Out this week: Abyss, the Atlas, KOTOR

It’s a good week for a Star Wars craving – Tuesday brings the third Fate of the Jedi novel, Troy Denning’s Abyss (read an excerpt) and the oft-delayed, highly anticipated Essential Atlas by Daniel Wallace and Jason Fry. (Watch an interview.) Don’t forget it contains more than just maps.

Comic fans won’t go home empty-handed, either – Wednesday brings Knights of the Old Republic #44.

And I finally updated our book schedule page to reflect last week’s news from Sue Rostoni.

EUbits: Weaver, Chee, Wallace and TCW

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  • Toys: Rebelscum has pictures of Hasbro’s evolution of the Sith set, including shirtless Maul, Darth Nihilus, and the please-someone-get-him-a-tissue Darth Bane, right.
  • The blogside: Artist Dustin Weaver writes a bit about his cover for Dark Times #16.
  • Interviews: French site Star Wars Universe interviews Lucasfilm continuity guru Leland Chee, while NJOE has Essential Atlas author Dan Wallace.
  • The Clone Wars: There’s going to be another video game, Republic Heroes. I’m shocked! Well, not that shocked.

Out this week: Complete Encyclopedia, Wild Space

The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia 2.0This is a big week (literally) for Star Wars stuff: The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia finally arrives in bookstores tomorrow, along with Karen Miller’s The Clone Wars: Wild Space. And on Wednesday, comic fans can pick up The Clone Wars #3, aka ‘the one where Anakin thinks a eyepatch is an effective disguise.’ If that’s what they teach in those fancy Jedi disguise classes, why bother with Order 66?

The Complete Encyclopedia is nigh; March comics

The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia 2.0StarWars.com features The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, including several sample pages that the more keen-eyed among us might actually even be able to read. The book, written by Steve Sansweet, Pablo Hidalgo and Dan Wallace, Bob Vitas, Chris Cassidy, Mary Franklin and Josh Kushins, will be in stores next week. (Santa Maul would no doubt encourage you to consider it for your holiday lists.)

Also on the official site tonight are the March 2009 comics, including upcoming issues of Legacy and Knights of the Old Republic, along with a new Clone Wars digest, The Wind Raiders of Taloraan.

EUbits: Dark Times returning, TOR, Endor

Comics: There’s a new update from Editor Randy Stradley on Dark Horse’s Star Wars Zone, and it’s of particular interest to you Dark Times fans. A new story will appear (online, for free) in the January and February issues of Dark Horse Presents on MySpace, with the comic coming back into regular rotation with #13 in April. (Thanks, Zee Zee!)

EUbits: Essential Atlas falls back to July

Bad news, folks – The Essential Atlas release date has moved from February to July. Still confident we’ll see it… eventually. (Thanks for the heads-up, Zee Zee!)

More from Steve on the Force-Cast: Complete Encyclopedia, The Clone Wars, and a future project

I try to only listen to about one podcast a year – life, or rather, the amount of it I allot to blogging, is far too short – but I couldn’t avoid the latest Force-Cast since it’s basically an extended interview with Lucasfilm’s Head of Fan Relations, Steve Sansweet. (Yes, it was worth it, though the intro… I need to paraphrase Lorelei Gilmore: Shorten it, decute it.) Anyway, here’s what I learned:

  • A bit about about Celebration Japan – and C5. (Listen for yourself, or see previous entry.)
  • The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia is a project of not just Steve and Pablo, but an entire team – containing such luminaries as Dan Wallace, Bob Vitas, Mary Franklin and… Chris Cassidy!
  • The Encyclopedia will contain “close to a million words” and their intention is not to create new canon (at least not on purpose) but to “take advantage of what’s out there.”
  • Steve has another collecting book in the pipeline… Not a price guide, there’s one of those coming from Gus Lopez and Duncan Jenkins.
  • There’s no Grievous in The Clone Wars movie – his presence in the trailer is due to tv show footage.
  • Host Jimmy Mac sings Steve a song. It’s mildly amusing.

The podcast on the whole is a manageable 23 minutes, so I would recommend you listen to it yourself – at least if you want to hear more about Celebration Japan or the Encyclopedia.