JMS has TWO new B5 related things in the works

[Jan]

Originally Posted by Ubik

I did not know the script was written! I followed it with interest, but never heard that. When did he announce that? Pretty cool. Any hints as to what form it took.

It also means he must have felt pretty confident about it happening as writers rarely draft anything without an agreement. Anyhow, enough of that. What are your thoughts Jan? Care to speculate as to what the two projects might be? What would you be most excited to see?

As I recall, there were two comments in interviews. One was that he was almost finished and the other was that it was completed. Seems like I would have linked to them in JMSnews but I'm not able to look for them now. No, never got a title or anything.

I'm happy to give whatever happens a fair shot as long as JMS is in ultimate control. There are some rumors about one of the items but I haven't seen anything even resembling confirmation so I'm not going to speculate.

[Lyta's Shadow]

I would love more B5 novels, the post series trilogies are outstanding and it has always baffled me how they were released in quick succession and then nothing ever since. I would love a prose / comic continuation/conclusion for Crusade too, but outside the handful of us on this forum is there really a market for such things to make them profitable?

Whatever these unannounced projects are, I'll be there to buy/watch them as soon as they are available!

[babylonfan]

Originally Posted by Lyta's Shadow

but outside the handful of us on this forum is there really a market for such things to make them profitable?

Considering they were not even able to finish the “Crusade, what the hell happened” beyond the first volume, I would guess the answer is a resounding no. Where publishing goes, it does not get much cheaper then doing it yourself through cafepress.

Yes, I am still not over that falling through.

[Jan]

Originally Posted by babylonfan

Yes, I am still not over that falling through.

Can't say I blame you. But the failing was with JMS, not anything to do with issues of publishing. He's said that he needed to decide whether to tell the story in the Hell book(s) or in his autobiography and chose the autobiography for the potentially larger audience. I don't really buy that, as not every episode introduction would have needed to expand on aspects of the TNT debacle. Certainly the B5 episodes weren't about that and were quite interesting & seemed very popular. My feeling is that he got busy and kept setting it aside which doesn't really seem fair to the fans since he did start the series.

But looking at Lyta's Shadow's question, that's entirely a different question from the 'Hell' books. In order to do any more novels or comics, there would have to be a license from WB and WB has told at least a couple of companies looking for licenses that it's 'inactive'. Then they'd have to pay a writer and possibly illustrators, another significant cost. And the history of the novels, even the trilogies, is that they didn't really sell very well. One can point to the non-existant marketing done for them, but the bottom line is that they weren't profitable enough back then, it's not likely they would be now. Unless the two new projects really go over big.