IDW to publish post-Nemesis TNG Borg story, possibly Destiny

[USS Intrepid]

Excited to hear about this one. Looking forward to it!

[Therin of Andor]

Cybersnark wrote:

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True, though it's not like there aren't enough gaps in the novel timeline where an action-based comic miniseries could fit (glares toward the Ascendants arc).

Well, just imagine one of IDW's writers pitches an Ascendants storyline for the comics. It could be conceived, written, drawn and out on sale while a Pocket author was still ploughing through a proposal and a first draft manuscript. Or, if it came out as a comic mini-series, there is less chance of a Pocket author pitching it again. The overlap of comics and novel readers is perhaps only a small segment of the market. Novel-only readers hate being told that there is a comic mini-series they should read. (We've seen that complaint here, with people whining that they didn't understand references in the novels to events that occurred in "The Gorn Crisis", "Double Time", "Divided We Fall", "n-Vector", and so on).

The team at CBS Consumer Products would have to approve both proposals and both final drafts. As in the past, they might recommend some cross-pollination. Or not.

[BritishSeaPower]

While I'm sure there are logistical problems with the comics and novels lining up with pocket's one a month schedule, it can't be terribly hard when Star Wars has been doing it for some 20 years.

[Christopher]

BritishSeaPower wrote:

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While I'm sure there are logistical problems with the comics and novels lining up with pocket's one a month schedule, it can't be terribly hard when Star Wars has been doing it for some 20 years.

Well, there you have folks at Lucasfilm in overall charge of coordinating things. And Lucasfilm is an 800-pound gorilla that has a way of getting what it wants. And even so, new SW productions often contradict what was in the books and comics, so you kinda have to wonder whether it really matters so much to keep them consistent with each other.

I dunno, in theory you probably could make it work if there were an incentive to do so. But if you ask me, the fact that Star Wars does things one way is a good argument for why Star Trek should do things differently. No point in being repetitive. There's value in having multiple perspectives on a work of fiction, multiple alternatives that can stand on their own.

[Relayer1]

Fer wrote:

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I'm cool with two (three?) alternate takes on post-Nemesis continuity. If anything, hopefully this will lessen the chances of the novels tying in to Countdown. (I don't mind Countdown, but I'd much rather see Picard stay a captain than become an ambassador.)

I suspect that if the books, comics and Online all go their own ways there will eventually still be common points.

I would suggest that Picard becoming an ambassador and the return of Data will be two such points.

[BritishSeaPower]

Christopher my point was less about should they do it, but that it is certainly possible. Indeed, when Trek comics were at Wildstorm there was a fair amount of book-to-comic continuity.

[Therin of Andor]

BritishSeaPower wrote:

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it is certainly possible. Indeed, when Trek comics were at Wildstorm there was a fair amount of book-to-comic continuity.

Way back when DC Comics had the comic license, and Pocket was about to launch its first "giant novel" ("Enterprise: The First Adventure"), the two editors had dabbled in some cross pollination of concepts. However, when it came time for DC's first annual - and both companies decided to do a TOS origins story, racing to meet a deadline for the then-upcoming 20th anniversary - neither writer was keen about making their stories line up. The two projects ended up making very different choices on how the TOS crew came to be.

While it was a bit annoying for fans who love everything to be part of one great tapestry of Trek history, both "All Those Years Ago..." and "Enterprise: The First Adventure" have their fans. And critics. Would these projects have been more successful if Mike Barr and Vonda McIntyre, both already successful, crowd-pleasing Trek authors but presumably total strangers, were forced to consult closely with each other as their deadlines loomed, compromising ideas they'd already come up with about how Kirk's crew came together?

Would many fans have cared, or noticed, one month after the anniversary? How many diehard fans (already only 1% of the viewing audience) were collectors/readers of both the novels and the comics? The middle intersection in the Venn diagram is getting very small.

[Christopher]

BritishSeaPower wrote:

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Indeed, when Trek comics were at Wildstorm there was a fair amount of book-to-comic continuity.

There were a few instances of book-to-comic continuity -- i.e. something originating in the books and then showing up in the comics. There was Tiris Jast as DS9's first officer in Wildstorm's N-Vector miniseries (seeded there at Marco Palmieri's request). There was Divided We Fall, which featured the DS9 Relaunch cast. And there was New Frontier: Double Time, which was largely written to explain away the chronology error between two NF novels. But the other crossover elements were comic-to-book -- things that originated in the Wildstorm comics and were later adopted by the novels, such as the Damiani from Perchance to Dream, the events of The Gorn Crisis, and some bits from Enter the Wolves like President Thelian.

