PeterDavid.net

Hello from Greece, Athens. I've already made my pre-order from my local comics retailer! (Of cource here the only way for them to order it is from the london retailer, since we are talking about small numbers here) But I am letting know as many comic fans here about it as I can. Thumbs up for the show in fanboy podcast too!

Money's already set aside. Just need for it to actually get to the shop. We're looking at ... December? January?

And then, will you be doing a monthly, or semi-monthly?

Already put on my pull list.

Glad Lee is getting the press she deserves! Congrats PAD!

Congrats! Ill be pre-ording this one from my retailer. I guess IDW has started selling enough books for Diamond to take notice.

And even more important than retailer response is reader response. Everyone, let your local comic shop know you want this book. IDW books aren't ordered by many shops.

In addition, this book has to hit a regular schedule. If it ends up going 2 months between an issue, or anything, then it would be better off not coming out at all, since many retailers will drop it then.

I buy from Westfield Comics online, and Fallen Angel #1 was one of the featured picks, which is great exposure. Already ordered.

http://westfieldcompany.net/wow/order_main.html

Peter: Given your dissatisfaction with how DC handled "Fallen Angel" (or didn't handle, as the case may be), would you ever accept another gig with them?

"Peter: Given your dissatisfaction with how DC handled "Fallen Angel" (or didn't handle, as the case may be), would you ever accept another gig with them?"

Probably, depending on the gig. But it's been eight years since I was offered a writing assignment in the DCU, so I'm not really holding my breath. Usually the way you build up an ongoing relation with a publisher is via your editors, but since DC has fired almost every editor whom I've worked for, that's problematic.

Also, tragically, I don't have a name that starts with G or J, so...

PAD

Twocow, cool to see another Greek fan of Peters work.

I live in Germany and I work part time in my comic shop. I've been trying to convince my customers to get Fallen Angel, and I hope I'll manage to convince some of them. I think the move to IDW will eventually help the book, as many customers don't really cared for it being a DC book. These very same customers order a lot of IDW titles, so that may grab their attention.

Wishing the best for the title and I can't wait for January to come. (Yeah, the book is supposed to come in December, I know.)

Peter: Any in particular you'd be interested in writing? I loved Aquaman, but never read Supergirl. I always wanted a PAD Green Lantern, but there again, you're bumping into not being named G. Peter David (which has a disconcerting Liddy-esque connotation).

Knuckles,

Did you catch PAD's GL in Action Comics Weekly, way back when? Good stuff, that. Plus Superman, The Secret Six, Blackhawk, etc. ... I miss that title.

Saul: No I didn't. The ACWeekly was, what, early 90s? I've never been much of a Superman reader, so I would have bypassed it (I also felt the weekly title was a gimmick from DC, and was annoyed enough at that point by variant covers, bagged issues, etc. that I didn't want to continue to feed the beast).

Posted by Knuckles at October 11, 2005 01:00 PM
Peter: Any in particular you'd be interested in writing? I loved Aquaman, but never read Supergirl.

I would highly highly recommend getting the PAD Supergirl, especially issues 1-50 - a run I consider one of the absolute finest I have read in my near 30 years of reading comics.

Issue 47 stands out as my favorite issue in the run and I was thrilled to have PAD sign it last 2years ago at a comic shop visit in Brockton MA.

PAD,

an I do an exchange - I'll buy Fallen Angel if you buy mine (Event Horizon 2)?

Actually no, scratch that - I'm already putting my pennies aside for FA (and it's considerable less expensive than EH - even at the IDW prices). Which isn't bad going, considering I remember being dubious over whether I'd continue buying it somewhere around the midpoint of its run.

Although if you di want to pick up a copy of EH2...

Damn typos get me everytime.

Congratulations on the unprecedented mention, PAD! Hopefully will come in very handy; at the least, certainly can't hurt.

And Knuckles - the first ten issues of PAD's Supergirl, and a "Showcase" short piece, were collected in tpb form (under the title
"Supergirl", straightforwardly enough). Could be one relatively simple way to check out the series and see what you think of it (though, as far as I know, the only other Supergirl tpb collects the end of the series, so you'd have to track down individual issues [as I will, as I missed much of the series for one reason or another when first released] if you're interested enough to read the rest of the series).

