Whedonesque : Comments on 10025 : Cover art for the "Firefly: The Official Companion" book.

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April 09 2006

Cover art for the "Firefly: The Official Companion" book. Notice the magic words 'Volume One'. Amazon.com has a release date for it for September 30th. Though its British store says it'll be out in the UK on June 23rd and will include "unseen photos, scripts, behind the scenes secrets, and exclusive input from the cast and crew".

Course it just be placeholder art but it's shiny all the same. And scripts!! Whoo hooo!!!

Simon | Printed matter | 04:16 CET | 44 comments total | tags: firefly, book

Just very Shiny. It'll serve as a late birthday present for myself.

Numfar PTB | April 09, 04:23 CET

Thinking about it, if Titan Books are including scripts it would make sense to have a series of volumes.

Simon | April 09, 04:27 CET

They also took photos of all the props shown in the UK a few months ago.

I'm looking forward to this. Titan's "Serenity" book was outstanding for a movie companion book.

gossi | April 09, 04:58 CET

Hopefully the book will go into the scripts commissioned but never shot after "The Message."

The Dark Shape | April 09, 05:16 CET

There's only one, I believe, The Dark Shape (which predates The Message) - and that's available online.

gossi | April 09, 05:59 CET

Is it bad that this book get me... excited?

AnotherFireflyfan | April 09, 06:04 CET

Gossi, to my knowledge Fox had commissioned something like six scripts post "The Message." I wasn't talking about "Dead Or Alive."

The Dark Shape | April 09, 06:17 CET

A late birthday present for me as well. This is great news.Whoo hoo indeed.

Lioness | April 09, 06:19 CET

The Dark Shape, where have you heard that from?

gossi | April 09, 06:23 CET

That's awesome! More money down the drain but at least I'll be happy.

Mack | April 09, 06:30 CET

Random aside - no idea where they got their info from, but the book description says the Firefly DVDs have sold just under half a million copies. Which is still an incredibly impressive figure (cancelled after half a season, folks) -- but nowhere near in line with the estimates before the movie came out, which probably helps explain what happened at the box office opening weekend.

gossi | April 09, 06:38 CET

Wait... "Volume One"?

theonetruebix | April 09, 07:32 CET

Huh, I never knew about an unmade script called "The Dark Shape", does anyone know where it can be found online? I've tried google but can't find it.

paxomen | April 09, 07:40 CET

It's about Mal's exploding penis, paxomen. (I was refering to the poster The Dark Shape).

theonetruebix - if this one sells well, they plan to make more. 176 pages with a script and other stuff will probably cover the pilot episode.

gossi | April 09, 07:42 CET

I put in my pre-order, for one thing I want the publishers to know that there are fans out there who are excited about this material (which I am). Besides the continuing sales of Firefly/Serenity books, comics, DVDs, whatever, can only encourage Universal to finally green light a sequel (I may be overly optimistic but I feel sure we'll get our sequel after Joss finally makes 'Goners').

embers | April 09, 08:03 CET

September 30th for 'Verse things becoming available makes me nervous, but this seems very shiny indeed! ;-)

billz | April 09, 08:49 CET

Ooh! Shiny!!!! I'm so excited! How wonderful would that be if it did have extra scripts of unfilmed episodes.

Firefly Flanatic | April 09, 10:03 CET

I'll get the book, but, that cover art is terrible. Amateur photoshop. Looks like an unofficial product with that cover. Hopefully they'll change it.

willbueche | April 09, 10:27 CET

But at least there are no llamas, dude! ;-)

billz | April 09, 10:36 CET

The publisher needs to contact Geoffrey Mandel to redo the cover. His artwork would put this book over the top.

willbueche | April 09, 10:42 CET

I like the cover art, it does the job well.

Simon | April 09, 11:11 CET

I adore the cover art. I hope they don't change a thing.

TamaraC | April 09, 11:18 CET

There's only one, I believe, The Dark Shape (which predates The Message) - and that's available online.

I didn't know that so I googled and found it.

It's quite good, but, in my opinion, it has too much elements in common with "The Message".

Le Comité | April 09, 12:37 CET

Ooh Shiny, make room on the bookshelf!

*nudges Mal & Jayne figures along a bit*

The Do That Girl | April 09, 12:53 CET

It is awkwardly photoshopped but I don't consider it nearly as weird as the DVD boxset art was. While it does get both space and western ideas across, I thought the black void or whatever really doesn't make sense directly against the desert setting that the characters appear to be standing in. And for some reason nebulae or gas clouds always look cheesy to me since it can make a cover look unnecessarily busy. The only time where they ever worked for me was in an episode of Futurama where the robot meets god...

Anyhow, at least this time it also actually shows the whole lead cast.

orangewaxlion | April 09, 13:23 CET

embers, this one is licensed entirely through Fox, so no money goes to Universal. That said, a good chunk of it goes to Titan Books, who are good folk.

Regarding the cover art here - I really like it. It's striking. I doesn't look like a retarded 80s direct to DVD release with Christian Slater -- which is a good thing.

gossi | April 09, 13:43 CET

I really like the cover. Considering the fact that they could only use pre-existing photos from the Firefly days, they did a really good job. It's too bad something like this couldn't have been used for the movie (either DVD or the movie poster), especially considering the fact that new photos could have been taken to make the poster seem a bit more seamless than this cover.

