Club Jade

British chat show host Jonathan Ross argues for his answer to the ancient geek question, Star Trek or Star Wars? to The Times. While he finally sides with Star Trek, he does offer this about Star Wars:

I think I love Star Wars mainly because it took all the cool stuff I loved in comic books and science fiction novels and finally put them up on the big screen. And I no longer felt like an outcast.

Meanwhile, Forbes tries to look at both franchises as a model for startup companies:

These were David and Goliath stories. Little guys, taking on impossibly big challenges. Irresistible stories of human aspiration. What happened over time? They became Goliaths themselves; they lost their inner David, their startup spirit.

..and then points to Firefly for not turning into a Goliath, by being canceled.

Awesome photo totally snagged from GeekTyrant and their Ultimate Star Wars vs Star Trek page.

Cartoon Network released their schedule of panels at Comic-Con, coming up in a few weeks in San Diego. For Star Wars fans, they confirmed the Lucasfilm panel on Star Wars: The Clone Wars coming on Saturday, July 14.

From the press release:

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Onto Season Five
The aftermath of Season Four has left the Star Wars galaxy a very dangerous place: Darth Maul is alive, Asajj Ventress is a bounty hunter, and the Mandalorian Death Watch is deadlier than ever. How will these threads continue in Season Five of Star Wars: The Clone Wars? Find out in this behind-the-scenes panel, which will feature new clips, new insights and more. Join the discussion with Supervising Director Dave Filoni and head writer Matt Michnovetz (who wrote Season Four’s powerful Umbara arc). Moderated by Star Wars author Pablo Hidalgo. Room 6DE

Also from Cartoon Network’s announcement: panels for Adventure Time, Regular Show, DC Nation,Ben 10, and Mad and two new shows based on existing properties: Annoying Orange, and Dragons: Riders of Berk (from How to Train Your Dragon). The Adult Swim programming block will have a single panel on Friday to highlight seven of its shows, including Robot Chicken (and their upcoming DC Comics Special) and The Venture Bros.

Meanwhile, there’s been some confirmation from Tim Minear that Comic Con will also have a 10th Anniversary panel for Joss Whedon’s Firefly. That’s gonna be a mighty fine shindig. Will Nathan Fillion be there? Probably so, even if there’s no Castle panel. Who needs Castle when there’s a (Dan Harmon-less) Community panel?

See you in San Diego!

There’s only one release this week, but it isn’t until Saturday, when you can head to a participating comic shop for Free Comic Book Day. Among the offerings is a two-sided Star Wars/Firefly book from Dark Horse – no, not a crossover, just two stories. And yes, there are plenty of kid-friendly choices and they really are FREE, so bring the younglings.

Our next couple book releases are paperback reprints: Paul S. Kemp’s The Old Republic: Deceived (May 29) and Timothy Zahn’s Choices of One (June 26.)

Oh, Nathan Fillion, you should know better than to put something out there as tantalizing as a wish to buy the rights to Firefly.

Just a few days back, he made a comment to Entertainment Weekly that he’d happily buy the rights to Firefly and put new content on the internet if he won $300 milion in the lottery. Now that same wacky spirit that helped the Browncoats get a movie made out of a cancelled series is pulling together to raise the funds. (Smartly, no actual funds are being collected. They have learned from past Trek-related disasters.)

As Entertainment Weekly rightly points out, even if folks could raise the funds, it would be difficult to convince 20th Century Fox to let go of the rights. And then there’s the whole “gettin’ the band back together” problem.

But still. Nearly everyone in the cast and production team have a mighty love for the franchise. And it’s hard to tell a Browncoat something can’t be done. They might be just the people to figure out how to pull off a mass funding of a television/movie production. Ya just never know.

Wouldn’t that be shiny?

Han Solo in Firefly? It’s true! There is proof! Amy spots a Han in Carbonite figure in several episodes. Can you find the rest? Break out the DVDs!

Video. Harry Shum Jr. (of Glee) made a fanfilm. Or something. It has lightsabers, anyway.

Hmm… Take a Star Wars detox? I can’t deny it has some temptations. Think of all the Law and Order reruns we could watch!

At random. Vader’s tombstone and Charlie Brown as Luke Skywalker.

Not only did the fifty-six page Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale hit comic book stores last week (and mine is on back order), delving into Book’s past, everyone in the ‘Verse get a small treat this week: Dark Horse and USA Today have an 8-page comic, Serenity: Downtime up – today just has the first four pages, but the story will continue tomorrow. Joss and Zack Whedon scripted the book on Shepherd Book, while Zack flies solo with the story for ‘Downtime’.

You may have seen this already, but what the hell: It’s Saturday. Enjoy.

Artist Martin Firrell has begun developing a series of art videos about heroism and has changed his focus from real-life soldiers to sci-fi heroes.  It’s a mix of artistic video and interview. 

Some very interesting comments from Joe Flanigan, Kate Mulgrew and Nathan Fillion.

I’m not sure what the female fan’s reaction will be to Joe Flanigan’s opinion on what attracts women to the hero (second video in).  He raises an interesting point, though.  And Kate Mulgrew has some interesting comments about the difference between the male and female Starship captains.  Worth checking out.

Star Wars fans are familiar with the sad time of little official activity.  (Remember the Dark Times?)

So Bart tells us that some Browncoats, not ones to sit around and wait for the occasional awesome comic, are making their own story to bide the time called Browncoats:  Redemption.  In order to avoid painful imitations of beloved characters, they’re creating an all new crew.

And to keep this in the spirit of Browncoats, they’re going to be collecting for charity, including:  Equality Now, Kids Need to Read, Dyslexia Foundation, the Al Wooten Jr. Heritage Center, and the Marine Corps – Law Enforcement Foundation.

Good luck to them!

Clearly, Patton Oswalt is a man obsessed with Firefly.  (And I so understand that!)

He talks with Entertainment Weekly about his upcoming Firefly comic “Float Out.”

I like him.  In this article, it is clear he totally gets the Joss Whedon vibe.  But you’ll have to wait until June to read it!