You know, it just so happens that I discovered this great source for comic TPBs a few months ago: it's called the "library". Now, when I was a kid, my library didn't stock shit for comic books. The best I could do were Asterix, Tin Tin and some collections of Buck Rogers newspaper strips. And now I can get the Hulk, Daredevil, Batman, Hellboy (my six year old is in heaven with the Hellboy TPBs), etc? Damn, did I get gypped as a kid.

Peter, when does #1 come out?

And good luck with it! :-)

Yup. It's been ordered.

I have heard from the comic grapevine that IDW is going to be going exclusive with Diamond, so this extra coverage doesn't surprise me.

Here's an idea!

http://www.comicscommunity.com/boards/ostrander/?read=5088

BBayliss: let me vote against that idea. PAD's already making me open my wallet more than I would otherwise to purchase his comics. If he does another crossover, and I have to purchase another title, I'm not quite sure what I will do. (sigh. likely I will buy it.)

I don't see that happening anytime soon. Although I did find it significant that the very first response that the suggestion received was "What's Fallen Angel?" I've only been actively flogging the book for...what? Three years now? "What's Fallen Angel?" That's what I'm up against.

PAD

Well, PAD, I did finally locate a comic shop in my area (On Comic Ground), and, while small, it seems pretty well supplied. Further, the clerk (who may have also been the proprietor) has ordered the IDW "Fallen Angel", and was, as I came in, unpacking the box with FNSM #1 (which, needless to say, I purchased immediately).

Favorite line:

CAPT. AMERICA: If you want to survive to a ripe old age, you know what you need?

PETER: An ice floe to be frozen alive in?

Peter wrote:
"What's Fallen Angel?" That's what I'm up against.

Well, I hope you triumph over it better than Serenity did. It's been out in theaters for a few weeks now, and there are still people in my office who haven't heard anything about it outside of my praise of it and Firefly. Judging by the disappointing ticket sales, I'm thinking they utterly failed in getting past the "What's Serenity?" thing.

Here's hoping that Fallen Angel does better (relatively, anyway. I imagine that $18 million isn't a realistic goal for a comic book).

I was the person who suggested the Croosover on John Ostranders message board. Notice how I pointed him to a link listing the back issues? I tried to help your cause.
However, I think the idea is a sound one, especially now both are at IDW.

Ian

Sounds like Fallen Angel is already getting better press exposure than Serenity did. Universal has only themselves to blame for Serenity's poor performance at the box office, as the product itself is wonderful.

Hmmm, PAD, maybe you should talk IDW into printing one of those $0.99 16 page intro things like I just saw listed for Transformers? Do a "What is Fallen Angel" preview or something? Might be some issues with reprinting the DC art, but since you have some ownership of the material, maybe you could work something out?

Bobb: I agree. I think Universal totally screwed the pooch with with their marketing of "Serenity" (and continue to do so). Which is too bad, because I've sent somewhere around ten or so people to the movie, and not one of them has been disappointed in it.

I'm sorry, but I am now officially tired of hearing people blaming Universal for failing to market Serenity. The campaign was UNPRECEDENTED. The early "stealth" screenings, the special bloggers invites, the commercials, showing the first nine minutes online for free, the comics ads, the comic tie-in, EVERYTHING. They got coverage placed in major magazines like Entertainment Weekly, got the show on the Sci-Fi Channel timed to lead into the premiere...the buzz on the movie was tremendous. The marketing department was golden. The movie did not strike a cord. Simple as that.

Look, I liked it, I want it to do better, but all the armchair quarterbacks got it WRONG here. The "built-in-audience" wasn't very built in, the "word-of-mouth" isn't working. And unfortunately, I think that this just proves once again that the "fans" know less than the "suits."

In any case, good luck with FA...and please, please, please, let's not blame it on the marketing if it doesn't do as well as we all hope it does.

AZteach, I agree that the effort made was unprecedented...but frankl put, that effort stunk. The posters and previews, which probably constitute the media that 80% of the movie-going public would be exposed to the film, were totally lacking when it came to telling you anything about the film. All the pre-screenings, blogger invites, and other media-push reached a terrible small number of people, and most of those that it did reach were likely to go see the movie anyway. The people needing the most exposure, namely the folks that only saw the posters and previews when they saw other movies, those folks were left, even AFTER seeing the preview, with a "what's Serenity" feeling.

