Orphan Black is a now comic! Rejoice!
Coming soon from IDW — if you can call 2015 soon, and I guess I can — the ongoing series will tread new ground in the Orphan Black universe. Rather than retell episodes, or fill in the gaps, the series will focus on brand new stories — given the twists and turns and conspiracies within conspiracies of the show, finding material won’t be a problem.
For the uninitiated (and how dare you — get thee to the internet TV outlet of your choice!), Orphan Black, a Space/BBC America co-production, is a science fiction thriller starring Tatiana Maslany, Tatiana Maslany, and Tatiana Maslany. (And some other people, I guess — everyone on the show is rather charming.) She stars as Sarah Manning, a mouthy grifter, and a veritable clone army of other richly drawn clone-characters, all of whom are trying to navigate clone life and avoid the various shadowy government and corporate forces that seek to capture and control them. It’s a rare science fiction TV series with a mostly female cast that, as a rule, centers women’s stories.
Bechdel test: crushed.
Orphan Black is an ideal property for adaptation: while its world is sprawling, the show is strictly focused on a small group of characters. Circa season one, the clones are in their late twenties — there are years of potential adventures to be explored before Sarah, Allison, and company were initiated into the Clone Club. There are other clones, some of whom have died on screen, and others who have been mentioned in passing, whose lives could be also explored.
And too, it’s a world with a sense of history. The Dyad Institute, who SPOILER! was responsible for creating and monitoring the clone line has had other projects, and has been in operation for at least a hundred years. And with the season two finale, SPOILER! we have another clone line to explore.
Personally, I’m pulling for an appearance of The Unfortunate Adventures of Vic the Dick. Among other things.