It’s meta-madness we tell you. Meta madness. But in a roundabout way characters played by Nathan Fillion and Adam Tudyk in a space opera will be returning… kind of. Sorta. In a comic spin-off from a show that never existed.

Confused? Maybe the only way to tell this story is chronologically.

Once upon a time, there was a show spaceship show called Firefly. It was cancelled early. It became a cult classic. Alan Tudyk played the pilot, Wash; Nathan Fillion played Captain Tightpants, aka, Malcolm Reynolds.

Years later, Alan Tudyk creates a very funny web series called Con Man, about an actor who used to play a pilot in a spaceship show called Spectrum, which was cancelled early, became a cult and starred someone played by Nathan Fillion as the captain. Fillion’s character is now a hugely successful movie star but Tudyk’s character is forced to attend conventions to eke out a living.

Now Alan Tudyk, along with one of his writer/producer partners on Con Man, PJ Haarsma, is writing a comic book version of Spectrum (some scenes from which we actually got to see in Con Man, and it’s very cheesily amusing).

Got that? No? Oh, just watch the series. It’s on Vimeo, and yeah, you have to pay so check out our review (here) to decide if you want to splash out.

The four-issue Spectrum comic miniseries will be published by LA-based Automatic Publishing with art by Sarah Stone and it will debut with a special issue #0 during 2016’s Free Comic Book Day (7 May). The show is full of cameos from Tudyk’s mates (Nolan North, Felicia Day, Amy Acker, Milo Ventimiglia, Wil Wheaton, Sean Astin to name but a few) so hopefully there may be a few surprise likenesses in the comics.

“In fairness I mainly write the novelty ads for x-ray glasses and 8foot floating ghosts,” Tweeted Tudyk when the news was announced.

The ultimate irony now would be if a film or TV company picked up the rights to make a Spectrum TV series or movie… It would be a meta-crisis! [via IO9]

Meanwhile, here’s the hilarious Con Man panel from this year’s October MCM London Comic Con… it’s well worth a look!