Universal should be applauded for the effort they made (although I understand that Whedon had a good deal to do with the number of preview screenings that were held), but when it comes down to it, the marketing campaign they chose to go with stank.

I'm sorry, but I am now officially tired of hearing people blaming Universal for failing to market Serenity. The campaign was UNPRECEDENTED. The early "stealth" screenings, the special bloggers invites, the commercials, showing the first nine minutes online for free, the comics ads, the comic tie-in, EVERYTHING. They got coverage placed in major magazines like Entertainment Weekly, got the show on the Sci-Fi Channel timed to lead into the premiere...the buzz on the movie was tremendous. The marketing department was golden. The movie did not strike a cord. Simple as that.

Look, I liked it, I want it to do better, but all the armchair quarterbacks got it WRONG here. The "built-in-audience" wasn't very built in, the "word-of-mouth" isn't working. And unfortunately, I think that this just proves once again that the "fans" know less than the "suits."

I agree with one point you made: the campaign was unprecedented. It was also unconventional.

1) Rough cut screenings: Appealed ONLY to the hardcore fans. Actually, the only way you heard about them was on the Uni site. Why not have sneak previews for the general public before it's release? Those didn't happen. The early screenings that Universal put on were generally attended only by hardcore "browncoats". Hell, I know many 'Firefly' fans that either didn't know about the screenings, or tried and couldn't buy tickets.

2) Blogger invites: How, precisely, is this supposed to be effective? I know of three popular blogs that mentioned it: TalkingPointsMemo.com, Political Animal (Kevin Drum) and Instapundit. That's it. Very targeted audience, and one that isn't going to reach a very wide swath of potential viewers.

3) The EW article was nice, LA Times has a nice bit on it in last Sunday's paper, and yes, it's getting great reviews. But where is the standard advertising? Where were the TV ads? I didn't see a damn thing, other than a couple of ads during "Lost" and "Invasion".

4) The first nine minutes online is cool, but that JUST came out.

5) The comic was a great tie-in as well, but that is (again) targeting a very select audience. Dark Horse is NOT Marvel or DC. Most of the people who picked this book up were either Whedon fans or 'Firefly' fans.

My issue with their ad campaign is that they seemed to completely abandon traditional advertising in favor of targeting very select audiences. What appears to have happened with this strategy is that they completely lost the casual moviegoer.

If you can't find a local store that will pre-order Fallen Angel, I *highly* recommend mailordercomics.com. I've used them for 3 years now, and have never had a problem. Great discounts (and they're offering FA #1 for $1.99, 50% off the cover price!), great service, and an owner with a fetish for packing comics just the right way to avoid shipping damage. You can't do any better than these guys.

ArizonaTeach wrote:
I'm sorry, but I am now officially tired of hearing people blaming Universal for failing to market Serenity. The campaign was UNPRECEDENTED. The early "stealth" screenings, the special bloggers invites, the commercials, showing the first nine minutes online for free, the comics ads, the comic tie-in, EVERYTHING. They got coverage placed in major magazines like Entertainment Weekly, got the show on the Sci-Fi Channel timed to lead into the premiere...the buzz on the movie was tremendous. The marketing department was golden. The movie did not strike a cord. Simple as that.

Look, I liked it, I want it to do better, but all the armchair quarterbacks got it WRONG here. The "built-in-audience" wasn't very built in, the "word-of-mouth" isn't working. And unfortunately, I think that this just proves once again that the "fans" know less than the "suits."

Well, the problem isn't that they didn't market it, or even that they didn't market it well (in that, Universal did much better than Fox). The problem is that, by and large, Universal marketed the movie to the people who were already going to see it.

Heck, before the movie came out, I was chomping at the bit to see it, so much so that I bought a ticket for each of the first three showings here (and watched each of them). If the goal of advertising was to get a few people very, very excited, then sure, the advertising campaign did its job very well.

The idea seems to have been that they'd get the "Browncoats" very excited, then we'd spread the word. The problem is that we'd already spread the word to those who're likely to listen to us... everyone else sees us, well, like this.

The movie needed more of a mainstream campaign (preferably without eliminating all of the stuff they were doing, though they'd understandably need to cut it back some) in order to get the blockbuster numbers that Universal was hoping for, and it didn't get it.

