Looks like a Christmas postcard to me fore some reason.

delirium_haze | February 28, 05:56 CET

It looks creepy. The faces have more realism than the rest of the bodies. Very, very creepy. The covers for "Those Left Behind" were 100% better. Does anyone know if there will be variants?

patxshand | February 28, 05:59 CET

Direct Link to artwork on Hughes' site

IrrationaliTV | February 28, 05:59 CET

Dear lord, I hope there's a poster released of this!

CaptainB | February 28, 06:06 CET

A Poster would be waaay Shiny.
I talked to my local Comic Shop's owner, and he asked Me if there'd be variant covers, because he said Dark Horse hasn't said there would be. I'm taking this as a sign there won't be variant covers.

TDBrown | February 28, 06:14 CET

Love it!
Aww, Jayne and Book friendship, so nice to see it again. Inara is at her hottest. And for some reason it's only now that I noticed that River made not only an origami but also a paper-chain. Thatta girl!
As for the crew looking too happy and postcardy: I bet it's intentional and ironic, and that the story will provide a contrast to the covers pretty soon.
The more I see about this comic, the more I love it. :)

Nata | February 28, 06:20 CET

River's so cute!!!

Adamwankenobi | February 28, 06:34 CET

Book and Inara... thereby once again introducing the confusion as to just when this story takes place. Sometimes they say early Firefly days, and sometimes they say after Those Left Behind.

The One True b!X | February 28, 06:38 CET

I absolutely adore this cover. And the character that I'm almost the happiest to see? Serenity herself. I think the cargo hold looks great in the background!!! These covers are great in the round, and as a whole, I think!

manwithpez | February 28, 06:41 CET

Suddenly I realize how awesomely retro-pulp-cheesy that picture is. I loves me some cheese.

GreatMuppetyOdin | February 28, 06:42 CET

I love it, though it does seem like some of the heads are at odd angles.

flakbait | February 28, 06:55 CET

Oh, that's lovely. Adam Hughes really rocked those covers.

Dizzy | February 28, 07:18 CET

Ahhh I love it.....they could be juggling goslings for all I care, I'd love it! It just makes me all happy to see the whole crew.

kballgetlost | February 28, 07:51 CET

They are posing for a photo and some of them are not too good at posing. Kaylee made them do it. "need to keep records of everything" The Captain especially didn't want there to be a record. Wash makes a joke about posing for capture for the police. Kaylee keeps asking the Captain to smile.

Anonymous1 | February 28, 08:17 CET

Fantastic! Love the look between Book and Jayne. Their friendship was always one of my favorite character dynamics.

But where is Jayne's cunning hat?????

My one complaint is that something looks off about Zoe and Wash's hands. They look really disproportional and just a bit creepy to me.

windmillchaser | February 28, 08:17 CET

Still not too enthusiastic about these covers, but I of course can't wait for the actual comics.

And I guess if Book and Inara are there, it would have to be set before "Those Left Behind." Either that, or both before and after, if there are flashbacks or something.

UnpluggedCrazy | February 28, 09:45 CET

Totally stoked.

Book's head isn't attached to his body in the normal way, but I bet it's just a thing they do at the Abbey. Kind of like the hair.

Good vibe, beautiful imagery. Totally stoked.

Ghalev | February 28, 10:10 CET

I love that River's making a chain and a model of the ship out of the Alliance money they just earned/looted.

The art's a bit strange...Hughes' stuff is hit-and-miss for me, his computer colors sometimes just too...I dunno...fake, unconvincing, something...I do think he captured the essence of Simon, Jayne, and Zoe perfectly though.

Maybe the image pre-colors, maybe the line art, would leave a better impression.

Book's body looks too small for his head. As anyone who watched the series knows, Ron's kinda built and he's wider than that. Even at the angle he's standing, he still shouldn't look that narrow. Jayne doesn't seem as buff as he should be either, which is kinda funny since comic book artists often tend to exaggerate on the overall musculature and breasts/pecs of characters adapted from live action.

Now that the art nit-picking is over with...

Yeah, I think the story's gonna be a back-and-forth between Firefly present and pre-show, pre-Simon/River/Book. The covers of comics don't necessarily dictate what'll happen or appear in the actual story, so we might even end up with not a speck of River, Simon, Book and possibly others. At the very least though, I bet we'll get bookend scenes of the present featuring them.

Kris | February 28, 10:13 CET

so we might even end up with not a speck of River, Simon, Book and possibly others

Well, we already know from the preview pages that Simon is there for the art heist.

