Club Jade

With New York Comic Con upon us, it’s of course rather apt that Ashley Exckstein and Her Universe are profiled in the New York Times. Newswise, we learn the company “is expected to reach $1 million in sales this year and turn its first profit.”

Her Universe doesn’t have a booth at NYCC this year, but Ashley will be livestreaming with MTV Geek.

What do we have here? Why, on the right, could that be a mockup/sketch of the new Star Wars: The Essential Characters that was announced at CVI? Doug Wheatley is doing the interior art for the book, and Erich Schoeneweiss says that is his “very rough and not final” sketch for the cover.

Both Del Rey and Dark Horse have Star Wars panels at NYCC this Friday. Del Rey will be revealing one new book (could it be the rumored Matt Stover Imperial Commando title?), and Dark Horse will have some big announcements as well.

ThinkGeek is now selling some of the Celebration VI exclusives today: Talking Ackbar, Vader/Stormtrooper salt and pepper shakers, the tauntaun hobby horse, the Gamorrean bank, the Death Star paper lantern and, of course, the Jar Jar whoopee cushion.

On Facebook this morning, Timothy Zahn posted that he’ll be attending NYCC in a “spur-of-the-moment decision.” It apperars he’ll be joining Pablo Hidalgo and Jason Fry on the Star Wars Books panel, as well as signings on Friday and Sunday.

Also on Facebook, Lucasbooks editor Jennifer Heddle has addressed concerns being brought up by Mike Cooper on diversity in the EU.

This is the whole thing, clocking in at almost 43 minutes and cameos from Star Wars and The Clone Wars cast/crew, plus fans like Amy Ratcliffe, Bryan Young and even a few Jader cameos!

Hint: At about minute 27, Ashley and artist Cat Staggs talk abut the con’s exclusive Mara Jade shirt.

Wondering what happened to the TIE Fighter that displayed all the sweets you saw on Cupcake Wars the other night? Well, wonder no more: It’s headed to Steve Sansweet’s Rancho Obi-Wan, of course.

(On that note, Food Network has posted the recipe for the Spiced Black Pepper Cupcakes, if you want to try them yourself.)

In other CVI news, Dave Filoni posted about his own experience in Orlando.

If you attended Celebration VI, check your inbox: Reed has sent out a survey about the con! Most of it is fairly standard postgame stuff, but one thing that caught my eye was a list of city options which they ask you to rate. In addition to Orlando, they listed Las Vegas, Kansas City, Anaheim, Dallas, Cleveland and my beloved Indianapolis.

Now, the rumor mill has us back in Orlando in 2014, and I’m not inclined to disbelieve that at the moment, but that is an interesting spread of options. (Cleveland?!?) I have to wonder what Anaheim’s convention center is like, as that brings many of the same advantages (ahem, Disney-driven tourism trap) as Orlando, with better weather.

Thoughts?

“How you get so big eating food of this kind?”

Food Network’s Cupcake Wars goes Star Wars this Sunday, with Ashley Eckstein as a guest judge. Ashley blogs about her experience as a judge, and urges those who were at the VIP party to keep mum about the winners. Cupcake Wars‘ Star Wars episode airs on Sunday, Sep 9, 2012 at 8:00 PM ET/PT on Food Network. (More broadcast times found here.)

Those who attended the VIP party at Celebration VI (or followed our coverage and on Twitter) know that I am a big fan of cupcakes. Mmmm…. cupcakes. I’ll go wipe the icing from my fingers and set my DVR.

And now, for something worth smiling about… Her Universe has posted the pictures from the fan photo shoot they did at Celebration! Above, Autumn, Grace and Lily model the Mara Jade shirt.

Screenshot taken from cached version: See more screenshots.

A Local 10 producer, only identified as such by tweet, apologizes:

The slideshow was by no means an attempt to belittle or embarrass anyone. The intent was for it to be a fun and lighthearted look inside my experience at the Star Wars Celebration VI and the people who devote a great deal of their lives to the films we all love. Obviously, I missed the mark.

Well, I said the apology would have to be sincere… Do you think this is enough?

UPDATE: The 501st also got a direct apology.

Original post and background on the situation below the cut.

(more…)