That second paragraph above, the one that starts, "Look, I liked it...", was still ArizonaTeach, not me. I screwed up the formatting.

Please forgive my inability to do tags...every time I try it comes out looking bad, so I'm going traditional here:

Bobb:
"The posters and previews, which probably constitute the media that 80% of the movie-going public would be exposed to the film, were totally lacking when it came to telling you anything about the film. "

Well, I don't know what ads you were watching (posters, I'll agree with you on, but how many posters actually DO tell you what the movie is about, really?), but the ads I saw pretty much summed up what you needed to know. What else did you want to see? A ship, a crew, a girl with a secret, and someone's chasing them. Seriously...what else?

"All the pre-screenings, blogger invites, and other media-push reached a terrible small number of people, and most of those that it did reach were likely to go see the movie anyway."

That was the point...to build the buzz and test the waters. And every single article talked about how brilliant the concept was. Every. Single. Article. Only after the fact are people claiming otherwise. I find it ironic now that most people are hoping for "word of mouth," while ignoring that was the whole point of the early screenings. Nathan Fillion was at the Phoenix screening, I might add...that was cool.

Kcuckles:
"Why not have sneak previews for the general public before it's release? Those didn't happen"

Why SHOULD they have sneak previews for the general public? Not a whole lot of movies do. And that would have made the opening weekend LESS, wouldn't it?

"I know of three popular blogs that mentioned it: TalkingPointsMemo.com, Political Animal (Kevin Drum) and Instapundit. That's it. Very targeted audience, and one that isn't going to reach a very wide swath of potential viewers."

Powerline, Hog On Ice, Captain's Quarters, Balloon Juice...jeez, do a search on Google and you'll come up with about 70,000 hits and easily a couple hundred blogs talking about it. Hell, it was in the Talking Points Memo, TownHall and Washington Monthly. I think you're way off there.

"Where were the TV ads? I didn't see a damn thing, other than a couple of ads during "Lost" and "Invasion"."

Same as the blogs...just because you didn't see it doesn't mean they weren't there. They were. All over the place.

"The comic was a great tie-in as well, but that is (again) targeting a very select audience. Dark Horse is NOT Marvel or DC."

The comics audience is very select no matter WHAT the situation, but most definitely A target audience. Might as well ask IDW not to publicize Fallen Angel in any comics because it's too select an audience. In any case, DC and Marvel don't really DO adaptations any more, so I think the #1 adapting company (apologies to IDW) is the best course.

"My issue with their ad campaign is that they seemed to completely abandon traditional advertising in favor of targeting very select audiences."

I disagree. They did a trememdous traditional campaign and ADDED to it.

Robin:
"The problem is that, by and large, Universal marketed the movie to the people who were already going to see it."

I just absolutely disagree with this. I don't know about other states and movie companies, but the AMC chain here has a "Behind the Scenes" feature before the movies (after the commercials but before the previews), and for a few weeks they did an almost ten minute preview of behind the scenes, interviews, things like that, about Serenity. They do that for maybe fifteen movies a year.

Serenity had one of the best mainstream campaigns I can think of. I think the only thing they didn't do that I noticed was a special on HBO or Showtime like I see occasionally for other movies, and maybe the whoring out of the actors on the WB bumpers which usually only happens with bad buzz movies (see: Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst discussing Elizabethtown during Gilmore Girls).

HEY HEY. Fallen Angel thread. HELLO?!?!?

ArizonaTeach, I just mostly disagree. The previews, both on TV and at the movies, did show exactly what you said..."A ship, a crew, a girl with a secret, and someone's chasing them." And the general movie-going audience would care about this at all....why? The previews lacked any element of cool that would be transmitted to anyone other than a fan of the series. There was nothing in any of the preview material that I saw, and I think I saw all the general release stuff, that made this movie look cool. If anything, I was rather underwhelmed by the previews. And if I had not already been planning on seeing it, my reaction would have been "say, that might be a fun movie....on DVD."

Which, given the poor box-office performance, is quite likely the reaction a lot of the general movie audience had. If they even had a reaction.

So far, you're only claim that Universal made a good traditional effor to promote Serenity is that your local AMC chain ran a "behind the scenes" feature on the film. Last summer, the WB ran a 10 or 15 minute preview of Batman Begins during the season finale of Smallville. That preview made the movie look fantastic. What's the difference between the studio "whoring" out it's product on other shows it owns, and making a "behind the scenes" feature? If Universal had that, why not make it more universally available?

