It’s a great day to be a Browncoat, that is, a fan of Joss Whedon’s short-lived but well loved television series Firefly and its subsequent movie, Serenity. Though the space western was aired out of order and cancelled by Fox mid-season in 2002, it had enough fan-backing for a movie in 2005. But the fan support didn’t end there. Instead, the number of people who call themselves ‘Browncoats’ has been steadily rising, no doubt helped by Firefly being available on Netflix instant streaming.
Though the show itself is unlikely to be brought back to the small screen (it’s been more than 10 years, and cast/crew have moved on), the past year has been awash with new arrivals to the Firefly fandom. Previously, whoever held the rights to manufacturing merchandise chose not to really create anything. But recently these rights were sold and more and more products have been available on websites like thinkgeek, like the officially licensed board game,cookie cutters, ice cube tray and more.
But the expansion of the ‘verse hasn’t stopped there. Three volumes, encompassing 7 comics books/graphic novels have been released beginning in 2007; Those Left Behind,Better Days and Other Stories, and A Shepherd’s Tale. Most recently, a 6 issue miniseries titled Serenity: Leaves on the Wind was released monthly, beginning in January and ending the last Wednesday of June. The series takes place post-Serenity and is written by Zack Whedon and illustrated by Georges Jeanty.
I met Jeanty just after the series had been announced, at New York Comic Con, where he was part of a panel talking about Whedon works in comics. We’ve been friends ever since, and he was nice enough to talk to me about the series. Be warned, spoilers below!
You were specifically approached by Joss Whedon for the Buffy comics. Was it the same situation for Serenity: Leaves on the Wind, or was it something you had to go after?
It was pretty much the same thing, after two seasons of Buffy, I was initially approached by Dark Horse, “Hey Joss would like for you to do Serenity stuff, if you would like”, because we had kinda talked already and it was given that I probably wasn’t gonna be coming back for [Buffy] season 10. And so, when Serenity came about, I had already talked with Zack Whedon. We did a signing, and it was a whole day where we spent time together saying “Hey, we should work together!” and he was like, “Yeah! Whenever I write something again, I’ll definitely request you.” So I guess all the influential people came together and my name was the one mentioned the most, and I got the gig because of that. It was more of a done-deed than something I had to audition for.
Were you a fan of Firefly when it originally aired, or did you become a fan after it was cancelled?
Haha, this was probably the only Whedon show that I ever saw right off the bat, because I was really into sci-fi, and I still am. When I first saw it, I thought ‘this is something I could really get into’ and as a result I was there when it premiered and the episodes every week. And then of course, it started getting shifted around and back then, there was a time when Fox put something on Friday nights, at like 9 or 10 o’clock, you know it was the kiss of death. Once it got to that point, unfortunately, I knew it wasn’t going to be around much longer. But it was a show that, at the time, I was watching. And actually, I never bothered to catch up until the movie, because, of course, they never did show all of the episodes [on Fox].
How closely did you work with the Whedon’s on S:LotW? Did Zack ever give you instructions to draw specific panels in certain ways or was it more up to you?
With all of them, and with everybody I’ve ever worked with who was involved with Joss Whedon, they would all write as if they were writing for a television show. So a lot of the scripts were just as they would have been if they were doing the TV show, with the exception of every page would say if they were a 1 or 2 or 5 panel page, which they would include in there. But there was very little direction, like it would say ‘Mal comes into the cockpit and River’s already sitting on the chair’ and the rest is pretty much up to me, in the way I would see it or the way I imagine I’m viewing it as I read the script. But the scripts are good! You really do get a good visual representation of what the words are saying, you really get a feel for how it should come across. And most of the work is by Zack, I can assume he and Joss got together and said “Oh here, this is what we’re gonna do, this is what I wanna do, and you’re gonna write it this way,” and then most of my conversations were with Zack, where, after I read the script, I had questions. He was always very generous with his time and would answer whatever I could think up.
My personal favorite variant cover that you’ve done is the third one, where River is upside down, held up by…?
Those are… they’re like River. They’re a current nightmare that she probably has. All of the [Alliance] subjects. Of which we find out, there are fifteen of them, if I’m remembering the story correctly. Of them, River was not the only one, you find out as you are reading, there were two subjects who made it out. I can only assume, with that cover, that she has a recurring nightmare, of her being attacked by them. So that’s kind of what it was, which is more of a subjective cover, in terms of, we never really see that happening, it’s more just an idea.
What’s your favorite cover or panel that you’ve drawn?
Actually, that cover [#3] was really good, I thought it represented… again, I like to do covers the same way I like movie posters. I like them to represent what’s inside. The cover’s of issue 2 and 3, the River cover was 3 and 2 was the close up of Jubal Early. I thought they were really good because they gave you a little bit of information, maybe a little bit more if you were a Serenity fan, but even if you were just a casual reader, it gave you an inclination of what might be waiting. [As far as a panel], when you’re telling a story, you usually group everything together, and you sort of say “Everything you see is as a whole.” I don’t really break it up into smaller parts or smaller panels. I probably don’t necessarily [have a favorite panel]. Most of what I like whenever I look at a book, certainly when I look at Buffy stuff now, years later, I like it when I’ve done the character and done the reference. Like, oh I’ve nailed Buffy’s face or Xander or Spike or somebody like that. So maybe in a couple of years, I’ll look back and look at Serenity, I’ll say, yeah I like this bit ‘cause I really nailed the likeness. But I certainly couldn’t do that now.
Who is your favorite character or person, doesn’t have to be Serenity related, to draw?
I will say Buffy is probably the easiest because I’ve had to draw her the most over the last 6 years, I could pretty much do Buffy in my sleep now, more than anybody. On Serenity, I never really felt I got the characters just right. Not until the fifth or sixth issue did I start to feel comfortable with any of them, and then I would probably have to say Mal. I did a little more right than wrong. I feel bad because I never really felt that I got Kaylee right, or Inara, because they really didn’t speak too much, and there’s a thing in comics, well, there’s a thing in art, whenever you draw, it’s a commonly known thing. Women, in order to retain that beauty that they have, you have to do them in as minimal an amount of lines as possible. The more lines you put on a woman’s face, the less attractive she gets. It was very hard to draw Kaylee and Inara, just because I had to keep those lines at a minimum and I had to keep them as simple as possible. And I never felt like I got it quite right between those two beautiful women.
The series ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. Can you tell us if there will be more to follow and if you want to draw them?
I would be very interested. I know for a fact, and I know publically, that this is probably it for them. I would love it if there is something that continues. I know Joss is very particular about Serenity stuff, and that’s why there’s only 6 issues. He’s not interested in having it come out monthly, he’s more interested in telling a story where there’s one to be told. In this case, a six-issue story. He also has his brother Zack, who, I think, regardless of being a sibling of Joss, really did a good job. I think, even if he wasn’t related, he would have gotten the job writing the books. He really styled the characters into what we would expect of them. I would totally be up for it, but I would agree with Joss that it would have to be very necessary, rather than just saying “Hey let’s do another book.”
Georges Jeanty’s website is http://kabalounge.com/ His next appearances are at Atlanta Comic Con on August 10 and Dragon*Con August 29-Sept 1, both in Atlanta, Georgia.
