Club Jade

Interview. Paul S. Kemp’s Star Wars books so far have seemed to be fairly well received, but will we ever see him step up to write Luke, Han, Leia and the rest? In an interview with the Dearborn Press and Guide, Kemp says “I don’t think so.”

“Writers bring certain things to the table as part of the craft. Some are very good at plotting, some are gifted at prose, I think where I excel naturally is developing interesting, conflicted characters. To do that, I need a lot of room. It’s hard to do that with characters with so much history already behind them. It’s difficult for me to tell the kind of story I’d like to tell and have it star Luke, Han, Lando, and Leia, and their kids.”

The rest of the article echos much of what he said in a blog entry about getting started as a writer.

The Old Republic: Revan. Drew Karpyshyn has a brief Q&A on his site about the upcoming book – which, you may be happy to know, is already in the hands of Del Rey. The book is current scheduled for an October release.

Comics. Comic Book Resources interviews John Ostrander about the upcoming series Agent of the Empire. Also at CBR, six pages of Jedi: The Dark Side #1.

Art. If you’re a fan of the Hildebrandt’s artwork for Shadows of the Empire, you’ll want to check out this gallery by Paxton Holley on Flickr, which contains some shots of the models for the some of the paintings. (via mMathab)

Opinion Chris over at EUC has some suggestions for the various publishing eras.

Looking for the perfect way to share how how you feel on Valentine’s Day? Ranging from “I’d just as soon kiss a Wookiee” to “I’m haunted by the kiss you should never have given me”, Darth Cupid has had you covered for your Star Wars valentine needs for decades. (more…)

Can’t end the year without a list, can we? Here are our staff’s picks for the ten best books of the year.

Be sure to check out more favorites at StarWars.com. They asked us to do the literature portion, but other contributers include Kyle Newman, Ashley Eckstein, TFN’s Eric Geller, Steve Sansweet, and Bonnie Burton!

10. Star Wars Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle by Daniel Wallace, Pablo Hidalgo, Gus Lopez, and Ryder Windham
Rounding out the list is the one book that has it all. Expanded Universe history? Check. Oddball merchandise? Check. Museum exhibits? Early versions of Yoda? Mark Hamill on Broadway? Check, check, and you better believe it. Star Wars Year by Year compiles over four decades (yes, four) of highlights, lowlights, and trivia – think of it, perhaps, as The Essential Franchise Chronology. But its scope goes beyond Lucasfilm productions. The authors also spotlight various milestones in science, pop-culture, and politics, giving readers a sense of the events that helped shape Star Wars, as well as how Star Wars changed the world. – Stooge

9. The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance by Sean Williams
Setting the stage for the eventual release of The Old Republic MMO, Fatal Alliance builds up the worlds and character types, and then throws them all into the fray against a new threat. Sean Williams captures the look of this era, and brings together some new enjoyable characters. It’s a heist caper that unfolds into a tale of espionage and war. It takes a little while to set up the players, but the endgame is well worth it. - James

8. Millennium Falcon: A 3D Owner’s Guide by Ryder Windham
The saga’s most iconic ship is revealed! Ryder Williams’ text is sparse but clever, the illustration work by Chris Trevas and Chris Reiff shines, and the layer-by-layer design is icing on the cake. Kids will love it and adults will delight in the technical specs and (in-character!) modification notes. It’s a just plain fun book – certain to entrance even the most jaded fan for at least a little while. – Dunc

7. Fate of the Jedi: Vortex by Troy Denning
With Luke and Ben and their new Sith allies having defeated a more sinister evil, you’d think that Troy Denning would take it easy on the Jedi Order, but Abeloth’s demise in Allies is just the beginning of a series of explosive events. Faster that you can say “Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal”, the Sith bring it. Chief of State Daala brings it. The Mandalorians bring it. Tahiri’s prosecutor brings it. So it’s up to a couple of Jedi, and Han and Leia to strike back – and when they bring Lando and droids to help, you know it’s going to get heavy as the Jedi shake things up against their adversaries. - James