No, I think Universal gets credit for making the film available early to the fans, but totally failed to market it to the general audience, which is what they needed to do in order to get a strong box office showing. If Serenity truly had "one of the best mainstream campaigns I can think of," then why wasn't there an HBO speical ahead of time? Why not post the 9 minute opening BEFORE the film opens? Why not put a 30 minute "behind the scenes" on their top rated TV show BEFORE opening weekend? These are the marks of a good promotional campaign.

"Serenity had one of the best mainstream campaigns I can think of. I think the only thing they didn't do that I noticed was a special on HBO or Showtime like I see occasionally for other movies, and maybe the whoring out of the actors on the WB bumpers which usually only happens with bad buzz movies (see: Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst discussing Elizabethtown during Gilmore Girls)."

Sorry, man, I flat out disagree. I also think the tv ads and movie previews did a shitty job if interesting anyone in the movie. I know a ton of people who saw them and said, "What in the hell is that about?" and weren't the slightest bit interested in finding out. Bad advertising.

"Powerline, Hog On Ice, Captain's Quarters, Balloon Juice."

Of those, I've heard of Powerline. And I did do a Google search, and came up with almost nothing. Granted, this was done in the two days after the blog screenings, but and that search resulted only in the Instapundit hit (at least when it came to an actual review).

Part of the problem (in my mind) with the Universal campaign is that it was very internet heavy. Internet based campaigns still do not work. Not enough people are online regularly enough to make it an incredibly reliable form of marketing.

I live in Seattle, one of the top two markets for 'Serenity' world wide. The gross per screen in Seattle is insane. And the advertising I've seen? Jack shit. Literally. So, if there is nothing going on in a science fiction crazy town like Seattle (which it has always been), what is going on in places like Muncie, IN?

"The comics audience is very select no matter WHAT the situation, but most definitely A target audience. Might as well ask IDW not to publicize Fallen Angel in any comics because it's too select an audience. In any case, DC and Marvel don't really DO adaptations any more, so I think the #1 adapting company (apologies to IDW) is the best course."

Bushwah. The 'Serenity' comic audience is almost precisely the movie audience (and by that I mean the "I already know about 'Serenity' and yes I'm going to go see it in the theatre" audience). Marvel and DC make it to the newsstands, the only Dark Horse that I've ever seen on the newsstands would be their Star Wars comics.

I still think (as does Bobb, and others) that Universal did a shitty job of marketing this film to people who might not go see it otherwise.

That said, I also think it's still too early to write off word of mouth. Keep it in the theatres for a while longer, and see what happens. It's only been out for three weeks.

Shush, Bbayliss, I'm busy de-railing this thread with my bow and arrow.... =P

"No, I think Universal gets credit for making the film available early to the fans, but totally failed to market it to the general audience, which is what they needed to do in order to get a strong box office showing. If Serenity truly had "one of the best mainstream campaigns I can think of," then why wasn't there an HBO speical ahead of time? Why not post the 9 minute opening BEFORE the film opens? Why not put a 30 minute "behind the scenes" on their top rated TV show BEFORE opening weekend? These are the marks of a good promotional campaign."

Good point. Also, the Sci-Fi Channel also targets a very select audience. Promo-ing 'Serenity' there really doesn't reach anyone new. Promo-ing on Fox News or some goddam thing probably would.

Don't mind bb, Bobb. He just wants some beer.

And yes, I'll be buying FA. Ok? Now can we get back to bitching about 'Serenity'?

Beer? Did somebody say....beer?

Uh, right, Fallen Angel...still not sure how PAD's dialogue is going to mesh with the new art. It's going to be like seeing James Marsters speak without an accent on Smallville...jarring. But I guess FA is coming out in December? I should be able to squirrel away enough quarters by then to pay for the extra cover charge.

PAD, I just read the 'Rama interview on you (btw can I be the one fan they told you about? Puhleeease?). Anyway, by saying that IDW prefers to do set arcs, does that mean that FA will be published in fits and starts, with whole arcs coming out monthly, taking a few months break, and then the next arc coming out?

