Shepherd Book always had a calm bit of wisdom to bestow. An insightful man of experience seeming to know a lot more than maybe he should. Book could distill wisdom beyond his years, even if certain captains didn’t heed his words.
As Book put it early on in his stay on Serenity, “I think I’m on the wrong ship!”
What do we really know about Book, the apparent “man of the cloth?” He’s rather well versed in the criminal element, he knows how to shoot, he knows his way around a firefly, and at one point, the bounty hunter Jubal Early said “that ain’t no shepherd.”
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We can guess at various ideas about him: A retired Alliance officer, an ex-con, a double agent for the independents? Have you ever been wondering exactly what his back story is? Yeah, me too. Joss-Verse fans really want to know!
Strangely, so does Ron Glass, the man who played Shepherd Derrial Book in the TV series Firefly and movie, Serenity! One day he told Joss Whedon that he’s tired of facing fans at conventions knowing what they are going to ask and not having answers.
Well, now he’s going to get some info to answer those questions with.
Whedon said that if there were ever by some fortuitous miracle, a Serenity sequel, there would never be enough room to explain Book’s back history. So Whedon derived the only way possible to expound on his own universe. The place where he has the control he needs to pour forth his inner imaginations.
Comics.
A Shepherd book, about Shepherd Book. A book, er… well, you get it.
Ron Glass as Shepherd Book
Whedon already has the outline in his head and the book is going to be called The Shepherd’s Tale. The comic will outline Book’s entire history, covering some of the most asked questions about the character. It will be vignettes as you will of who he is and how he came to be on Serenity.
The Shepherd’s Tale will come out as a three-issue online comic that will be scripted by Jim Krueger and we ain’t gettin’ no insights from Whedon. He says we’ll have to read it to find out the little things like the man Book once killed and things like that. Wah!??
Right now Krueger is writing the MySpace Dark Horse Presents online comic: Serenity: The Other Half.
But for the moment, all the good details about Book will have to wait until next year when the issues come out. As Joss put it, It’s taking longer than they thought. Patience my readers, patience.
Sources: MTV, Firefly Wiki
28 Comments
I always wanted to know more about Book.
I look forward to this project.
I was just introducing a friend to FireFly the other day and brought this subject up.
Should be a lot of fun– hopefully it was the original plans for the character and they don’t change it based on fan speculation.
pretty cool stuff, I’m surprised its not coming out in actual issues. Is it free since its online?
I don’t know why they are not making a Serenity sequel, they can do it on small budget and make tons of cash with DVD sales, the first Serenity DVD and its special edition sold tons and if anything, since the show ended the fanbase continued to grow.
oh an as for Shephard, I thought for sure he was an agent like the villain in Serenity. I mean, how else could he know all the ins and outs of the baddies and have been given immediate medical attention when captured in that one Firefly episode…. crap…all this talking makes me want to watch the season again, I better not bust out my DVDs tonight or I’ll fail school, heh
Timing, projects, resources, timing, .. it all has to line up and maybe Joss is building up a head of steam in the fan base, letting the awareness grow before doing it…
Gads, enough new fans are hoping on board with the new show.
Can’t have too much ‘Verse. Book was one of my favorite characters. I can’t wait to see his back story.
Peace,
- Cord
This is not unlike what happened with Star Trek after they cancelled it in the ’60s, and that’s the great thing about the internet, that you can keep fans connected in any number of ways. I still haven’t seen the series yet! A friend of mine burned me off a copy, and of course my bloody Mac said “WOT?” Macs, eh? Incompatible with everything including each other. I picked up Serenity in a second hand place for the equivalent of about $8 and loved it. I’d definitely go for a sequel.
Hey Bruce,
Ya man, I know the real reasons why there hasn’t been one, heh, its just disappointing. Whedon has alot on his plate with his new show debuting…but both his Marvel comic runs are over. I guess he’ll also be working on more Dr. Horrible.
Other than that though, of the original cast, only Summer Glau and Alan Tudyk have been stable as of recent. Although Nathan Fillion is getting some cool work finally
What a shame this ended with 11 aired episodes when Buffy got 7 seasons
-Ever
Hey Rob and Bruce, FOX had it in for Firefly from the beginning, and they canceled it because they were pissed at Whedon for a number of reasons, one was taking time away from Buffy.
FOX continued to pour salt in the wound by releasing the dvd with the shows out of order.
One reason Universal produced Serenity. FOX abandoned it.
@790
1. The DVD’s have the correct episode order.
2. How could FOX abandon the movie when they never picked it up in the first place?
3. A bunch of other mistakes by FOX led to the cancellation. Like airing shows out of order, preempting the show with sporting events, and not promoting the show correctly.
What country (dvd region) do you live in, Angmar?
In my comment the use of the word “Abandon” meant that yes, they didnt pick it up…
And like I said they wernt mistakes the network wanted the show to fail. Does that compute ???
@790
I live in region 1 (USA). The episodes aren’t in order on how they aired, but how they were supposed to air.
Huh, your name sounds german… ?
Well that explains alot I didnt see all the televised epsiodes in order,and the order on the dvd seemed wrong ??
My mistake.
But I do know that the network never wanted Firefly to succeed. They conspired to end it. Cheers !
Ya that was the HUGE issue with Fox screwing Whedon over. Fox forced Whedon to air the second episode first, so the season was all screwed up from the start.
I loved it when it came on and was shocked when it stopped showing up Friday nights when that John Doe show with Dominic Purcell was still airing right before it. (this was before I followed movie and TV on ze internets)
To me though, I think what killed this show was the horrendous marketing. The commercials were awful, corny, full of bad music… made it look like some old western parody with bad jokes. From the commercials back in the day, I was not interested but I did love it when I caught it with my dad once…then got hooked from there.
Finally! A Shepherd Book book!:)I’ve always wanted to know Book’s back story.
If you guys want to try and help bring Firefly back, go vist http://www.savefirefly.org
Yep, so very much looking forward to a Sheperd Book book!! And what the hell is the matter with Fox, huh?! Don’t they recognise talent when it is dancing right in front of their noses?!?! Argh.
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