6. The Sounds of Star Wars by J. W. Rinzler and Ben Burtt
A book that needs a volume button? Not to worry, this is more than just a gimmick. To fully explore the audio awesomeness of Ben Burtt, The Sounds of Star Wars has a built-in soundboard which plays over 200 (unmixed!) effects from that galaxy far, far away. So you can read about the crazy ways he made these sounds, then listen to the fantastic end results! Plus, Mr. Burtt has enough behind-the-scenes stories to fill ten volumes – and for a quadruple Oscar-winner, he’s remarkably humble. - Stooge (more…)

I’ve been running hot and cold (mostly cold) on the more recent Star Wars prints from Mondo. But the latest offerings – which go on sale later today – are pretty neat. They’re limited run and go on sale sometime today – You’ll have to keep an eye on Mondo’s Twitter to find out exactly.

UPDATE: And… Gone.

Making maths. Justin Brown calculates how much he’s spent on Star Wars over the years. And although it’s a nice chunk of change, it’s still less than one copy of Frames, so I’ll give him a pass, despite that whole Boba Fett thing.

A social experiment. Ryan Britt takes a look at just how confused Clone Wars loving kids may be by their first look at the rest of the movies. Could ‘Anakin becomes Vader’ end up as their ‘Han shot first?’

…And for their parents. John Scalzi looks at awesome scenes in bad movies.

Right at home. Artist Cedric Delsaux returns to fandom’s radar with a new set of Star Wars images taken in what may be the world’s most sci-fiesque city, Dubai.

Why stormtroopers miss. Cracked explains the much-maligned plot hole with science.

Eye Candy Vader and Yoda via font.

Via Underwire, which is giving away a copy of the book.

If you haven’t spotted Visions yet, don’t fret – it’s officially out today. (Or maybe yesterday, according to Amazon. Even though they’ve been shipping it for a few weeks now. Whatever.) Meanwhile, coming to comic shops on Wednesday is The Old Republic #5

Costume for sale. An original Darth Vader costume – believed to have been from The Empire Strikes Back – will soon be going up for auction at Christie’s in London. It’s being put up for sale by “an American private collector” and is expected to fetch at least $250,000. A percentage of the sale price will go to cancer research.

In spaaaaace. A stable planet orbiting twin stars has been found 49 light-years away. (Alas – it is a gas giant.) Still, researchers have named the planet “Inrakluk,” which sounds pretty Wookiee to me.

Partnerships. Lucas Online has a new partner, Big Spaceship, for some of their digital endeavors. Maybe this means we’ll see a kickass StarWars.com app?

People. USA Weekend interviews Matt Lanter, the actor who angsts enough for two on The Clone Wars and 90210.

Books. Visions is getting some nice press… Check out a profile of contributing artist Robert Bailey, who got to meet George Lucas, from The Edmonton Journal.

It’s the time of year when all the Star Wars ‘holiday books’ are released; leaving fans drooling and wondering which one they should put on their list.  One that seems to have gotten lost in the promotional blitz is Star Wars Art: Visions.

Inspired by an idea George Lucas discussed with J. W. Rinzler, this book is a magnificent collection of art that should please everyone’s tastes.

Each artist was commissioned by Lucas to create their vision of Star Wars.  What they come up with is a wondrous variety of art in styles from Renaissance to Pop and spanning many different aspects of the saga.  Each piece is given its own page or pages on high quality paper.  And this works well, as you’ll want to study many of them in detail.

I had reactions from laughter to sadness.  And they’re each one interesting in their own style.  At the end of the book are explanations of the work from many of the artists that add to the fascination of the book.  It’s well worth the investment.

My only negative is that the binding doesn’t seem quite up to the task of holding the high quality paper.  Only time will tell on that.  But this is definitely a worthy coffee table book that you’ll review time and again.

It’s time to start looking in earnest for the art book Star Wars: Visions. While it’s been listed online with a November release date, there have been several reports of it being in stores, which I take to mean that it’s not formally street dated. Preview some of the pieces at Underwire, and be sure to check out Paula’s review.

(Note: This post originally said that The Clone Wars S2 DVDS and TFUII were coming out today. That’s, uhh, next week. Sorry for any confusion.)