To be fair, ArizonaTeach, I'll admit that I could be wrong -- my exposure to what mainstream people see is limited. I watch very little TV when it's first run (I buy DVD sets... which makes me like the people who only buy comics as TPBs, I guess), and most of my hobbies are solitary or involve a select group of people who're just as geeky (for lack of a better word) as I am.

I'm basing my "no mainstream advertising" on the fact that, of the 25 or so people who work here, only one person in my office had any idea that there was even a movie called Serenity coming out (at least, before I told the secretary that I was taking the 30th off so I could see it). Even that one person was someone that I'd introduced to Firefly, and who I'd told about Serenity months and months in advance. There are a lot of people who work here and go to movies on a regular basis, but none of them knew anything about Serenity.

No one that I know saw any commercials for the show outside of the Sci-Fi airings of Firefly. I asked them, repeatedly, so I could watch the shows that it was being advertised on (so I could see if the "mainstream" commercials were different from the ones targeted at fans).

(As an aside, the domestic posters looked like crap. I was willing to accept this (since I rarely see a movie poster I like), but the foreign ones were wonderful looking.)

As far as advertising by reaching out to bloggers, the fact that One Stack Mind did a Fourteen-part series leading up to the movie (called "Fifteen Days of Firefly", oddly enough) should have guaranteed a box-office smash, right? (I mean, I know that at least two of my three readers went to see it!) Though we like to think otherwise, blogs, like comics, have a fairly limited audience when compared to mainstream entertainment.

Granted, Serenity wouldn't have had to try very hard to have the best mainstream campaign of any movie in the last month or two, but that's because the competition is really bad. Heck, after the first time I saw the commercial for Stay, I thought, "That's a lousy looking movie." By now, having seen the commercial a few dozen times (during one episode of Lost!!), I'm ready to pay good money in order to make sure that no one ever tries to make me watch it.

Best campaign? Maybe. Most (or even moderately) prolific? I'm seriously doubtful.

I had this one last night. Made me hanker for some serious dopplebock action.

I'm more a weiss man myself. Maybe that makes me into "girly" beers, but I've seldom seen beers with more kick to them than the lemony goodness of a good weiss.

Do you mean a hefeweizen, or a Berliner weiss? Both use wheat malt, but totally different styles (and Pyramid does NOT count as a hefeweizen).

hefeweizen, although I've had a few beers calling themselves weiss beers that seemed just like the hefeweizens to me.

I'm curious: does IDW give the creators a better percentage of the sales than the say Marvel, DC, Dark Horse or Image?

Had this ordered as soon as they announced it. Can't wait!

"There was nothing in any of the preview material that I saw, and I think I saw all the general release stuff, that made this movie look cool. If anything, I was rather underwhelmed by the previews."

If so, that might explain it. I went to SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW based pretty much on the knockout trailer someone posted on the Web. And then went again based on how much I'd enjoyed it the first time. Can't say about SERENITY's ads as I somehow managed to miss them, and people saying "it's FIREFLY" also did nothing for me as the studion's screwing up the order they were broadcast killed it for me.

What's with the beer talk? You guys are hijacking the hijcaking of this thread! ;)

(Not that I'm against beer. I DID go to SUNY Oswego ... Although, while there was some selection of more obscure beers such as you connoiseurs might discuss at some of the bars, including a twenty-tap ale house, one was, I must admit, as likely to see a lot of beer in plastic cups :) )

As far as the "Serenity" ads ... to be fair, while I was beginning to be concerned that I wasn't seeing any commercials for it at one point, once I started seeing them, by mid-September, I saw quite a few, especially on ESPN, IIRC. Now how effective those ads were in conveying what a good movie this is - and everyone I've heard express an opinion about the movie has really liked it (including the clerk at Waldenbooks, when I bought issue #3 of the comic) (so it did show up some place other than just the comic specialty shops, anyway) - may be another question. Is the essence of Whedon's writing difficult to capture in a thirty second spot? Maybe; but it does seem like they could have picked a few better clips - to go along with the ubiquitous "Do you wanna run this ship?" "Yes!" "Well ... you can't!" exchange, which still gets laughs in the theater - to try to draw the general public in.

Was "Serenity" released simultaneously worldwide? Could it do well enough internationaly to lead to more films? "Serenity" hasn't done HUGE box office, but it was the top new film of its weekend, in what seems to be a lull-period in movie-going; hopefully, it will "sleeper" here with the word-of-mouth; with worldwide take, and DVD sales, maybe it can still make enough to lead to some sort of sequel - movie, TV, or direct-to-DVD?

