Future Multiple Media Extravaganzas; or, Losing Buffy? I Don't Think So.

Via PixiePalace—one of the numerous new blogs I've discovered through the discussion about Valvular Masculinity (not, as I initially typed, "Vulvalar Mescalinity," as that would be another thing entirely)—I found this link to a post by Our Lord Joss about the future of His imagined universe.  Read that post in conjuntion with this recent LA Times article, as I did, and the contours of future generic synergies will form before your eyes.  I realize this cross-promotional business technically breaks no new ground.  I vaguely remember Twin Peaks followed up its first season with The Secret Diaries of Laura Palmer and its second with Diane: Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper, but both of those objects had an important function on the show itself.  According to the LA Times article, the producers of Lost will have the characters stumble across a manuscript, entitled Bad Twin, written by dead passenger named Gary Troup . . . and on the same day that novel will hit bookshelves across America.  (That the published novel appears the same day the cast finds the completed manuscript shocks my sense of publishing realities.  Then I remember: "These survivors are celebrities.  If Scarlett Johanson wrote a novel it'd be published the same day too.") 

An Amazon search for "bad twin" already pulls up novelizations of Lost, which means that the novel has likely already been mentioned in the show's ancillary world . . . which brings us back to Our Lord Joss.  The Lost promotion follows the logic of sideshow fandom: it rounds out the viewers/readers' experience of the main event.  Joss, however, plans on moving the main event into the side tent by starting a comic book version of Season 8 which would pick up where Buffy Season 7 left off.  While that may not seem like an original idea—the recently cancelled Enterprise lives on in the compulsive novelization characteristic of the franchise—what distinguishes Joss' proposal from others is who helm it: Joss and other former Buffy writers.  Instead of pawning their legacy on anyone who can afford the rights, Joss and his former staff writers will treat the comic as their venue for continuing their show.  Think about it for a minute . . .

. . . now do you see how unprecedented this is?  I think we'll see more such medium-hopping as time flies and formerly fringe media will take on increased importance because of their increased availability.  Comics have the potential to access the mainstream DVD-purchasing crowd because they're available at the very same venues they do their DVD-purchasing at . . . and because the comics will carry the imprimatur of those who produced the original show, even the uncomically inclined may be convinced to purchase them.  Especially if the creator of the series has a rabid fan base with whom he regularly communicates.  That said, as futurists go, I'm not to be trusted.  (I'm still waiting for my hoverboard.)

Comments

[Katie]

Hi! Thanks for the link. I'm sorry, but my site deleted the trackback (it's weird that way sometimes). I found your post interesting. I think the decision to make a comic book "season" of a show is very interesting as well. I'm hoping, given that the actual creators of the show are behind it, that this will turn out well. I would love to see more things jump art form like this, especially since each medium has it's own advantages and disadvantages. It's very interesting!

And I'm still waiting for hoverboards too.

[John Phelan]

Another interesting fact is that IDW comics has already been producing Angel comics that take place after the end of the series (so far only Angel has been seen, but the next arc takes him back to L.A. so we'll get to see who survived) with storylines approved by Joss himself.

Generally, spin-offs like these aren't considered canon (for example, Paramount's official position is that all Star Trek books are "apocrypal").

One exception are the Babylon 5 spin-off novels and comics, all of which (except one book and one comic arc) are more or less considered canon by series creator JMS - especially the ones that take place after the series, like the Technomage, Psi-Corps and Centauri Prime trilogies (since those later trilogies were based on outlines written by him and he read over and approved some of the drafts).

IIRC, Babylon 5 was the first series to really do this. Up until now, even the Buffy and Angel comics were "apocryphal" - but now that Joss has a hand in them, they are turning into canonical sources. (He also wrote a tale of futuristic slayer called "Fray" for Dark Horse comics that included elements he later brought into the TV series of Buffy. The freaky axe Buffy uses to eviscerate the baddies in the last few episodes of the series? In the comics first!)

There was even a three issue Firefly/Serenity comic series by Dark Horse comics that bridged the gap between the TV series and the Movie and which was co-written by Joss.

Amazing how long this has been going on, no?

[Scott Eric Kaufman]

Katie,

One day, when we're all wealthy and famous enough to influence scientific research, we'll all ride hoverboards together.

John,

I don't know what this thing you call Fray is, but that's only because I'll never admit to reading comic books in public . . . in other words, of course you're right, but at the same time, there is something unique about what Joss is doing now. By which I mean, I haven't read any of the B5 apocrypha, even though I've watched the entire series, but I consider most of what's been written illegitimate apocrypha . . . and that's what I think is unique about Joss' proposal. He's saying that the same people responsible for the show we cherish will run the comic, and I think that's a significant difference. JMS may stamp his approval on elaborations of B5, but Joss is about to write another season of Buffy, scripts and all, only in a different format . . . and that's what I find ground-breaking.

Also, you're obviously correct to say that I'm coming to this late in the game, but better late than never, no? (I don't mean that to sound confrontational. The thing is that I've been a bit busy writing that whole "dissertation thing," and haven't had the time to pursue that which I'm interested in on the side. By which I mean, I do know what this thing called Fray is, and where that axe comes from, but I won't admit as much unless I'm . . . nevermind. Nothing to see here. Move along, move along.)

[Rich Puchalsky]

I think that comics had their brief day as independent art form, and are now becoming sleeping or larval forms of other types of art. Marvel and DC probably no longer make very much on their comics compared to how much they make from movies or TV shows based on them. Joss can continue a cancelled TV show in comics until it one day moves to something else. Other comics are quickly becoming more profitable when bound into graphic novels and sold as books in bookstores than in their original form of release.

[John Phelan]

"dissertation thing" -

I hear you. I should get back to that myself.....