Television-show creators are taking an unusual tactic in continuing -- or, at least, wrapping up -- their canceled shows. They're bringing them back in comic-book form.
Already, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel have found new lives as comics. And at this month's Comic-Con fan convention in San Diego, plans were announced for a new comic that will continue the story of Jericho, a TV series that was produced by Carol Barbee, a Wake Forest alumna. Plans are also being made for Pushing Daisies to continue as a comic.
And the ABC Family series The Middleman will wrap up its storyline with a comic book titled "The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse."
"I hate to sound like a Pollyanna, but in a weird way this is the best thing that could happen creatively," said Javier Grillo-Marxuach, the creator of The Middleman. "We were going to have to make some cuts to shoot our finale. We had storm troopers riding kangaroos that shoot missiles out of their mouths."
The Middleman was a quirky, pop-culture-heavy, science-fiction comedy, telling the stories of two agents for a secret agency that saves mankind from supernatural and alien bad guys.
When he knew that the series was not going to come back for a second season and that the budget would be tight for the final episodes, Grillo-Marxuach chose to end the series early.
"We had to make the tortured decision to wrap the show at 12," he said. "We wanted to make the best 12th episode we could. Making a comic book of the 13th episode allows us to finish off the season and the series with the best bang for your buck."
The comic is due out soon from Viper Comics (www.vipercomics.com). The DVD set was released this week by Shout Factory. It has extras including commentaries, auditions, a gag reel, deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes footage.
At Comic-Con, the cast of Middleman got together to do a staged reading of the comic book for fans. According to a blogger, those kangaroo-riding storm troopers were part of the story.
"The 13th-episode comic book and DVD set are a nice, natural stopping point," Grillo-Marxuach said. "But obviously if the DVD sells a lot and they want to do more, we're not going to say no."
Grillo-Marxuach already has another job lined up, as one of the producers of Day One, a new series about people coping with the end of civilization. Catherine Dent, an alumna of the UNC School of the Arts, is one of the stars.
"I love doing series television," said Grillo-Marxuach, who was also a producer and writer on Lost before starting Middleman. "I'm really excited about getting back into it."
A release date has not yet been announced for The 5th Quarter, a movie that was filmed in Winston-Salem last fall. But the trailer is now online, so you can see some footage, including plenty of familiar sites. Check it out at www.the5thquartermovie.com/theater.html.
Fans of writer/producer Joss Whedon's series Dollhouse may want to pick up the new season on DVD or Blu-ray, even if they've seen all the aired episodes. In addition to such usual extras as deleted scenes and commentaries, it includes two unaired episodes and the original pilot.
Also new on DVD: the first seasons of Knight Rider: Season One, NBC's tepid remake of the 1980s hit about a talking car, and The Spectacular Spider-Man, the latest animated series about the web-slinging superhero; the second seasons of the classic sitcom The Donna Reed Show and the fantasy drama Early Edition, about a man who gets the newspaper one day ahead of time; the 14th season of British crime drama A Touch of Frost; and two exercise videos with dancers from the reality competition show So You Think You Can Dance, one titled Tone and Groove and the other titled Cardio Funk.
■ Tim Clodfelter can be reached at 727-7371 or at tclodfelter@wsjournal.com.
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