SPOILER ALERT (although,if you haven't seen it yet - go!)

(Although, I will say that the movie did bring a kind of a resolution to things. I would love to see more of these characters - including the dead ones! Poor Ron Glass - who, if you've watched the "How It Was" featurette on Firefly, you know how much he loved the character and show - was hardly even in the movie; though I think I have spotted a photo in the Serenity movie magazine which confirms my suspicion that we'll have at least one Shepard Book deleted scene on the DVD. Just to comment on the "overlooked" death .... Anyway, the actors would love to go on, just as many of us would love to see them continue, but I think the movie does serve - deliberately, I'm sure - to give us an ending point, one which I could see myself living with.)

(END SPOLIER)

And - read Fallen Angel!!

Not completely related, but still;

Will the entire first series of Fallen Angel be collected..?

As of this point, the first series of "Fallen Angel" remains a cautionary tale to those who simply sit around and proclaim, "I'll just wait for the trade," unable to comprehend that if there's minimal-to-no support on a monthly basis, publishers will just assume there's no interest and cancel it.

That said, I figure that if the new series is a thumping success, maybe that will light a fire under DC and make them say, "Hunh. Maybe there IS money to be made here," and collect the original series. Maybe. Big maybe.

PAD

Fallen Angel's price tag puts me off a little, but after enjoying another recent book after shilling out $4, I think I can manage to find the change. I'd never get a TPB if I didn't get the first issues at this point, so I'd better support what I like while I can.

After thinking more about Serenity, I do think it was not an easy task to put together a trailer/preview. I think relying on too many of the witty lines was a mistake, though. Galaxy Quest may have done very well with the sci-fi comedy thing, but it had the whole "look, we're making fun of Trekkies...who doesn't enjoy THAT?" aspect going for it. Thanks to Star Wars, we're used to our space opera having overly dramatic previews, full full of eye-popping "WOW...did I just see what I think I saw" scenes. Serenity didn't have a lot of those moments.

Raising the point of Sky Captain is a good analogy...those previews made the movie look better/cooler than it actually was. A fun movie, and remarkable for its technical achievements, but not the wow, amazing film it seemed to be from the previews.

All of which bears back on Fallen Angel. The quality of your material only gets you so far. If marketing fails to attract the attention of the consuming public, it won't matter how good your material is, because it's not going to be around long enough for people to notice. You may get a footnote along the lines of "the best comic you're not reading," which is sometimes enough to give struggling TV shows a second chance. But somehwere along the way, you need effective marketing in order to get the sales that guarantee longer life.

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2681478

Hey, Star Wolf, here is a link to the first nine minutes of 'Serenity' if you're interested.

Hi PAD. How necessary is it to have read the first FA run in order to not be confused with the upcoming? I can't find any trades for the first run. I'm interested in FA with all of the good things that I have been recently hearing. I think that I will give it a try.

Troy,

I can answer that, as PAD's said many times that you don't need to have read the originals to be able to pick up and follow the new series.

And -- do you want to check it out first? IDW's making the 1st 11 pages available as a free PDF! I read about it on Newsarama(http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=4e6bda0006724e84908b8b5b2a75e95c&threadid=46708) and I think that's a great idea for people who don't know for sure that they're getting the new book (as I for one will surely do).

If you send an email to letters@idwpublishing.com, and put 'Fallen Angel pdf' in the subject line, they'll send you the file mentioned above. And they'll do it damn quickly (I got mine in, literally, less than three minutes).

"Hi PAD. How necessary is it to have read the first FA run in order to not be confused with the upcoming? I can't find any trades for the first run."

As others noted, no, you don't have to have. And FYI, the trade compliation of the first six issues is still in print. Either order it from some online service such as Amazon.com or Westfield comics, or through your local retailer.

PAD

GAAAAH!

That's what I have to say after reading the 13 page preview! Gahh, I say!

That little teaser intrigued me more than the end to InCrisis...and that's actually saying a lot.

Any doubts I had that I'd be picking this up just vanished. Thanks a lot PAD...now my kid'll go without...well, something that costs about $4 a month...thanks to you. =P