The Double-Edged Blade of Continuity
While I should be turning in for the evening, as I closed up after posting the latest installment of my examination of the Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles preview (see below), I noticed something I left open to fact-check a remark I'd made in the earlier, lost draft of my post. I think the remark bears saying, so here it is.
What the preview shows us is two characters running around in uniform designs that appeared only ever before in a series of black and white comic books, published almost ten years ago, with print runs that evidence shows us was in the three thousand copy range. (Look at that November 1996 figure that rtsurfer provides at the link -- that was Academy's best selling book that month, and they shipped an issue of Sentinels every month.) The only reason these designs appear is as a nod to those less than three thousand people who faithfully followed Rick, Lisa, Max, Miriya and the gang month-in and month-out for eight years.
And yet, if my analysis of these pages is correct, just about everything else is inconsistent with the events that occurred in those last few months that those very designs first appeared during. It's like a grinning slap to the face for those people who have been long waiting for a proper cap to be put on the Waltrips' unfinished Sentinels run.
"Oh, we've changed all the pertinent story details around, but look, here's some costume designs you might be familiar with!"
"Hey, there's supposed to be a line right there ..."
"Shut up."
Seriously, I hope some of this is cleared up when the words get here, but I sincerely doubt it. Reminds me of something I read in a comments thread over at Fanboy Rampage a little over a week ago ...
Explaining the project he's comparing Prelude to would take the better part of the evening, but the point is, with a couple of nights of research under my belt here, my own feelings here are starting to mirror Mr. Coyle's overly cynical remarks. Sure, I'm having fun throwing darts at preview art, but really, I shouldn't have to ... everyone should have done their homework, like good little boys.
Or maybe they just shouldn't have used those uniform designs. One or the other.
What the preview shows us is two characters running around in uniform designs that appeared only ever before in a series of black and white comic books, published almost ten years ago, with print runs that evidence shows us was in the three thousand copy range. (Look at that November 1996 figure that rtsurfer provides at the link -- that was Academy's best selling book that month, and they shipped an issue of Sentinels every month.) The only reason these designs appear is as a nod to those less than three thousand people who faithfully followed Rick, Lisa, Max, Miriya and the gang month-in and month-out for eight years.
And yet, if my analysis of these pages is correct, just about everything else is inconsistent with the events that occurred in those last few months that those very designs first appeared during. It's like a grinning slap to the face for those people who have been long waiting for a proper cap to be put on the Waltrips' unfinished Sentinels run.
"Oh, we've changed all the pertinent story details around, but look, here's some costume designs you might be familiar with!"
"Hey, there's supposed to be a line right there ..."
"Shut up."
Seriously, I hope some of this is cleared up when the words get here, but I sincerely doubt it. Reminds me of something I read in a comments thread over at Fanboy Rampage a little over a week ago ...
You know, having Giffen on 52 is like Yune bringing in the Waltrips to script Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles- "look, we brought in a guy you like! Now will you buy it even if it's contrived as hell and sucks out loud?"
Dan Coyle | 09.15.05 - 4:29 pm
Explaining the project he's comparing Prelude to would take the better part of the evening, but the point is, with a couple of nights of research under my belt here, my own feelings here are starting to mirror Mr. Coyle's overly cynical remarks. Sure, I'm having fun throwing darts at preview art, but really, I shouldn't have to ... everyone should have done their homework, like good little boys.
Or maybe they just shouldn't have used those uniform designs. One or the other.
posted by Captain JLS at
02:24
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