TV Guide’s Ask Ausiello feature had a couple of interesting tidbits in it yesterday, the first being a link to a Heroes Vol. 3 trailer that creator Tim Kring showed at the Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival of Los Angeles:
… and the second being an update on the rumored Veronica Mars comic, straight from Mars creator Rob Thomas:
I forwarded your Q to Rob and here’s his faintly silverish-lined response: “I had a second meeting with DC comics. I heard that the [WGA] didn’t want [TV writers penning TV-based] comic books during the strike as it would promote a network property. We’re investigating whether there are similar hurdles for a defunct TV series like Veronica Mars. Naturally, I won’t be writing it if the Guild doesn’t want me to, but we’re hoping that’s not the case.”
December 20th, 2007 at 8:41 am
So curious as to if the series would follow up Veronica’s college years or if it would be the time jump to her FBI years
December 20th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Wow, the WGA won’t even let writers write COMIC BOOKS featuring a tv-show?!?
Talk about splitting hairs…
December 20th, 2007 at 9:40 am
If the WGA keeps this from happening, then they are evil and evil networks are the good guys. If ANYONE keeps this from happening, then they are evil. Do I need to start bombarding networks and the WGA with Mars Bars?
December 20th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Snikt Snakt,
Comic books based on TV shows send a licensing fee back to the production company, even if it’s somewhat in-house (Veronica Mars was on CW, owned by Warner Bros, as is DC). As more and more shows do tie-in comics (Heroes, Tin-Man, etc), this could become an important part of the “New Media” that is the whole reason for the strike.
I for one would like to see it be a jump to the FBI years.
December 20th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Never knew that Lucas, thanks!!!
December 20th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
RE: Veronica Mars Comic.
(Ahem) DEAN TRIPPE, CAPABLE ARTIST AT REASONABLE RATES!
December 20th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
This is what confuses me about the strike. I had read somewhere that they only wrote/filmed enough episodes to end Vol 2 at 11 (or 12 or whatever it was).
They obviously filmed more. Are they not airing it now as the story is not complete?
Or are the writers needed for re-writes/re-shoots for all future episode?
December 20th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
RE: Veronica Mars Comic.
(Ahem) DEAN TRIPPE, CAPABLE ARTIST AT REASONABLE RATES!
Comment by Dean Trippe — December 20, 2007 @ 12:28 pm
Dean Trippe would be VERY cool on Veronica Mars! Very cool!
December 20th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
A Veronica Mars comic? Seriously. There’s a demand for this? It’s not noir, like the Watchmen. It’s not fantasy, like Heroes or Buffy. I’m confused as to why people think this would succeed as a comic if it didn’t as a TV show.
December 20th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
…Why wouldn’t it? Its a detective/crime story, is a comedy story, its an ensemble drama… worked right, it could have a Minx-esque YA female appeal that DC’s trying to get into.
I guess what I’m trying to say is: Build it, and they will come. ^_^
Also: Dean Trippe, FTW, as the kids say. ^_^
December 20th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
This would be a bad idea for DC. The show would not translate to comics. The creator of the show would be lessening some of the still good aspects of seasons 1 and 2. I certainly hope there are no Veronica Mars comics.
December 21st, 2007 at 1:07 am
“It’s not noir”
It actually is noir. I mean, it’s placed in a high school/teen drama setting, but the show (at least for the first 2 season), was full of noir trappings. In fact, when it went away from the noir setting in Season 3 the show suffered quite obviously. Hopefully if Veronica Mars is revived as a comic, the noir settings can come back to the forefront.
December 21st, 2007 at 1:10 am
If the TV show barely had 2 million viewers toward the end and that was free, who really would drop $3 an issue on that book? I don’t think it would be profitable.
December 21st, 2007 at 2:25 am
Veronica Mars is good no matter what venue it’s in but it would make a fantastic comic book. I do hope we get to see it. Add my vote to Dean Trippe for Veronnica! It’d be smashing!
December 21st, 2007 at 5:22 am
Veronica Mars is good no matter what venue it’s in? Did you see Season 3? or VM:FBI? Both were dreadful.
December 21st, 2007 at 10:15 am
I’m ambivalent about a VM comic; I think it worked well for the most part as a show (until the third season disaster), but it seems like a lot would have to change for it to work well in the new medium. After the resolution of the Lilly plotline, the strength of the show ended up being its fast-paced dialogue, not its action. After the murder was resolved, the rest of the plots were pretty stupid. While some comics do good dialogue moderately well, most don’t, and I think without the actors the show would lose most of its charm.
I would especially hate to see the FBI scenario in comic book form; that trailer looked awful. VM going back to high school undercover? Seriously the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
December 21st, 2007 at 11:48 am
Yes, a failed TV show that died a painful death due to increasingly terrible writing… let’s make a comic out of it!
Total waste of time and money.
December 21st, 2007 at 12:09 pm
This seems like a strange idea, to put it mildly. And it isn’t even about whether people will buy the comic. The answer to that is pretty simple: they will not. Not enough, that is, to justify the production. The issue here is that “Veronica Mars” wasn’t serialized all that well as a TV show past season 1, and unless someone else other than Rob Thomas makes this (someone who can actually respect his own canon, devote time to research, give a damn about logic, and follow through on the set-ups), I don’t see it working at all.
December 21st, 2007 at 3:18 pm
“If the TV show barely had 2 million viewers toward the end and that was free, who really would drop $3 an issue on that book? I don’t think it would be profitable.”
The top selling comic on the shelves each month is barely topping 160,000 issues with the top 100 leveling out in 30,000 range, with numbers like that, it stands to reason if you get 25% of those viewers to follow the comic, you have a successful comic…
December 21st, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Veronica Mars was painful to watch in S3. Why, oh why, would I waste my money to see Rob Thomas further destroy what pleasant memories I have of S1. I’ll be passing on this comic, and I know I’m not alone.
December 21st, 2007 at 5:34 pm
VM as a comic? What an awful idea. Rob Thomas killed the show in s3, and the only redeeming features were the fact that certain actors were bringing life to otherwise very mediocre and frequently offensive material. When you take away the actors all you’re left with is bad writing.
Rob Thomas is no Joss Whedon.
December 22nd, 2007 at 11:45 am
I for one would love to see a movie franchise instead of a comic book.
comicbookfanNYC
December 24th, 2007 at 10:57 am
A V. Mars comic with a year-long (twelve issue) mystery, picking up where the series left off (or even jumping ahead ala the AMAZING-but-idiotically-rejected Season 4 pilot) would rule all.
It’d need some sweet stylized art (noirish inks & V. Mars specific colors included) and Rob Thomas personally scripting, but it could totally work. I’ve been wanting to draw Veronica Mars comics since season one. Here’s hoping this thing gets rolling, with some solid creators at the helm, whether or not the OVERWHELMING FAN SUPPORT* for me to be the series artist sways the folks in charge or not.
* Me and half a dozen Blog@ readers.