To tell this story we have ordered these newsletters excerpts to fans in chronological order starting with the first announcement. This way you don’t have to start at the bottom and work up.
Babylon 5 Books Email Newsletter
First Newsletter Sent June 1, 2022
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED”
By Captain Jaclyn, Head of B5 Books
In 2010, B5 Books released the first volume in, what was expected to be, a 3 volume series about Crusade, the follow-up show to Babylon 5.
Like the Babylon 5 script book series, these volumes were to be written by J. Michael Straczynski about, as he describes it, the “birth, short life and long painful death” of the series.
It is one of our best sellers ever.
Which is why we had to permanently pause the series.
During our proposed publishing timeline, JMS’ book agent was also shopping his autobiography, “Becoming Superman”. He advised that we stop publishing anything “autobiographical” in case it upset JMS’ future publisher. So we pulled the first volume of the HELL series and deleted references to it on B5books.com.
At that time and for years following we thought we’d be able to reboot it once the autobiography was published.
What we didn’t realize is that Straczynski would write extensively about his Crusade experience in his autobiography. He felt that the material would just be repeated in the HELL series and that didn’t sit well with him.
We waited to make an “official” announcement until we were 100% that this rest of the HELL series probably won’t happen.
At one point we put together a working copy of Volumes 2 and 3 with just his scripts, memos and other background materials. But without his commentary the material lacked context.
Faith still manages,
Captain Jaclyn
=====================================================
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT #1
J. Michael Straczynski Says “YES”
The Remaining “What the Hell Happened” Volumes WILL NOW Be Published
From Captain Jaclyn – In our last newsletter we announced that the Crusade book series by J. Michael Straczynski “What the Hell Happened” would not be continued beyond Volume 1. That has changed. For the good.
We explained that the CRUSADE: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED series was paused years ago when Straczynski’s agents were concerned that the autobiographical nature of the story would conflict with his (at that time) forthcoming autobiography (Becoming Superman, 2019) in which his account of the Crusade debacle was detailed.
Within minutes of the mailing, fans began campaigning for the volumes without his commentary, explaining how much they wanted just the unproduced scripts, memos, concept artwork and related content.
Always wanting to do right by fans, JMS agreed.
Release date forthcoming.
P.S. HELL Volume 1 will be re-released when Volumes 2 and 3 become available. Release information forthcoming.
P.S.S. We have rebooted the three NON-JMS Crusade books. They are available now. Details below.
=========================================================================
June 1, 2022
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO “WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED”
By Captain Jaclyn, Head of B5 Books
In 2010, B5 Books released the first volume in, what was expected to be, a 4 volume series about Crusade, the follow-up show to Babylon 5.
Like the Babylon 5 script book series, these volumes were to be written by J. Michael Straczynski about, as he describes it, the “birth, short life and long painful death” of the series.
It is one of our best sellers ever.
Which is why we had to permanently pause the series.
During our proposed publishing timeline, JMS’ book agent was also shopping his autobiography, “Becoming Superman”. He advised that we stop publishing anything “autobiographical” in case it upset JMS’ future publisher. So we pulled the first volume of the HELL series and deleted references to it on B5books.com.
At that time and for years following we thought we’d be able to reboot it once the autobiography was published.
What we didn’t realize is that Straczynski would write extensively about his Crusade experience in his autobiography. He felt that the material would just be repeated in the HELL series and that didn’t sit well with him.
We waited to make an “official” announcement until we were 100% that this rest of the HELL series probably won’t happen.
At one point we put together a working copy of Volumes 2, 3 and 4 with just his scripts, memos and other background materials. But without his commentary the material lacked context.
Faith still manages,
Captain Jaclyn
=====================================================
Response to Previous Newsletter Mailing
J. Michael Straczynski Says “YES”
The Remaining “What the Hell Happened” Volumes WILL NOW Be Published
From Captain Jaclyn – In our last newsletter we announced that the Crusade book series by J. Michael Straczynski “What the Hell Happened” would not be continued beyond Volume 1. That has changed. For the good.
We explained that the CRUSADE: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED series was paused years ago when Straczynski’s agents were concerned that the autobiographical nature of the story would conflict with his (at that time) forthcoming autobiography (Becoming Superman, 2019) in which his account of the Crusade debacle was detailed.
Within minutes of the mailing, fans began campaigning for the volumes without his commentary, explaining how much they wanted just the unproduced scripts, memos, concept artwork and related content.
Always wanting to do right by fans, JMS agreed.
Release date forthcoming.