Whedonesque Mobile : Comments on 10578 : All the Rage column on the Serenity comic book artist.

June 12 2006

All the Rage column on the Serenity comic book artist. Will Conrad is likely to be returning to art duties to bring the crew of Serenity to the pages of Serenity: Better Days comic book.

Following up on last week's announcement that Joss and Brett Matthews will be getting back into the 'verse, set during the Firefly days. No release date has been set yet, though.

CaptainB | 05:41 CET | 27 comments total | tags: comic books, serenity

This is great news as I believe that Will Conrad is a great artist and his art really hightened my enjoyment of the first mini-series. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for the release.

Derf | June 12, 05:56 CET

I hope it will be longer than three issues. Am I the only one who thought the last miniseries felt somewhat truncated?

Screwtape | June 12, 06:05 CET

Indeed. I really hope Inara's past and secrets are finally revealed, although obviously not to the crew, or else they would've know during the movie. Her post-sex talk during the pilot episode, and the commentary tracks of that and Out of Gas (discussing the syringe and talk with Simon, respectively)have bugged the hell out of me for too long.

What other storylines are you hoping get resolved, or even starting in this miniseries (which I believe was rumored to be a multiple arc-mini)?

CaptainB | June 12, 06:23 CET

Again, my belief, per Inara's syringe and her obvious discomfort talking to Simon after her 'check-up' on Ariel, is that Inara has some sort of terminal disease. Since we all know Joss' characters never have full and healthy relationships for long... yes, I'm an evil pessimist. LoL

dpwac | June 12, 06:53 CET

Tim Minear already let it spill what the syringe was for. I can't remember where though. I won't go into the details here in case people want it to be a surprise.

TamaraC | June 12, 07:05 CET

Ooooo, I didn't think that the comics could be an Inara secret story. Now I'm really intrigued.

Glad to hear that Conrad is returning. I really liked his art from the first series.

And I hope that this series is longer too. Not too much longer (or else I'm gonna spend a fortune trying to collect it all), but longer.

White Knight | June 12, 07:10 CET

Umm... not sure I'd heard that Minear spilled the proverbial beans on the syringe. When/where was that? And who's to say it's actually canon?

Haunt | June 12, 07:14 CET

I won't go into the details here in case people want it to be a surprise.

Given that we may never learn about Inara and the syringe any other way, I think you need to spill the beans.

crossoverman | June 12, 07:24 CET

Yes, TamaraC, please shed a little light. I don't mind details! :-D

Anyway...this is great news. I finally managed to pick up the Those Left Behind trade, and the series actually reads better in one sitting. Conrad's art is also damn good; can't wait!

UnpluggedCrazy | June 12, 07:47 CET

Okay, I did a google search and found this: http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=14960. It's spoiler-texted, in case it ends up in a comic book or a sequels or whatever.

Inara has yet another fight with Mal, in which he says something especially cruel like "I'm not going to get on my knees and kiss your hand like your a lady. You're a whore."

Inara has a sort of chemical weapon in case of rape, so whomever attacks will die immediately after raping her. (I'm not saying this all as eloquently, I'm pre-coffee).

She's kidnapped by reavers in an attack. Mal and crew go in to the reaver ship to save her.

What they find is the entire crew of reavers, all dead, and Inara huddled on the floor, beaten half to death.

Later, in Inara's shuttle, it's only Zoe there, guarding her silently. Mal tried to come in, and Zoe opens a can of whup ass and tells Mal no fucking way is anyone coming in.

Mal gets past Zoe (yeah, right) and walks over to Inara's bed where she's curled up and post-traumatic. Gets on his knees, and kisses her hand.

As described here, the storyline seems ethically and logically dubious, but that ending sounds ... stunning.

[ edited by bobothebrave on 2006-06-12 06:45 ]

bobothebrave | June 12, 07:56 CET

I will try to do this with spoiler inviso text.

Tim said (I think at the screenplay writing class he taught) that the syringe had a type of poison in it that Inara would inject herself with and it would cause anyone raping her to die immediately.

And someone beat me to it while I was trying to figure out how the hide the info.

[ edited by TamaraC on 2006-06-12 05:58 ]

TamaraC | June 12, 07:57 CET

And what does that have to do with her past? I thought in the commentary for that episode Joss remarked upon seeing the syringe that we (the viewers) don't know everything about her past... or something to that effect. I don't know how to do "invisotext" so I won't comment too much, but does this suggest that there's something in her past that she has taken measures to insure won't happen again?

Haunt | June 12, 08:08 CET

Haunt -- (this is more a response to your earlier comment) I'm pretty sure that if it isn't on film (or in a comic book written by Joss); it's not canon. It's just one direction that Tim or Joss might have taken the show.

