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Welcome to Show #264!
Gary lets the crew know that Claudia Christian has a racy new tell-all autobiography coming out, Babylon Confidential, and he can’t wait to get ahold of a copy! It’s available for pre-order at Amazon.com and BenBella Books.
JMS is also Tweeted that he was going to take the plunge and purchase the big USS Enterprise model from QMx… the really nice $5000 one. 34.5″ long, 14″ tall, and apparently a Star Trek aficionado’s dream.
And Summer really does still want to know what happened to the copper-colored B5 station that was in Sheridan’s office for so long. As long as someone saved it and it didn’t end up tossed in the trash, she’ll be happy.
Deep Geeking: This week, both Gary from Jacksonville and Neil from Bowie join Summer and Jeremy to discuss the initial 11-issue run of Babylon 5 comics, published originally by DC Comics, and later collected as graphic novels by Titan Books and by DC.
We talk about the stories in the comics, JMS’ dissatisfaction with the dumbing down of the stories and how the artwork didn’t transfer well to newsprint and making the comic look bad at first, and more. Gary talks about how the issues David Gerrold wrote were initially supposed to be a script for an episode of the series, and questions remain about the 13 planned storylines for the issues that were never produced.
We also touch a little bit on the broad plan to cover the novels in upcoming weeks, the standalone books and the trilogies, plus the specialty books.
Also, folks preparing to review and discuss the novels with us (or for us), get ready… your turn will be coming up next!
Submitting your own Feedback: If you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know! Call, or just email us a comment you’ve recorded yourself!
Lurker’s Guide 2.0: Summer is expanding the documentation to be covered at Lurker’s Guide 2.0, the major change being converting the episode guide into a full Wiki with cross-referenced topics, tidbits and everything you’d want in a Wiki. She’s also still searching for pictures of rare collectibles, photos of magazine covers and toys, and all sorts of other B5 goodies that didn’t get included in the original guide during the years after Crusade. Let her know if you want to lend a hand.
More Parody/Filk Songs Wanted: If you know of any more B5-related fan songs out there, definitely let us know, so we can let other B5 fans know where to buy them! And if those CDs are out of print, let’s brainstorm on ways to get those songs back out there for fans!
Babylon Podcast Social Communities:
Twitter: @babylonpodcast
Babylon 5 Information Gathering: If you know of a dead or abandoned B5 related website that may be in need of a new home, let Summer know! Maybe we can mirror it here or house it on a sister site.
If you can, Please Donate to the show!
Promo: Slice of SciFi
If I am still doing the Centauri Trilogy, Tim will not be talking for the entire 3 hours. Yet, baby is here, so we are going to have plan accordingly.
Hiya. I have to raise a few fanboy objections here. I’m a B5 fan (been with you since the first podcast) and a life-long comic fan.
Yep. I agree that the artwork in the B5 books has been mostly sub-par. That’s a shame. Licensed books are always tricky. Most of the better artists tend to avoid them, likenesses are difficult to maintain. (perhaps the best of these ever was Walt Simonson’s job on his adaptation of Alien WAYYY back when).
That being said, I have to defend comments made against artists Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino (who did a decent run on the Star Wars book some time back), and Gene Colan. You described their work as crude and scratchy. Nothing could be further from the truth. All three of these guys are considered among the very best (and your chosen group, Jim Lee, John Byrne, and George Perez) would heartily agree.
There are a lot of artists your comments could fit (in my opinion Tuska, Heck and anyone unfortunate enough to be inked by Vince Colletta, who can ruin anyone he inks)…but Kane, Infantino, and Colan? Not a chance. Google them and see for yourself. These guys are giants….and I bet you’ve seen and admired their work before.
I am with you on your main point, B5 in in comic book form sure deserved better on all fronts, I just take offense to artists you cited as bad. In a related note: See the comics for the new BSG. Too damned ugly to look at.
Thanks for listening
Lance
PS to Summer. I am also in the Black Omega Starfury broken Base club. What the hell were they thinking?
Sorry for all the noise when I was turning the pages of the comics.