Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale

Prior to the 2007 Browncoat Cruise, a Firefly convention held aboard a cruise ship, Ron Glass asked Whedon for some information to answer the inevitable questions on Shepherd Derrial Book’s backstory. At the time, no new Serenity comics were planned, but Whedon emailed Glass some facts from Book’s past to reveal, along with permission to announce that the character would be the subject of the next Serenity comic. Scott Allie, senior editor at Dark Horse, only found out about this because he was copied in on the email. The comic, originally to be titled A Shepherd’s Tale and released as a three-issue miniseries, was later verified by Allie, who stated in the letters section of Serenity: Better Days #1 that a comic based on Book’s past was slated for a late 2008 release. As it is focused on a single character, Allie stated in a June 2008 interview that it was an opportunity for the Serenity comics franchise to “go in a real different direction.”