The One True b!X | February 28, 10:38 CET

All in all a really cool cover, and I can't wait till the comics come out, but am I the only one kinda creeped out by the heads of Mel and Jayne?

Wolf | February 28, 16:10 CET

The cover is surely meant to be a photo and as Kris says, comics covers don't always accurately represent the contents. Given that i'm sure we all have photos of people that we no longer see (for whatever reason) and given that the arc is called "Better Days", I don't think it's much of a stretch to suppose that the cover is meant to represent happier times, maybe in a general, figurative sense or maybe specifically when everyone was still around (i.e. it's not necessarily inconsistent with being set between TLB and the film).

(really like River's origami Serenity and I also like Jayne and Book shown as friends, like Bashir and O'Brian on DS9 those two always seemed such an unlikely pairing but at the same time, just so right, y'know ?)

Saje | February 28, 16:39 CET

UnpluggedCrazy - I remember reading that "Better Days" is set after "Those Left Behind," but before the movie.

Invisible Green | February 28, 19:15 CET

Book and Inara... thereby once again introducing the confusion as to just when this story takes place. Sometimes they say early Firefly days, and sometimes they say after Those Left Behind.

Ah. So I'm not mis-remembering that.

Sunfire | February 28, 19:20 CET

Hey,

It's still a way cool portrait of our BDHs, even if there are some proportional distortions.And its going in my desktop image folder.

malformed | February 28, 20:13 CET

Basically, so long as it's not set after the movie, there's no reason (yet) to assume any inconsistency (because Mal/someone having a photo of Book and Inara even after 'Those Left Behind' is totally fine). In fact, it could even be set after the film given that caveat (or partly, as others have said, with the "bookends" chronologically after the film and a bunch of flashbacks being the main body of the story).

(not before they all meet though unless the cover really is just a figurative symbol of "better times" - almost more aimed meta-textually, at us - because that title and the smiling "photo" seems to imply nostalgia and it's tough for the characters to be nostalgic about stuff that hasn't happened yet ;)

Saje | February 28, 20:20 CET

I will definitely be purchasing these comics for their content, not the covers.

leiasky | February 28, 20:23 CET

Way shiny! A bit of a surprise to see Mal so 'happy' though, but I guess it wouldn't fit in with the whole theme of the picture if he wasn't smiling. Nonetheless, very cool. I'll be buying multiple copies and hiding all but one set so I can read them over and over again for a good long while. :D

Mudkicker | February 28, 20:38 CET

I remember reading that "Better Days" is set after "Those Left Behind," but before the movie.

Yes, but we've also read that is takes place during the crew's "early days".

Hence the the references and discussion above to the confusion over when it takes place.

The One True b!X | February 28, 20:52 CET

Wash looks kinda sickly to me, otherwise, pretty stoked about the comics. I'm with whoever it was that metioned the hands, they look creepy to me too.

til | February 28, 20:58 CET

Maybe they time travel. It's all the rage these days.

Sunfire | February 28, 20:59 CET

Not cheap though.

;-)

Saje | February 28, 21:00 CET

Well you know, they have all those bags of money. And a freaking spaceship. What's time-traveling technology to space pirates with a psychic? A heist that goes well for this crew might just require tampering with the time-space continuum.

Sunfire | February 28, 21:05 CET

What is on Inara's hand? Seriously. Is that a RING on the left ring finger? And the only ring that she's wearing?

See. I'm wondering about that.

VeryVeryCrowded | February 28, 21:22 CET

I'd love to have this as a big poster. I really like it.

mister0 | February 29, 02:49 CET

Hmmm, a poster...maybe some people could like suggest it to Dark Horse contact page.

Anonymous1 | February 29, 05:06 CET

Somehow I highly doubt that Dark Horse is unaware of the notion.

The One True b!X | February 29, 05:18 CET

B!X,

I know they are aware of the notion. But I wanted them to hear from more people then just me. I also suggested a t-shirt of issue 1 before the comic was released.

Anonymous1 | February 29, 07:28 CET

I love the concept (and it's full of cool details) - and the coloring, - but there continues to be something off about it. Maybe it's the tinge of bobble-headedness about all the guys who are standing, particularly Jayne and Book. Their heads seem precariously placed on their shoulders.

SoddingNancyTribe | February 29, 10:03 CET

I like the work. I like the individuals and the whole package. Biased or not, I know how hard Adam Hughes worked on these covers (not to mention how busy he is). He's a huge Firefly and Whedon fan. He's really into this stuff. I couldn't do it. So I say three cheers!
Whoop, whoop, whoop!

thatweirdgirl | March 01, 01:28 CET