The Multimedia Honorverse

Not really frequenting the rather extensive web pages and fora of author David Weber [link] except during those intermittent periods when I'm reading one of his books, I haven't really been aware that an Honorverse movie was more than remotely in the works. Then my heart leapt in my chest the other day when I was perusing the latest issue of Diamond Distribution's Previews and came upon a solicitation for this:

Actually taken from the Image Comics web site [link]; Note that the covers are in reverse order:  D, C, B, A

I am on this! Even some deterioration of the tone on Weber's message boards [link] over the past couple of days from excitement to a degree of rancor that the imagery departs fairly radically in certain ways from the textual descriptions in what has hitherto been solely a prose body of work has not cooled my excitement. I've been wanting to see the adventures of Honor Harrington in live action for the fifteen-plus years since I discovered the series, and it looks like that is indeed the endgame here, but along the way it looks like we could get so much more – a truly multimedia experience. I've never really been into role-playing games (and it's my understanding that some form of those exist already, and have for some years), but I might even check those other dimensions of this initiative out, just for the heck of it – and to show my support. It all kicks off with a comic series that debuts in only a couple of months, and will hopefully blossom from there into something truly magnificent. Only time will tell.

More information may be gleaned from the official press release of a couple of days ago, which can be seen here [link], and various news stories picking up from it, e.g. at ComingSoon.net [link]. Here are some larger images of the four alternate covers for Image Comics' Tales of Honor #1:

Cover A

Cover B

Cover C

Cover D

Presumably the Manticore Wormhole Junction

The merits of specific design choices shows here can be debated 'til the cows come home (I pre-ordered Cover A simply because I always prefer comics covers to be by the artist providing interiors, even though frankly Cover D looks closest to what I envision Honor and Nimitz to look like – I may actually go back and get it too), but ultimately it doesn't matter unless it is so horribly wrong as to be unrecognizable. Here's my first-ever post to the Weber message boards which pretty much sums up my feeling (in the midst of what had become a somewhat heated discussion):

“Another two cents from another lurker drawn out of the woodwork by this announcement. For me, it boils down to: if RFC goes along with it, and even endorses it, I'm at least going to it with an open mind and can be accepting of visual changes as long as they don't go too far. 'Way more important to me than whether the ships are smooth spindles or more "traditional" pop-culture designs, or what color the uniforms are, etc., is that the story-telling be in keeping with the high standards established by RFC (that is Weber, right?) and that the characterizations and tone are consistent with his portrayals. The example of Peter Jackson's LOTR movies has been brought up – it's an excellent parallel. There are many variances in detail, especially design, but for me at least the characters and the stories are "right." Others disagree. But you'll never please everyone.”

(“RFC” is “runsforcelery,” apparently Weber's own nom-de-keyboard – read the books!) I am so looking forward to this.

Yes, I would much prefer that the designs look more like what Weber describes, which artist David Mattingly very ably translates into cover art, e.g.:

... but that by itself will not be a deal-breaker for me.  Just as an aside, when Angelina Jolie appeared in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow in 2004

... just four years after Honor sported an eye-patch on the cover of Ashes of Victory, 

... I literally sat up and shouted, "That's Honor Harrington! -- and have had Jolie as my mental image for the character ever since (previous to that, it was mostly Tracy Scroggins from the last season of Babylon 5).  But ultimately none of that matters as much as the story, the characters, and the tone, and that this initiative be successful overall.  The books already are -- wildly so -- but I would love to see this be the new BIG THING.

Cheers! – and Thanks for reading!