And except for N-Vector, the book-to-comic continuity elements came about in comics written by novel authors -- much the same as was the case with DC in the '80s (Diane Duane using her novel characters in the comic issues she wrote) and IDW recently (comics written by KRAD using characters or elements from his prose fiction). Other comics writers may have their own ideas and prefer to take things in a different direction.

[Therin of Andor]

Christopher wrote:

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And except for N-Vector, the book-to-comic continuity elements came about in comics written by novel authors

K.W. Jeter was also a Trek novelist, so was probably delighted to preview Jast in his comic mini-series before the Bolian's novel appearances.

[Christopher]

^Right -- what I meant, and should've said, was that the continuity elements came from authors who were currently contributing to the novel continuity, and generally bringing in elements from their own books (though I guess that doesn't apply to Ordover & Mack's Divided We Fall, since Dave didn't contribute to the DS9 post-finale books until Warpath).

[Paris]

I'm one of the people who felt let down by Countdown, and i love the current novel continuity; but a new IDW TNG tale taking place after Nemesis, no matter where they decide to go, is an exciting prospect. And to have an artist of Joe's caliber attached to the project can't hurt either

[Fer]

BritishSeaPower wrote:

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While I'm sure there are logistical problems with the comics and novels lining up with pocket's one a month schedule, it can't be terribly hard when Star Wars has been doing it for some 20 years.

Even Star Wars tends to wait. For example, they waited until long after the New Jedi Order books were finished to launch their Invasion comic set during that time period. Similarly, they waited until all of the Tribe of the Sith books were written before they started their Tribe of the Sith comic. The only exception I can think of is Knight Errant, which launched both novels and comics around the same time, but they've all been written by the same author, John Jackson Miller.

[BritishSeaPower]

I should have been clearer, by Book-to-comic I really meant Inter-media continuity. Though I do see where you're coming from Chris. It makes a certain amount of

Fer I'm thinking of Dark Empire I & II which were written as sequels to the Thrawn Trilogy and had some elements incorporated into the Jedi Academy trilogy. All in a relatively short amount of time. There are quite a number of major continuity points in those comics that later books utilize. As well, something like Star Wars Republic actually shaped a lot of the background of the prequels and showcased the Clone Wars soon after the second movie and ended up being mined for the Clone Wars novels. (The new show has created some problems.)

Again, my point is it's certainly doable - and has been done. I think it would actually be interesting to have standalone stories told in the comics of the TNG crew in the Post-Nemesis era. Because the vast majority of those stories have the Borg in them, and well, so apparently does this one. I'd much prefer having a richer, multi-media story board then having "One direction for one, another for another."

[Christopher]

BritishSeaPower wrote:

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I should have been clearer, by Book-to-comic I really meant Inter-media continuity.

Sure, I know what you meant, but I was taking advantage of the way it was phrased to distinguish between book-to-comic and comic-to-book, so as to make a point.

Fer I'm thinking of Dark Empire I & II which were written as sequels to the Thrawn Trilogy and had some elements incorporated into the Jedi Academy trilogy. All in a relatively short amount of time. There are quite a number of major continuity points in those comics that later books utilize. As well, something like Star Wars Republic actually shaped a lot of the background of the prequels and showcased the Clone Wars soon after the second movie and ended up being mined for the Clone Wars novels. (The new show has created some problems.)

I don't think the latter case is an example of the different works being developed simultaneously. And just because it can be done on occasion, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good way of doing business on a continuing basis. The job is complicated enough without constantly having to be constrained by what a separate company is doing.

I'd much prefer having a richer, multi-media story board then having "One direction for one, another for another."

I'd say that having multiple different interpretations of the continuity, different ways of exploring the same idea and taking it in different directions, can be richer than having only one.

[Allyn Gibson]

BritishSeaPower wrote:

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Fer I'm thinking of Dark Empire I & II which were written as sequels to the Thrawn Trilogy and had some elements incorporated into the Jedi Academy trilogy. All in a relatively short amount of time.

Dark Empire was not written as a sequel to the Thrawn trilogy. Work began on it when Marvel still held the license in the late-80s. (It was going to be published through Marvel's Epic imprint.) Lucasfilm Licensing made Dark Empire fit after the Thrawn trilogy (because Zahn didn't want to have to incorporate it into his storyline), but it was always an independent project from Zahn's work. The Jedi Academy trilogy was then made consistent with Dark Empire because KJA said that a wrecked Coruscant really made no difference to his story. (I believe he was given the option of rejiggering the story to go before Dark Empire.)