Matt_Fabb | April 09, 19:15 CET

I'm cool with the cover art. It doesn't show us anything new or original, but it's specifically for Firefly so it's not supposed to. Beats the DVD cover hands down. And probably the US movie posters, too. I'll pre-order soon. I want to show them there's early demand.

April | April 09, 19:54 CET

Cover's fine. But it's amazing how many times artists make Zoe into a lefthander (and ob butt-covering: nothing wrong with lethanders, except many of them are artists heh, heh).

Drifter | April 09, 20:03 CET

The cover's serviceable but, IMO, nothing spectacular. Also, though i'll still get it, does anyone else think bringing out a multi-volume companion for a show that lasted less than a season is possibly a little bit greedy ? Hopefully there'll be some really juicy exclusive content to justify it.

Also, also, I notice that Amazon UK describes Serenity as 'the smash hit movie'. Would that it were so (though I guess hope springs eternal).

And I think Zoe's so cool she's probably just ambidextrous though, obviously, also butt-covering, I think all left handers are abominations that make baby Jesus cry. Burn Sinister minions of Beelzebub, burn ! (err, just to confirm, butt-covering means wade into deep shit until your butt's covered, right ? ;-)

Saje | April 09, 20:28 CET

Shiny! I want. I preordered. (Sorta like Want. Take. Have, but with credit cards and mail carriers.)

Now I want Vol. 2. I think I'm a little greedy.

XanFan32 | April 09, 21:06 CET

I like that the review on amazon.co.uk refers to Serenity as a 'smash hit movie'.

Cider | April 10, 00:34 CET

I like that too, Cider!

"But at least there are no llamas, dude! ;-)"
The llamas are integral to the whole story, billz! LOL

I preordered the book. Am saving a spot on the bookshelves right next to the Serenity Companion. And I love the fact that it's called "Volume Number One!"

Life is good. :D

sandyg | April 10, 01:23 CET

We definitely need llamas.

Llamas or bust!

(And the 'Dead or Alive' script is much like The Message because it was scrapped and elements of it consciously taken and used for that ep.) ;-)

Niels | April 10, 02:24 CET

Cover art sucks. Don't care. Preordered it already.

zencat | April 10, 02:48 CET

How about Llamas and bust ? Yes, we're talking Llama boobies ! Sure, right now it's a niche market but I guarantee it'll grow (where grow may mean shrink or stay the same).

Clearly, i'm on my own with the whole greed/inaccurate 'smash hit' description thing too. That's cool, i'm gonna tell myself i'm like some romantic lone-wolf gunslinger wandering the prairie dealing out disdain for multiple volume TV companions and rapid-fire quotation corrections. It's obviously a lie but i'm quite gullible so I might fall for it.

Saje | April 10, 02:57 CET

I'd have gone in this direction (see link below), but, I agree the current cover does have a good "western" theme. I'll forgive that it lacks the browncoat. But I'd have put the crew under the nose of the ship. I'd have used a real photo not a wireframe rendering, but this is just a quick n dirty mockup:
Mock up (click to view)

willbueche | April 10, 03:07 CET

I like that the review on amazon.co.uk refers to Serenity as a 'smash hit movie'.

The publisher writes the description. Marketing talk and all that raz.

Saje, I understand the greedy thing, but I'm not really sure if I agree. Ultimately, if the demand is there, might as well go with it.

I have to admit, if it gets to volume 24 with nothing new happening, the whole thing will start to look a bit sad. Right now though, if the material and demand is there, woo. And indeed, hoo.

gossi | April 10, 03:20 CET

Yeah, true gossi, if it's good and each one is worth buying in and of itself then i'm as happy as the next fan that it's multiple volumes.

I just wouldn't like to think it's a case of 'Well, they're crazed maniacs, they'll buy anything Firefly related, let's take 'em for as much as we can' (at least partly because I am, indeed, a crazed maniac who'll buy anything Firefly related and you shouldn't take advantage of the afflicted ;).

Saje | April 10, 03:37 CET

Aw, Saje.... I think many of us are crazed maniacs then.

Maybe we should be in a home. You know, a happy place with lots of SereniFly DVDs.

And, I know! The home can bring in entertainment for us. Nathan and Adam can do little shows, behind chicken wire to keep them safe. It'll be like Serenity: Roadhouse. But without Patrick Swayze.

XanFan32 | April 10, 05:32 CET

Lol XanFan32. I think you've just written the premise for the 5th sequel ;).

It could have padded rubber wall-paper painted to look like the inside of a ship's hull with a relaxing muzak version of the Firefly theme playing 24/7. Ahh, paradise *sigh*.

(though going by some of the posts i've read, it'd take more than chicken wire to prevent Nathan and Adam from having their clothes ripped off. Maybe armed guards and those electric fences they had in Jurassic Park would do it ;-)

Saje | April 10, 13:03 CET

Saje: Oooh, I like it. Nathan and Adam doin' a little song-and-dance number to earn money to keep 'er flyin'. It would probably take a lot more than chicken wire as far as I'm concerned, but, hey, what's a little clothes-ripping among maniacal money-spending fans?

XanFan32 | April 10, 18:12 CET

billz, my twin...I completely agree about the release date. That was the first thing I thought of.

That's the kind of eerie coincidence that you just can't plan.

UnpluggedCrazy | April 11, 17:56 CET

Turns out the UK release date will be mostly likely in July. Details about the content and volume 2 as well will be coming shortly.

Simon | April 11, 19:32 CET

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