Club Jade

Random House Audio continued their convention tour, bringing some of their audio book production team to Star Wars Celebration VI as well as having a show floor presence. I caught the Star Wars University: Audio Books panel with staff from Random House Audio, producer Aaron Blank, narrator Marc Thompson (check out my interview with Marc), and director Kevin Thomsen. Crashing the panel was Leland Chee, keeper of the Holocron. Key points from the panel: (more…)

Street dates. Knights Archive spotted this release date for Troy Denning’s Crucible on the Random House Smart Archive. As it is put there by the publisher this could be the real release date… At the moment, anyway. The farther we are out from a release date, the more the things move around, but it might be worth penciling in.

Meet the new folks. Rebels authors Martha Wells and Kevin Hearne both spoke out publicly for the first time after the announcement of their new Star Wars project.

Star Wars Reads. Start planning for October 6th now, as StarWars.com has posted a location map for events through the U.S. A few authors have posted where they’ll be appearing already: Troy Denning, Dan Wallace and John Jackson Miller will be in Roseville, MN, while Pablo Hidalgo and Haden Blackman will appear in Corte Madera, CA, along with Aaron Allston, Drew Karpyshyn and Alexander Freed in Austin, TX. I suspect we’ll be hearing about more of these as the date approaches!

Comics. Skuldren from Roqoo Depot taped the ‘One Writer’s Approach to Star Wars’ panel at Celebration.

Detectiving! In all the hussle and bussle of live-tweeting Celebration, there’s not always time go back and find your sources. Thankfully, Pete did a little digging to find Paul Kemp’s tweet about his mystery duology.

Those of us who were at the Del Rey panel at Celebration will certainly remember Shea Standefer‘s Jaina costume – she was one of the first up at the Q&A and quite popular with photographers afterwards. Well, she sent us in a couple of pictures of the two Jainas she wore, taken with the backdrops at the con. Check them out below the cut.

(more…)

I had some time to catch up with PIGGY, the well-traveled Gamorrean Guard, at Star Wars Celebration VI. Thanks to PIGGY’s handler, Jon Leopold, for his assistance. It’s amazing how much PIGGY likes the same things I do in Star Wars.

I had planned to upload my pictures at the con, but due to some key issues like forgotten passwords and awful hotel wifi, it was not to be. Still, I a) took more pictures than I did at CV and b) uploaded them less than a week after getting home. Let’s call that progress and be done with it.

Yes, some of them are iPhone photos, but most are from my trusty Lumix. EU fans, you’ll find most of the Essential Reader’s Companion art shown at the Essential panel. Cupcake fans, I have so many pictures of the Cupcake Wars cupcakes that your teeth will hurt. (And big thanks to Her Universe for the invite!) James, I will never stop taking pictures of you with food when you insist on posing with it. And finally: Disco Anakin. I know you want to see Disco Anakin, an officially licensed product of Hasbro, not something Club Jaders made on a dare, I swear.

And, yes, don’t forget James’ pictures! Also, if anyone got a shot of either of the two Doctor Who Elevens I heard about, please share a link to it in the comments!

Well, this is disappointing… Hasbro revealed their new Mara Jade Skywalker figure at Celebration VI – the Jedi one we voted for in hopes she’d be wearing something other than the catsuit. Well, as expected, the figure is wearing the catsuit anyway… And sporting the wrong lightsaber to boot, so there are certainly going to be some disappointed Mara fans out there. In any case, start looking for the figure in the spring.

Thanks to Phil of ASMZine for the heads-up – check out the figure, plus further thoughts and the possibility of another – under the cut.

(more…)

After the Random House Audiobooks panel, I had the opportunity to chat with voice actor Marc Thompson about his work as the narrator of the audio versions of the Star Wars novels. Plus he gives us a little sample of one of his favorite characters, Cilghal.

And for the last day of Celebration VI – more photos! The Sunday edition of photos from Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando. We’ve got some of the Rancho Obi-Wan Experience, Sunday’s Bounty Hunt, me in the Random House Audio booth, and hanging out after the close, and of course, random costumes and coolness.

And if you missed them:

• Saturday
• Friday
• Thursday and earlier

So yesterday I reported on the kids-focused screening of Young Jedi at Star Wars Celebration VI. Today I checked in with a few sources about what Young Jedi is all about. My first assumption about Young Jedi while viewing it was that it was going to be a story arc on The Clone Wars this season, but one thing I immediately noticed was the lack of a The Clone Wars title card – merely the Young Jedi logo. The screening definitely felt like it could be broken apart into several episodes of the show in terms of the storyline.

Afterwards, I heard about George Lucas’ mention of a younger-audience series during another panel, and thought that Young Jedi would fit the bill as a spinoff of The Clone Wars for younger audiences, and Lucas’ presence in the audience was his way to gauge audience reaction. Did the kids and parents in the audience get a sneak peek at an early version of the pilot? I got a chance to talk to someone with an in on the project. (more…)

Literally just announced at the Closing Ceremonies here at Celebration VI: Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith in 3D will be released mere weeks apart next year, and the second Celebration Europe will be held in Germany, also next year.

Attack of the Clones 3D will come out on September 20, 2013, followed by Revenge of the Sith 3D on October 11, 2013! Fans in the Closing Ceremonies got to see clips of both films.

Also announced is the second Celebration in Europe: It’ll be July 26-28, 2013 at the Messe Essen in Essen, Germany. I bet the Belgian modelmakers are relieved!