Can’t find the comics in this three-part mini-series from Dark Horse? Just get the trade paperback! Easier to read anyway, and you won’t have to smudge your collectible comics.
Comic-book-sized but bound graphic-novel style, this includes all three issues of the best-selling Dark Horse mini-series “Serenity: Those Left Behind,” written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews (writer of “Heart of Gold”) and illustrated by Will Conrad and Laura Martin. It fills in some of what happened in the six months between the TV show Firefly and the movie Serenity and explains where Inara and Book went, and why.
The crew of Serenity has fallen on some hard times and they take on a scavenger mission from Badger to raise some cash. They don’t know that it was a trap planned by the hands of blue guys, with the help of an old enemy we never expected to see again.
Read all together, instead of one comic a month, this really feels like the 15th episode of Firefly, both in the pacing and the style.
The collection features a new cover by Adam Hughes and back cover art by Sean Sean Phillips (both gorgeous), but all 9 of the original cover illustrations of the crew are inside at appropriate places. And there’s an intro by Nathan Fillion about his comic fan background and his appreciation at being made into a comic book hero at last.
I’ll admit to a bit of disappointment, but only because I had unrealistic expectations; I was hoping for the script, or notes from Joss, or sketches, or other nifty extras. Anything! But it’s a very attractive collection, crisp and clean, with good color reproduction, and it should attract more Serenity fans. It’s worth the ten bucks.
Soft cover, 104 pages, Full color, 7″ x 10″.
Preview pages: Cover, 1, 2, 3, 4
Buy: Amazon, Things From Another World, Play.com (International)
I’m not sure whether to get this, I’ve got the comics, all packaged up safely, so it would be nice to have something I could mistreat and spill tea on, but I think there are other serenity bits and peices that are more of a priority. thanks for the review, it’s good to know what you’re getting in it…
Any idea when the UK release is? I have it pre-ordered on Amazon, but they are still saying ‘Not yet published’…
I own all 9 varients of the 3-issue Serenity comics. I like the idea of the graphic novel, having all 3 stories together for easier, continuous reading. I also like the cover – Shiny!
Isn’t the TPB 6 x 9? Anyway, it’s smaller than the regular comics… apparently this is a move that publishers are making, as they think a more digest sized book will be more likely to be carried by bookstores and not just by comic shops. It’s a nice collection for cheap, and the extra cover art (original art on both the front and back!) is worth buying it for, and of course it’s worth it to have a read copy if you’re keeping your comics nice. Those who didn’t get the comics though to wait for the TPB… you’re going to want to pick up the comics because they’re nicer and by nicer I mean larger.
“but all 9 of the original cover illustrations of the crew are inside at appropriate places”
Also interesting to note that aren’t 5 of the illustrations at the beginning, including Mal’s as the title page, and then before each subsequent issue there’s 2 each?
I thought it was a nice way to break up the issues.
I have yet to read a Serenity Comic, but I would like to get into it. The last comics I read were Elf Quest and Calvin and Hobbes–tho Calvin is not in the same vain. Or is it vane? I digress. I love the Serenity Universe and am wanting to share it with my family. Oooo I can’t wait till my son is old enough to appreciate all the good in the world. At 17 months, he is not quite ready 😉 I will read your review of the comic. Signed ~ a Hatracker
If you want some preliminary sketches, you can see Adam Hughes’ (TPB cover artist) studies for Mal on his website:
http://www.justsayah.com/pages/AHpg14.html#
click on the thumbnail on the upper right of the top row, and it will show the full page or drawings. Enjoy!
Inara on that cover reminds me of gold-bikini Leia. I don’t like it. I have the comics, and like them; still, I’d like something more durable. That cover gives me pause.
This may be a bit late, but I’ll post my impressions of the comic here. It was nice to see the crew in space again. I wish a plot hole in the story had been patched up, it didn’t feel like the usual level of quality that the series or movie had.
But what really stuck with me was that the drawings of the characters felt a bit inconsistent, always trying to look like their respective actors. What one needs to make a comic work is to have interpretations of the characters themselves, something the artist can build upon.
I’m still looking forward to the newly announced comic, and I’m a bit of a sucker for anything that reveals more of the Firefly world. I think the comics will come into their own with something that doesn’t have to worry so much about continuity between two separate properties.