Sounds like these are comic books without pictures. I only like my books with pictures! (They don't mention any illustrators, so the implication is these may be purely text.)

will.bueche | January 11, 20:01 CET

So this is almost certainly that announced third Firefly companion, yeah?

Jobo | January 11, 20:04 CET

So that is what they have all been talking about! Jose Molina mentioned he had written a Firefly story and that Brent Matthews had as well. Very nice!

Lioness | January 11, 20:25 CET

Jane says "collection" of short stories which sounds like prose to me (and a normal book rather than another companion though that's more ambiguous - especially if all the stories are 2000 words - since it could be both, maybe with stories instead of interviews this time ?).

Which is fantastic, i'd much rather have a nice meaty collection of prose stories than a) more comics or b) another companion (though i'll take either of those too. Greedy, moi ? ;). If they are all that short (that's basically "flash fiction" length) then hopefully that means there're a lot of them.

Saje | January 11, 20:30 CET

It's possible they're combining the companion and the short stories. Or they're separate, I have no idea. I do know the official companion things have done very well for Titan, and rightly so as they're great books.

gossi | January 11, 20:41 CET

This is so shiny! I've never had much liking for comic books or graphic novels, but love short stories and novels. This could be a perfect way for Firefly to live on. Alan Dean Foster did it for Star Trek after the first series was cancelled- they were great fun. All Firefly needs are great writers like the ones who wrote for the series.

Amrita | January 11, 20:43 CET

I am guessing this means Penguingate over the Firefly novel rights is solved, where Penguin seemed to think they had the licensing rights for original novels at one point.

gossi | January 11, 20:45 CET

But is it canon?

Simon | January 11, 20:51 CET

Joss has to sign off licensing for Firefly, as I understand it. That was what was claimed with Penguin's novels, anyway. So... yeah?

gossi | January 11, 20:53 CET

The companions are lovely books, it just seems to me like a companion to a TV series probably shouldn't feature too much that's not actually from the TV series. But as I say, where the other volumes have interviews, maybe they're doing a third with stories in those slots (possibly because the creative peeps are slightly talked out by this point) ?

However they appear though, i'm a happy bunny - prose is my favourite way for stories to be told. Made of win.

Saje | January 11, 20:58 CET

Canon or not, I'm happy that it'll be living on this way. May a whole host of media tie-in novels follow!

swanjun | January 11, 20:58 CET

Excellent news! Suddenly, my sucking cesspool of a job just got interesting again. I can use this. Must now start bending the school librarian to my will.

MysticSlug | January 11, 21:04 CET

This is one of the best bits of news to hit whedonesque this week. I love me some prose. And while I haven't always been overly enthused about tie-in novels, having prose short stories done by the writers of the tv-show is, frankly, quite amazing. I can't wait for this to hit stores.

GVH | January 11, 23:41 CET

All told (thanks for the weird mentions dropped on Twitter over the recent months) we know that Jane, Jose Molina, Ben Edlund, and Brett Matthews apparently have stories.

The One True b!X | January 12, 02:54 CET

The stories are in, and the book is currently slated for release on April 27th.

Jose Molina | February 14, 04:39 CET

Awesome.

Now get someone to publish my Serenity comic script.

The One True b!X | February 14, 04:42 CET

Thanks for the news Mr Molina. Not too long to wait either, aces.

Saje | February 14, 08:37 CET