Alpha: 2012 Blam! Ventures (Drew Gaska) Panel

Introduction

Warnings

• Quoted items may sometimes be mild paraphrases or compressions.
• Unquoted statements are more heavily paraphrased or compressed, but some phrases may still be as originally spoken. This includes that things that may have been said in abbreviation may have ended up written up in full (e.g. "TV" vs. "television").

Details

• Drew watched Space: 1999 as a kid, after Star Trek, with the family. Later, in the 1990s, he got copies of S19 episodes. He thinks one "basic message was you're screwed in space."
• He described BLAM! Ventures is a "guerilla studio" -- an "independent studio that gets rights to produce," but then "shops around to get a publisher." This is somewhat different from a more typical pattern in which "publishers often get rights but then do not know what to do and just get 'Bob' to do it and fans think it is not" the series upon which it is supposed to be based.
• Drew indicated he had the rights to the old comics as well, and that he wrote the adaptation and laid out the graphics. He started some elements of additional continuity, citing the characters of Tony Verdeschi and Shermeen Williams. He stated "fans wanted some old-style comics" so he did. These are limited to 99 copies each.
• The Aftershock and Awe hardcover should be out in November [2012]. This will be of "Awe" and all three "Aftershock"s, which are new stories.
• With his graphic novels, he states he is "bringing some of the science back -- while keeping the mysticism."
• Drew stated his favorite character is Victor Bergman.
• He stated that the "original [1970s] artists had little access to details of the original series, so they made various mistakes," citing having commlocks backwards as one example.
• With his "Classic" adaptations, it is the "same basic story" but that he "changed things to put in more background, creating what he said could be called a "Season 1.5". He also noted that "Classic will be 11 issues." It "will be put in a softcover collection in May [2013]." Digital releases about every two weeks (Comicsology (sp?)). Unclear Notes: Pre-orders for silkscreen prints for about a month?
• He stated he needs help to reach out to order as much as possible, and that they "have plans to go through Year Five" with the new stories.
• Mission: Alphaprobe (sp?) will look at "the aftereffects of Alphans passing through the galaxy." Also: Tony and Maya have had a son; John and Helena have a son.
• There are some question of possible limits with the emergence of Jace Hall's Space: 2099 project.
• He stated he "would be willing to do eight episodes" [presumably of Mission: Alphaprobe]. Someone, presumably in reference to a point of great controversy in the S20 panel discussion, asked, "Will the Moon be in it?" Drew stated, "Yes."