like expressions such as “touchè”, “finè”, “c’est la vie” or similar. But yeah, it does actually mean something in Norwegian.

   The new miniseries (”Serenity: Better Days”) will be done by the same writing-team (Whedon himself and Brett Matthews) as the previous one (”Serenity: Those Left Behind”, a bridging story between the show and the movie), but I don’t know who the artist(s) is/are going to be. I have modest hopes, though, TLB was decent enough but honestly not all that impressive. And yeah, of course I’ll read it. I’ll read anything canon, and despite some half-beats like “Angel: Long Night’s Journey” and “Serenity: Those Left Behind”, Joss has built up quite a trust-credit on continuing his shows awesomely in comic-form with “Fray”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8″ and “Angel: After the Fall” that I won’t ignore easily. If ever.

   7. February 2008 @ 13:04 ( Permalink )

9. Amras Elensar

   I’m getting increasingly interested in checking out all these comics you are talking about. I’m am most definitely going to read “Sandman”, “Watchmen” and Joe Hill’s “Locke & Key” + whatever I can get my hands on done by Warren Ellis, so, you know, expect some comic-reviews in the near future…

   I really hope I can finally appreciate them like I feel they should. Lately I just pick up comics and read the text while thinking that all the damned pictures are distracting me from the story. It’d be so much easier if there was ONLY text.

   And that’s not right.
   Not right at all.

   8. February 2008 @ 11:20 ( Permalink )

10. Loki

    Comics? Not sure if you mean comics I mention in general or comics I mention by Joss specificly.

    Well, let us take the Jossian stuff first, starting with the things canon to his shows:

    I’d force-feed “Angel: After the Fall” to anyone who liked the series. If you accept that it can never be quite the same when you take the actors out of the equation, this comic book is so far closer than I ever thought anything could get. Let’s just hope it keeps up that trend.

    “Buffy Season 8″ gets a strong recommendation, but hardly the same kind of mindless “I love this so far!”-stamp as “After the Fall”. It’s very good, and the characters’ voices are all nailed, but when it comes to the actual plots, they’ve felt somewhat un-Buffyesque to me - ironically, with the exception of the one arc so far NOT written by Joss himself. The season plot Joss is building is very intriguing, though, and I’m walking on air today knowing I’ll get my hands on issue 11 either today or tomorrow…

    “Serenity: Those Left Behind” has grown on me upon re-reads, but it’s still a far cry from excellent. That being said, it explains a lot about the gap between “Firefly” and “Serenity” and is well worth the relatively low price you’d have to pay for such a thin single paperback.

    The graphic novel “Fray” was Joss’ first escapade into comic-writing, and I’ll hereby claim that it’s also, so far, by far his best. (”Angel: After the Fall” might compete, but there Joss only maps out the plotlines, he’s not the actual writer) It takes place in the Slayerverse’s distant future, and being written while season 6 was airing, it does have certain inconsistancies with season 7 - despite the scythe from Fray showing up there and thus strongly underlining Joss’ intention to keep it canon. These inconsistancies seems to be on the way to be cleared up on the “Season 8″-comic, though - and indeed, Joss has more or less promised that at some point, he will find the time to write a Fray-sequel. I’m salivating at the thought.

    Furthermore, there’s “Angel: Long Night’s Journey”, an old Angel-comic co-authored by Joss. It’s been a long while since I did a re-read, but as far as I recal, it’s good but nothing special. Takes place in early season 2, I think, and it’s main virtue to my memory is briefly but interestingly delving into some issues regarding Angel’s soul the show never touched upon.

    There’s also the at times quite excellent anthologies “Tales of the Slayers” and “Tales of the Vampires”, both of which Joss and other writers from “Buffy” was involved with. Some stories in them are weakish, but as a whole I’d strongly recommend them if you’re a fan of the show and want some more depth and history to the world it takes place in.

    Last, and most dubiously, there’s “Buffy: The Origin”, which isn’t written by Joss at all, but was based on his script for the original cinema-movie, tweaking it so that it now fits with the series’ continuity. Joss has stated that if you wish, you can conisder this comic canon, as it basically tells Joss’ own story of Buffy’s pre-Sunnydale-years fit to the tv-show and unbroken by mean directors. Be warned, though - the artist in this graphic novel took great licenses in the depicting of the vampires, they look not at all like on the show, sadly.

    That’s what’s considered more or less canon to his three shows by Joss himself. In addition, some fans like to consider another handful of the Buffy-graphic novels canon: namely the ones by old Buffy-show-writers. Some of these are rather good, unlike the vast majority of what else there is out there of Buffy-comics. Still, anything with the slightest involvement of Joss I’ve listed above.

    Joss has also written some comics outside his own universes. These include (and might be limited to, I’m not sure) a run on the series “Runaways” that I’ve not read yet, the “Astonishing X-men”-series of which I’ve read the first two, and the Dark Horse webcomic “Sugarshock”. However, while Joss is good in what of this I’ve checked out, if you’re going to read comics just to read comics, they would not be on the top of any list of recommendations I’d give you.

    Of non-Joss-related-comics, these are the non-humour titles (of humour, I’ll satisfy for mentioning Asterix and Valhalla, I think) that spring to mind as Very Strongly Recommended:

    Batman: The Long Halloween, by Jeph Loeb. One of, if not the, best Batman-story I’ve read. Which is saying a lot. A lot of Jeph Loeb’s stuff is recommendable, especially the things he’s done with Tim Sale as the artist, but this is where I’d start.

