At the end of the commentary on the Serenity Special Edition, Adam Baldwin said something to the effect of them having done their best, but that you can’t control the audience. I don’t think I got that quite right. Go listen to the commentary if you wanna check, but you probably get the idea.

As I’ve said, after repeated viewings, I’ve more than warmed up to Serenity. Whether you agree with it or not, Whedon gave a boatload of thought to every inch of that script, and (despite unwarranted criticisms) did a very skilled and deliberate job of directing. The actors gave their all, and it really came across. Still, it failed to strike a chord with audiences. 

Now let’s face facts.  When you say “audiences” you more or less mean “American audiences.”  Worldwide sales are a feather in your cap, but the U.S. is where a film makes its real cash. So, that means that Serenity failed to connect with the American people. It’s easy to lose track of what that means sometimes. A lot of what you see or hear paints an “enlightened” opinion. You get the impression that the Bush administration is the worst thing to ever happen to the States, reality TV is the root of all evil, musicians are graded on their skill, and well crafted and creative movies are the industry’s goal.     

It’s very easy for a guy like me to buy into that and accept it as popular opinion. The problem is that this opinion represents a very small and vocal percentage of the population. Politics, culture, and industry are driven by the masses. Like it or not, these masses are the true American people, and if you take a step back you get a clear picture of what that means.  More people have repeatedly voted for Bush than those who voted against him, which means he actually represents the nation’s values and beliefs. Reality TV continues to grow in popularity and eats up the air time of traditional shows. To bring it all back on topic, why not surf one of the movie sites that list how much movies brought in, and get a look at the long list of films that have done significantly better than Serenity.    

Welcome to the world of the real. Placing the blame for Serenity’s failure on the shoulders of Whedon and the crew is like blaming Greenpeace for dead whales.

Here’s something John Gunston and I were joking about during our last Mosquito game. I’m gonna post a new one here once or twice a week

So, Whedon got his movie after Firefly was cancelled, but Serenity failed to reach its $80 million target to get a sequel. What happened? I’m gonna bounce back and forth on comic strip days between what I think worked and what didn’t.

It’s safe to say that I was a total Browncoat fanboy. I made a fanfilm and flew down to Atlanta to show it off.  However, after watching Serenity in the theatre, I lost interest for about a year. After eventual repeated viewings, I learned to accept that Serenity is a pretty sound movie which has lured me back. At the time, I can remember that it was the wholesale character slaughter that turned me off. I’d never watched Buffy or Angel and hadn’t been exposed to that particular storytelling technique of Whedon’s. While the fanboy in me was disappointed to see characters I loved die, that wasn’t what turned me off.  

What originally sealed the deal on being a Browncoat for me was the camaraderie and sense of family between not just the characters, but the actors as well.  You can’t watch a bonus feature off any of the discs without realizing how close the cast and crew were.  You have to assume how rare something personal like that is in the soulless corporate greed machine that is Hollywood. When the TV show was cancelled, they were all devastated. You could feel it. The button that Tudyk sent Joss is one of the most touching industry stories I’ve ever heard (go watch the TV commentaries if you don’t know what I’m talking about).

Whether I agree with them or not, I think I understand all of the reasons why Whedon killed off Book and Wash.  It’s sometimes hard to see the subtitles when you get the explanations given to fans. What bothered me the most, and pulled me right out of the story at the time, was that he did it to the actors. With sequels being a clear goal, to remove Tudyk and Glass from the ride felt like excluding immediate family from Christmas. Sure actors like a good death scene, but it seemed like this bunch truly loved working together in this world Joss had made. To me, that personal connection should be more important than anything, including the pile of cash a studio hands you and even the fans you’re trying to please (as unprofessional as that may seem). The odds of Whedon gathering such a family again are exceedingly unlikely. To break that once in a lifetime family up for what was questionably the good of the story just felt horribly wrong.

Any other criticisms I might have pale in comparison, probably because the rest are more cerebral than heartfelt.

Holy Cow!  I’m usually a pretty tidy guy, especially when it comes to work spaces.  Sure things tend to clutter up after a while and paper gets everywhere, but I try and stay on top of it.  However, I haven’t been paying enough attention to my computer cleanliness.  I’ve been taking some time to work on Magellan, Mosquito, and book promotion, only to find that my computer hard drives had become a mess!  There were video files all over the place that my editing software was blowing a gasket trying to find, and the different sketches and versions of the webcomic stuff were a disaster.  I’ve spent the last two days basically attacking the clutter and making damn sure absolutely everything is backed up on one of my external drives.  So, my advice today (regardless of your creative outlet of choice) is to set up a file system before you start a project and take the time and discipline to stick to it.  You’ll keep things organized for the future, and stop yourself from losing anything important. 

I keep things external since I share my machine with my wife and three year old. 

Today’s strip is “A Dog Person” with a beginning glimpse at the troubled inner workings of Cal’s mind. 

I finally got my hands on a copy of How to Make Webcomics by Kurtz and the boys (Jan. 15 release, my ass). While a fantastic source of information for webcomic artists, it’s a little strange trying to get a lot of the promotional information to apply to my situation with Mosquito.  I’m not doing this for the money (though I would if I could, but I can’t), so it’s hard to justify the lengths necessary to properly promote the strip. Especially when it’s measured as time not spent helping raise a kid.  If it was helping to feed my little guy I’d be all over it.  Still, kudos to Kurtz and his gang for presenting such well laid out advice, and I hope someday to make use of all of it.

Hi gang.  “Occupational Quirks” is up.  I’m just about done giving all the crew a time to shine before getting back to the main story.

It’s my Grandma’s birthday on Saturday.  Any of you who know me or my Grandma realize what a big deal that is.  Do you know how hard it is to get something original and touching and useful for a gal you more or less worship, who has everything she could ever need and would never admit to otherwise?  It’s tricky, and I ain’t getting any smarter with age.

Today’s strip is “Rabid Irony.”        

I took a week off my job with Club Fed to try and tackle the first Chapter of Magellan .  Work and renovations around the house cut that time in pretty much half, but there’s a hefty chunk done, and it’s looking plenty good.  I’m giddy as a schoolgirl to show everyone what we’ve pulled off with basically no money or resources. I’ve got to get a polished rough cut away for music and audio, and there’s still a fantastically long and annoying first shot that’s full of CG and tracking elements that is just about done (what sort of jerk would write something like that for a no-budget feature?).  After that… well, you’ll see.  It’s really good.