Browncoat entertainment update

Blake M. Petit's "Think About It" blog gives a book review of the Firefly graphic novel "Those Left Behind".

As a link between the TV show Firefly and the movie Serenity the book seems perfect for fans of the show. People like me who haven't seen the show won't understand it...fortunately, BitTorrent is downloading Firefly for me as I type, so I can save the money at Rogers Video (which only had disc 3&4 from the "Complete Firefly Series", which is still 2 more discs than Blockbuster carries), and still learn all about the little Whedon TV show that could (but didn't quite).

The biggest complaint on that site:

The artwork by Will Conrad is passable, but suffers from the same problem as a great many film-to-comic adaptation: namely that the artist works so hard trying to replicate the features of the actors the artwork as a whole suffers. Those interpretations that don’t work look even worse compared to those that do, and on the whole the designs are overly-detailed and don’t quite blend with the comic book world. Comic artists need to learn from animators who do shows based on live-action properties. Rather than going for a photorealistic version of the characters, it’s better to come up with designs that suggest the actors, but still fit in the artist’s own style.
is one which I am well familiar with. Star Trek comic properties are generally guilty of this flaw, particularly in Worf and LaForge. Ironically, the best "animators who do shows based on live-action properties" is probably either the original Star Trek animated series, or "The Real Ghostbusters". (For the latter, compare the animated characters to the actual actors)

Special Appeal to Serenity fans:
The 2006 Spacey Awards are coming up, and as always Space:The Imagination Station presents numerous awards where fans can vote on. Serenity is up for Best Picture. (Nathan Fillion is also up for "movie hero" but despite his Canadianness is unlikely to beat Batman and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Aeon Flux and Sarge from DOOM are likely going to round off the category). Still, anybody reading this is encouraged to go cast a vote for the quirky little movie that nobody believed in.

Bonus link:Q. What is the difference between Firefly and Serenity?