But man, I would kill to see that kiss!

Also, for invisotext instructions, go here: http://whedonesque.com/?read=about

bobothebrave | June 12, 08:43 CET

This is great news, Will Conrad is a wonderful artist and I'm sure this will be a great comic (I'm hoping for a longer story this time too). I can't wait for it to start coming out, I don't want to miss out on a single cover design!

embers | June 12, 08:53 CET

I was just commenting on the syringe speculation, Haunt. I'm sure there is lots more to Inara's past that we may never get to know.

TamaraC | June 12, 10:19 CET

Seeing as the column says "early indications are that Will Conrad will be the artist", I've qualified your subject line as a result.

And from what I remember , that Firefly episode was originally to be fit with a darker show but the network didn't like the idea.

Simon | June 12, 10:23 CET

the network didn't like the idea.

Now, that's a surprise!

Le Comit� | June 12, 10:30 CET

Tamara, Tim Minear explicitly said that wasn't the story of the syringe, or the 'big secret'. I think. Allyson should be able to back me up.

There's more Firefly storylines (sadly unused) in the forthcoming Titan Firefly book, due in August.

[ edited by gossi on 2006-06-12 09:20 ]

gossi | June 12, 11:18 CET

Gossi, now I am confused. So what Tim said was just him speculating or was that not what Tim said? Or are you just messing with me?

[ edited by TamaraC on 2006-06-12 09:47 ]

TamaraC | June 12, 11:47 CET

Nergh, I'm not sure, I've heard mixed reports - but Allyson posted about it on Buffistas, and I think she said Tim said (confused yet) that the story wasn't 'the big secret', or the explaination of the syringe.

Or, in other words, it was a plot point they had - but not the backstory for Inara. But I could be wrong.

gossi | June 12, 12:11 CET

Yeah, it was at the Screenwriting Expo where he mentioned the Inara plotline was a story idea they'd been kicking around when the show was much darker in tone (here's an account which mentions it) but it wasn't certain if that explained the syringe or not - TM says when asked 'I don't know' (and if it does I guess it doesn't explain why she'd have it in the first place, maybe some past trauma ?).

There's an (IMO) excellent fan-fic called 'Ice in Crystal' where a writer runs with the idea to great effect.

Saje | June 12, 13:54 CET

Here's the quote from Tim:

To be clear, I never said a thing about Inara's syringe. And that un-written Firefly story had nothing to do with Inara's "big seekrit." That's a whole 'nother thing that you will never learn from my lips.

Tim Minear - Nov 12, 2005 10:55:04

Paul_Rocks | June 12, 14:17 CET

Yeah, well, you can prove anything with facts can't you ?

;-)

Seems to settle it pretty categorically, ta for the info.

Saje | June 12, 14:22 CET

Yes, Screwtape, the first comic book series left me feeling that way too. Even though it does read better in one sitting it felt as though it could have been 1 issue longer. The final showdown between Dobson was anti-climatic. So Mal shoots his other eye, great, ironic I get it.

Maybe the point was that exactly. Mal killing Dobson is no big deal. Still there was no tension in the resolution at all. There were some good character moments though

malformed | June 12, 15:42 CET

I got the impression that Tim let loose the story of the syringe in a room full of writers and then said to himself "OMG, Joss is going to kill me" and backtracked. Just my sense of it though. Could be entirely wrong.

Lioness | June 12, 15:56 CET

Must confess I wasn't too impressed with the first Serenity comic though i'll definitely still be picking up the new one (and I thought the art was fine).

There were some nice character moments but, IMO, they were few and far between and it didn't really capture the feel of the series for me (not too surprising since the only Firefly episode I would really pick holes in is Matthews' 'Heart of Gold' - even if it still has some great moments - though I thought his story 'Dames' in 'Tales of the Vampires' was pretty good so some room for hope).

Saje | June 12, 16:10 CET

On the "which lie that Tim said was the real lie, and which was the real secret" tip, I kind of fanwanked that the story he told about the syringe being a drug that killed whoever had sex with Inara was "true," and that the link with her past could be that this drug would kill anyone having sex with her, not just a rapist, so it could have been used as a tool to assassinate an important politician who was a client and make it look like he/she died of a heart attack or something, so Inara might have taken part in an assassination or murder plot in the past and be on the run from that (or just feel very guilty). That's a lot of fanwanking, true, but I guess my guess is as good as anyone else's till we get some canon about it, maybe in that Firefly Companion book. *wants the calendar pages to fly like in a montage to the date the book is available* ;-)

billz | June 13, 12:22 CET

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