I dunno…if Q&C had been a TV show that had spun off into a novel, then back into a TV show again without a decent recap, I think people would have been angry.

But comics are a far less passive medium. You wouldn’t have to make much more of an effort to find the Q&C novels than you would to find the comics – well, I would, but that’s because the Q&C novels aren’t available in our chain bookstores.

(that said, if Q&C were a TV show, then you can be damn sure that the novels would be easy to find)

Hrm. Maybe that’s what’s wrong, here – expecting (“demanding” is a bit strong) that the reader will make that extra effort to seek out the other-media material. Crossover mentality in independent comics! Boo!

//\Oo/\\

I’m tempted to ask if readers think it’s fair to switch media during an ongoing series, but fairness really doesn’t mean anything.

Major events happen in both novels. A significant character dies at the end of the first, which is what Tara is upset about at the start of Red Panda, and the matter of Tara’s medical condition in Red Panda (about which I’ll say no more to avoid spoilers) is dealt with at length in the second novel, along with some major career/lifestyle changes for our heroine.

But I’m sure there are plenty of readers like yourself who are only reading the comic books and/or trade collections, and who therefore have no idea of these shockwaves in Tara’s life. Red Panda isn’t the end of the first part of her story; Private Wars is.

I don’t think it’s a bad thing that Rucka is doing these separate novels — I usually prefer his prose to his comic stuff, and it’s easier to deal with these big events in book form than in the comics — but he needs to be more overt in filling in the gaps for the audience that isn’t reading the novels.

[...] Johanna Draper Carlson, Comics Worth Reading on Queen & Country: Operation Red Panda. Say it with me: “I promise to read Q&C in [...]