    Watchmen, by Alan Moore. Pretty much the most intelligent and demanding graphic novel I’ve read.

    V for Vendetta, also by Alan Moore. A little bit less heavy than “Watchmen”, this is my favourite graphic novel of Moore’s - though I’ve obviously not read nearly all of his work.

    Sin City, by Frank Miller. While the drawing-style took a while to grow on me, there’s no denying that this guy has copyrighted pathos. Yes, he might lack something in the other aspects of quality you could strive for, but the pathos is so damned excellently overdone you have to like it anyway. And “Sin City” is the best I’ve read by him - I have not read his very famous run on DareDevil, though.

    Sandman, by Neil Gaiman. Maybe a liiiittle bit on the artsy-side for me, there’s no denying this being Amazingly Well Done Stuff. It also serves very neatly as the set-up to:

    Lucifer, by Mice Carey. To me, this spin-off series from Sandman takes what was excellent about Sandman and makes it a modest but noticable bit more generally accessible without losing too much of the awesomeness. Plus, no matter how cool Morpheus is, there is something special about the Prince of Darkness as a main character…

    Bone, by Jeff Smith. Like so many others have said; if Carl Barks and J. R. R. Tolkien had a lovechild, this is it. And I will not sully this thought by further typing.

    The Ultimates/The Ultimates 2, by Mark Millar. I need to mention that this doesn’t get fully Mindblowingly Awesome ’til the end of “Ultimates 2″, but the ride there is entertaining enough that you should enjoy the entire read. Mark Millar writes witty dialogue, strong and interesting characters, and rocks at the big, unexpected emotional moments as well as the Seriously F****ing Cool ones. And the artwork in this one is simply superb. If should read this and like it, I’d also strongly recommend “Ultimate X-men”’s first handful of volumes, also by Millar, and “Ultimate Spider-Man” by Bendis. (If you don’t know what Ultimate [Whatever] is, it’s a seperate, own-continuity revamp of Marvel’s biggest titles as if invented for the first time in the late 90’s instead of the 40’s. And on the whole, it’s quite excellent.)

    Life & Times of $crooge McDuck, by K. Don Rosa. I kind of expect you to have read this already, though… the same goes for some of his other stuff and a couple of excellent Carl Barks-titles.

    8. February 2008 @ 12:02 ( Permalink )

11. Loki

    To sum up, then, and make my Wall Of Text a little less horrid, you should _really_ read “Fray” and “Angel: After the Fall”, and, if you liked Buffy enough to desire more of her, “Buffy Season 8″ and the Tales-books.

    Of non-Joss stuff, Sandman and Watchmen seems like a nice place to start - I haven’t read Lock & Key.

    8. February 2008 @ 12:06 ( Permalink )

12. Amras Elensar

    Oh, my… That was a lot more than I’d dear to dream of, Loki. I guess you like talking about Joss and comics, huh? This was definitely very helpful and I’ll most likely have to check back when the times comes to order some of these.

    I’ll wait until the tradeback of “Angel” is released, ’cause I’m really keen to see what he does to that damned dragon, and I’ll also most probably make a pass at reading the Buffy comics (in tradeback, of course. I understand that “The Long Way Home” is already out).

    And “Sin City” is on The List. However, I’ve given the matter some thought, and I’ve decided to await the next two movies in stead of reading the story arcs beforehand.

    No one has read “Locke & Key” except the those involved in making it. It gets its first release of six forthcoming issues on the 20th of February, and I assume I’ll get my copy 10-14 days later.

    8. February 2008 @ 12:20 ( Permalink )

13. Loki

    ” ’cause I’m really keen to see what he does to that damned dragon, ”

    *grins knowingly*

    Be warned, though, the comic starts up quite some time (probably at least a month, it’s yet to be specified) after NFA - but there will be a pause from the main story during issues 6 through 8 (we’re currently waiting for 4) called “First Night” which will shed some light on the first night after the season 5 finale. This works very well story-wise, though, as it opens up a lot of room for giving us Dramatic Reveals.

    And yes, The Long Way Home is out. As mentioned in my weblog, though, I think the opening arc (i.e. the first TPB) is a little too flashy and overly ambitious, and I much prefer the story that will make up the second TPB, “No Future For You”. But as long as your expectations aren’t too high, it should be okay. ‘Cause it’s definitely_canon_ Buffy, you can tell from every single line of dialogue.

    Re: Sin City, probably a smart choice, if you think you’ll enjoy the movies more unspoiled than you will the comics.

    Lock & Key - may I assume this Hill-dude is one of your favourite people in the universe or something, then, as you’re so excited for something yet unseen?

    And no problem. Raving about comics I like is SO much nicer than cramming Latin.

    8. February 2008 @ 13:00 ( Permalink )

14. Amras Elensar

    I imagine it is

    Joe Hill got the prize for “Best New Author” on my SABA awards (sounds kind professional when I say it like that, right?), and I absolutely love his short-stories. This comic series should be in a similar vein to them, and the reviews of the ARCs have been very promising. Neil Gaiman has even been pushing them on his Journal, saying that his only complaint was that he couldn’t read them all at once.

    8. February 2008 @ 13:29 ( Permalink )

15. Loki

    Aha. Sounds nifty. ^^

    8. February 2008 @ 14:27 ( Permalink )