By David Wharton | 7 years ago

Dark Horse comics has been teasing Browncoats something fierce of late. They’ve been hinting at a new Firefly/Serenity comic series in the works, but they weren’t providing many details. At first, they teased us with some art and hashtags, but the real fun came in a recently released image that strongly seemed to suggest that this new Serenity series was going to pick up after the events of Joss Whedon’s 2005 movie, finally continuing the story fans have been desperate for more of for years now. Dark Horse has finally confirmed those rumors, giving fans the third-best thing we could have hoped for. (The first and second are an actual new film or TV project, but we’re counting our blessings.)

Comic Book Resources landed the scoop, also announcing that the series will feature the artistic talents of Georges Jeanty, who previously worked on Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Season 8 and Season 9. Indeed, the new Serenity series will follow in the footsteps of those in-canon comics, continuing the story in a different medium — which, among other things, effectively gives the creative team an unlimited budget when it comes to storytelling.

CBR sets the stage for where Serenity begins:

As the series begins, Mal and the crew are recouping from their recent strike against the sinister interplanetary government, The Alliance, in which they exposed government agencies as those responsible for the creation of the Reavers — the scourge of the universe. With River Tam in the co-pilot chair and a very pregnant Zoe reeling from the death of her husband, Wash, Mal is finding himself and his ship in greater danger than ever.

As for Jeanty, he’s enthusiastic to be tackling the project, and says it gives him a chance to work with a slightly different style than on the Buffy series. He tells CBR:

‘Firefly is a lot darker than Buffy,’ Jeanty said. ‘There are way more shadows and shading than with Buffy. Also, when I was drawing Buffy, I could start from scratch. Sure, I had to keep in line with how the characters looked, but everything [else] was up for grabs. Sunnydale was destroyed, so I didn’t have to keep in line with the architecture. With Firefly there are seven characters and a ship to consider. When they’re on Serenity — fans know what every inch of that ship looks like, so I have to be very meticulous with my depiction. Not to mention there are a few very subtle differences in the ship from TV to the movie. This is definitely a learning experience, one I don’t think I’ll fully master until the series is over!’

Jeanty cites various visual influences for the Serenity series, including French artist Moebius, Walt Simonson’s Alien adaptation, and movies such as Blade Runner and Outland.

While the writer — or writers — for the series haven’t been announced yet, It’s worth noting that the Buffy comics have enlisted many talents from the show, as well as otherwise notable genre writers, to pen story arcs, including Brian K. Vaughan, Drew Goddard, Jeph Loeb, Jane Espenson, Doug Petrie, Drew Z. Greenberg, and Steven S. DeKnight. I fully expect the new Serenity series will follow the same precedent, with possible Firefly writers including Tim Minear, Ben Edlund, Espenson, Greenberg, Jose Molina, Cheryl Cain, Brett Matthews, and, of course, Joss Whedon himself.

The whole “continue the canceled show’s story in comic form” has been applied to many deceased series in recent years. To name just a few: Farscape, Jericho, Whedon’s own Angel and Dollhouse, and more recently, The X-Files, which is unfolding its “tenth season” on the comics page courtesy of IDW.