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"Fun With Dick and Jayne"
Short story
Firefly: Still Flying
Written and Drawn by Ben Edlund
(Page numbers come from the first edition, May 2010)
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A piece of Jayne Cobb's boyhood is revealed in a
vignette.
Story Summary
Using crude bludgeoning/cutting weapons, two boys named Dick and
Jayne are killing animals (mostly rats and stray dogs) around
the local spaceport. The port control pays them four credits for
every one. Little Jayne is a bit squeamish about it, throwing up
and telling Dick to stop the carnage.
But not long after, the two boys are having a ball at the Meat
Raffle, where they have used the money they earned killing strays
to sponsor a hobo in the bloody fights.
THE END
Since this vignette takes place when Jayne Cobb was just a
boy, it must occur before any other story in the chronology
thus far.
On page 1 of the story, notice that Dick is wearing an
orange, knitted cap (a chullo) that is essentially identical to the one
Jayne's mother sends Jayne as an adult in
"The Message".
Dick is also wearing a Blue Sun sweatshirt.
On page 1 of the story, the presence of a couple of
spaceships sitting in the background and the mention of
"port control" by Dick suggests the two boys are in a
spaceport.
On page 2 of the story, the hand-painted sign held by Dick
and Jayne and their shouting of "Sic 'em, Speshal!" suggest that
their hobo is called Speshal Raygun.
Also on page 2 of the story, notice that, despite their
status as minors, Dick has a lit cigarette in his hand and Jayne appears to be holding a
bottle of booze.
One of the hobos in the fight (possibly Speshal) has some
tattoos on his arms. One of them appears to read KP3112. The
significance of any of tatoos is unknown.
Obviously, the details of the story suggest that Jayne grew
up on a rough world, probably one of the border worlds largely
outside the influence of Alliance law.
The Ghost Machine
reveals that his homeworld is Sycorax.
Unanswered Questions
Who is Dick? Is he just a friend of Jayne's? A brother?
Little Jayne shows at least a small bit of altruistic feelings at
the beginning of this story, with his squeamishness at Dick's
killing of animals. Would he have grown up to be a very
different person on a less hostile world? Or without the influence
of Dick?
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