Another sci-fi TV series dead before it’s time, or a blessing in disguise? Hard to see, the future is.
Fury cover sighted?
NJOE has discovered a German bookshop has posted a cover for Aaron’s Fury. Is it the real thing? Only LucasBooks knows for sure.
ETA: Read the comments!
CIV: The Expanded Universe
First things first: all the EU fans were scrambling for the early copies of Sacrifice, which promptly sold out before noon on Thursday morning. I was working all morning and thus missed out, but enough CJers grabbed copies that I was able to borrow one and check on a few spoilers. The second shipment came in Saturday morning, and I was finally able to grab a copy of my own. I only hope that next time the hotly anticipated book can come out a few weeks before the con, if for no other reason than…
Friday’s Legacy of the Force panel was the major EU event, at least for those of us with a focus on the books. All three series authors, both editors, and Pablo moderating. No Sacrifice spoilers allowed, which is a shame. I can understand the reasoning, but how long will it be before fans have access to that entire lineup again, with the pivotal book of the series hot on everyone’s mind? Hrrm. We did learn that the final LOTF book is titled Invincible. There were the usual allotment of questions regarding Jaina’s harem and the oh-so-hot topic of traditional Mandalorian dance. Quite a few Mando questions, actually – enough to warrant a dedicated panel next time, I’d say. (Please.) There was also some sort of recording going on during the panel, so it may be that audio will go up on the TOS in time.
Saturday was the Publishing/Continuity and Dark Horse panels. Continuity was sparsely attended, but whether that was due to it being the first panel on a day where folks were having trouble getting in or a general lack of interest I’ve no idea. The folks who did show up were quite enthusiastic, and the Wookieepedians were excited to get a look at the mighty and mysterious Holocron. And we learned that Plagueis is still a Muun, even with his book canceled. (Curses!) They also may reprint the Making of books for ESB and ROTJ, adding new photos and material.
The Dark Horse panel, later in the day, was packed, but they’re holding back any big announcements until later in the year. Something big is planned for 2008 and 2009… Let’s hope it’s not just TFU tie-ins. They did, however, talk about reviving the Tales concept as an annual… And there were a lot of Legacy questions, but nothing particularly groundbreaking.
Other EU news
- Hasbro is coming out with a Baron Fel and Hobbie two-pack. I guess Wes and Hobbie’s love is just not pure enough for plastic immortality.
- Karen Traviss and Tom Hodges had a meeting at the con with the new Star Wars Insider folks about original fiction.
- Short fiction on Hyperspace will return.
- Two original web strips, available to all, will start on StarWars.com this summer.
- What’s the Story is being retired, but the concept of letting fans contribute to the EU isn’t.
And of course, the Clone Wars footage…
The Muppet Show in Ham’s Deep
Grumpy McGrumperpants goes to con
I admit to being throughly sick of the Star Wars main theme by the end of the con, but “A convention that almost killed Star Wars?” Okay! (Thanks, Bonnie!)
I am more than willing to believe that the cake was that bad. We just wrangled it, dude.
CIV: Team Cake
Never again.
Official site looks towards the future
While we were gone, StarWars.com got a bit of a facelift. The front of the site is now driven by Flash, no doubt with an eye towards a that less news-driven site that Pablo has been mentioning lately. And from a designer’s standpoint, it sure is shiny… Like last time, the redesign process will be gradual, and for now most everything beyond the front is pretty familiar.
The biggest change, however, is the brand-new video section, which gathers all the site’s video content together in a slick Youtube-inspired interface. Or is that two brand-new video sections? Mashups features actual clips you can edit, remix, and upload right on the site, a huge step for any official site to make.
Overall I feel pretty positive towards the changes, and while I’ll miss the news-focus, I look forward to seeing what upgrades the rest of the site will get. It can’t all be Flash…
Flashback: Jedi Pick Up Lines
Originally posted sometime in the mid/late 90’s, this list was compiled from a CJ chat aided by too little sleep, and too much wine at a very late hour…
“Hey baby, wanna go violate the Jedi Code?”
“Hey baby, wanna create a disturbance in the Force?”
“You could make a Jedi crave excitement and adventure!” Continue reading “Flashback: Jedi Pick Up Lines”
Kerfuffle of the moment
We leave town for a week and everyone starts getting delusions of grandeur… The wankpocalypse (expected July 21, 2007) has come early, it seems. Livejournal has deleted several communities and journals that host incest and slash fanfic, supposedly prompted by complaints about said journals promoting pedophilia. Fandom being fandom, paranoia runs rampart, all the way to Fandom Wank and Boing Boing. I’m not particularly familiar with anything that got deleted, but community names like ‘childlove’ and ‘master_badtouch’ do give me pause.
Cause for concern? Yes. But I doubt this is going to cause a fandom-wide purge, although TPM slashers and Luke/Leia shippers best take a good look at their interest lists. And how about we just stay away from the underage incest porn, ‘mkay?
ETA: Mainstream attention from News.com, and a fan response that doesn’t involve excessive knee-jerking.
ETA2: Livejournal speaks.
CIV: The one we’ve been waiting for
The biggest thing to come out of this Celebration was, of course, the much-anticipated and yet totally unexpected (well, unannounced) Clone Wars footage. As disappointed as I was to first hear that the animated series would be yet another dose of the Clone Wars, I must admit it looks pretty cool. There’s a report from the C4 panel at the StarWars.com Celebration blog. Alas, due to my schedule I never made the actual panels, although I did manage to catch the footage itself on screen, and it’s fantastic in high-def. I hope everyone who could caught it that way.
The fan-produced “3-D animated stills” mentioned is probably the ‘Tales from the New Republic’ project. While impressive for a fan production (and more in line with what I hoped for the animated series, sigh) the image quality suffers in comparison to the CW footage. Still, it’s a great idea and a lot of work, and I hope they can pull it off!
Even if… umm… no comment.