Firefly: Before the Forge, a fan-novel by Kevin Bell

POSTED BY: two
UPDATED: Friday, March 30, 2012 00:32
VIEWED: 14831
PAGE 3 of 3

Quote:

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Originally posted by Zeek:
I haven't heard about the free comic day comic anywhere but here.

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Good point. I had heard of it elsewhere, but just breifly.

"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Bytemite:
Hmm. Okay, thanks for clarifying. I actually thought Joss did have IP rights to it because it wasn't for hire work, perhaps I was wrong, or don't understand the process well.

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TV is always work for hire (perhaps not those specific legal terms, but the intent is the same). I can't think of a single Network show in decades that was creator-owned. Just doesn't happen. The rights will always lie with those who put up the cash.

Once Fox let Lucas keep the Star Wars rights, and then watched him make billions of the marketing - no one will even risk not locking down the rights.

"Goram it kid, let's frak this thing and go home! Engage!"

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I don't see anything wrong with calling them fan fiction. Ultimately that is what they are. That's not a dismissal by any means.

I read the first chapter of Old Habits and I enjoyed it for the most part. From the description of the books it seems that the story is going to have our beloved crew once again embroiled in major happenings of the Verse. I don't know how I feel about that. One of the things I liked about Firefly is that it was not about these hugely important events but more about a single crew's day to day struggles. I could understand the movie going "big" because it was sort of a last hurrah. I will however keep reading and see how it plays out.


I do not fear God, I fear the ignorance of man.

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Well, this explains a lot.

First of all, to Kevin: congratulations on the good work. Hadn't heard of your efforts before this post, but I'm one of the people who has been hitting your website since, and what I've read so far, I've enjoyed.

Chasing down copyrights and licensing is a big deal in any creative effort, and Kevin deserves a lot of credit for giving it the effort.

It seems to me that the hang-up here is more a matter of scale than anything else. It’s not Joss selling out: it appears his hands are tied. And, much as we all love to hate Fox for pulling the plug on our favorite show, I don’t see maliciousness so much as just budgetary mismatch as the big hang-up here.

To garner the interest of an entity such as Fox (and I would not expect any other network to behave much differently), the property in question has to match their scale. I don’t really know the industry well enough to come up with accurate budget estimates, but based upon what I’ve read, I guess a show like Firefly costs something in the low 7-figures to produce per episode, so that’s the kind of outlay entities like Fox are looking for a return on. That’s their scale. And again, I don’t know what kind of budgets book publishers work with, but I imagine it’s vastly different, especially as most published books are not best-sellers. I’m a creative arts professional, but I play in a MUCH smaller sandbox than these folks. In my world (independently-produced music CD’s) your budget is five figures, and when you make a five-figure return on your investment, you think, “Gosh, that was a rip-roaring success!” Stuff like that is just not worth the time and effort for a company that deals with 7-figure budgets times number of episodes times number of seasons. So even though there’s a devoted audience for printed Firefly fiction (I would most likely buy any Firefly novel that was printed, just as I’ve bought all the Companion books and comics) I doubt it amounts to more than a minor blip for the entities that control the copyright. Someone within Fox would have to have the vision to imagine that Firefly could be as big a cash cow for Fox as Star Trek was (is) for its owners – and only then, I imagine, would the licensing be forthcoming.

My dream is that someone on the inside decides to care enough to pursue this, and licenses all the better works of fanfiction and novels written on spec for the larger Firefly fandom to enjoy. Meanwhile, I turn to the Blue Sun Room to meet my voracious desire for more Firefly.

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Hi Kevin, I've enjoyed what I've read so far also, mainly "Old Habits" it's addicting.


Obviously, some inconsistencies with canon, considering the Zoe reveal at the end of "Float Out" but all and all a fine read with solid characterizations and engaging plot lines, and I absolutely love the voice you've given Inara, a rare occurrence in this fandom... and Mal, oh, poor Mal, he wants to protect Inara from himself and at the same time resolve to tell her how he truly feels, but he keeps getting interrupted...like I said thought provoking and engaging:)

Thanks for writing and sharing.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by m52nickerson:

I read the first chapter of Old Habits and I enjoyed it for the most part. From the description of the books it seems that the story is going to have our beloved crew once again embroiled in major happenings of the Verse. I don't know how I feel about that. One of the things I liked about Firefly is that it was not about these hugely important events but more about a single crew's day to day struggles. I could understand the movie going "big" because it was sort of a last hurrah. I will however keep reading and see how it plays out.

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To M52NICKESON: Keep in mind that I'm writing these books by the seat of my pants. I don't have any privy information to the story arcs Joss Whedon had in mind when he created Firefly, only the hints and clues that he dropped throughout the series and in the motion picture to guide me. The comic books that have been released under the Serenity banner may be considered canon, but they do not convey many of the back stories, or answer the mysteries Joss left us with when his series was so suddenly cancelled. This is one of the reasons that I created the Survey page, and that I continue to provide these blogs throughout the development of my books so that I can receive and consider feedback or suggestions such as your own to incorporate into my work. You are right, Firefly was originally about a small crew and their day-to-day struggles to exist within the larger 'Verse. But the motion picture Serenity set certain events in motion that I have elected to take hold of and run with in order to produce a story arc that is both true to the series and film as well as complimentary to the tale Joss has told thus far. Don't worry, I'm not planning on having Mal run for Chairman of Parliament any time soon! But even the smallest man can find himself embroiled in the biggest events of his time, despite a vested interest to steer clear of that involvement.


I'm hoping that by the end of Into the Fire I will have wrapped up the majority of the main arc of this plotline. I'm also hoping that besides shedding a little light on the background of our favourite Captain Tightpants himself, I might have opened the door to do some similiar histories on some of the rest of the crew. If you take a look at the cover of my planned fourth book in the Firefly series, entitled Tricks of the Trade, I think you'll have a good guess where the next tale is headed. I've been keeping your suggestion in mind, M52NICKELSON. I'm hoping that Tricks of the Trade can get back to the smaller, more intimate settings of the TV series, and away from the grander scale of the Big Damned Movie!

Kevin Bell
harrier45@harriersandheroes.ca

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