Club Jade

Jawajames has been out and about in his Bounty Hunt duties, and caught George Lucas walking the con floor before it opened Friday morning. With the Big Event nearly upon us (reports are that it’s already “insane,”) we all have early call times so I’m trying to make this quick.

(Volunteering and blogging is not a good combo. Though if you stop by the StarWars.com booth and talk to one of the orange shirts there this weekend, there’s a good chance it’ll be Eliz or I, and we have bracelets. Or just come to Fandom in 140 on Sunday, hint hint.)

• StarWars.com has some day one stuff, including the 2010 Fan Movie Challenge Winners, Dark Horse (guess I need to believe the Crimson Empire 3 thing now,) Hasbro and the ever-popular video highlights. Their blog has some costume shots, with more coming in on Flickr.

• EU Cantina was at today’s Clone Wars and Old Republic panel, not to mention their own on the Atlas.
• Seth Green is Team Jacob. Thanks for that.

Good luck to everyone tomorrow! And remember: Twitter is the place to be for on-the-moment news!

StarWars.com has posted their panel guide for book and comic fans. (Looks like we’re going to be cutting it pretty close between Del Rey and FOTJ on Saturday.) And don’t forget the author signings!

We haven’t heard much on the comic front since the cancellation of Legacy, but DarkHorse.com has a few hints today:

• John Ostrander has “already begun work on the scripts for the next very top-secret thing.”

• Tom Taylor has proposed “a semi-regular series” based on Blood Ties, aka the Fett comic. However, it “will not be what you expect it to be!” So… Not Fett, then?
• A “well-known” writer has a proposal in for a series that could launch Dark Horse’s twenty-fifth anniversary year. We’ll hear more about it towards the end of July.

Could one of these items be the big news for Celebration. We can only hope.

Oh, and there’s also a peek at the Legacy #50 pencils.

Seems to me that the knee-jerking over the Legacy cancellation was transfered over to the weekend’s cartoon news, but for those still panicking, Dark Horse’s Randy Stradley has come through with a statement. Yes, the book is ending, but…

No door closes without another opening, and to those longtime readers who pointed out that it was not likely that I would end Legacy without having some replacement planned, I thank you for your confidence. Trust me, it will be rewarded.

Well, I’m intrigued.

So sayth the July 2010 comics solicitations. Here’s the summary for the finale:

The galaxy is teetering on the edge of a new future, with everyone fighting for a foothold — not to mention their lives! The galaxy that emerges from this chaotic battle could even end up without a Skywalker to carry the legacy that so many have come to depend on… The final issue! Sith versus Sith! Jedi versus Sith! Imperials versus Sith! Cade Skywalker versus Sith! It’s all-out war!

I’m neither surprised nor particularly heartbroken. Legacy started out strong, and it’s still likely to be the only Dark Horse ongoing series that I actually have enough interest in to read completely, but it feels like it (or rather, one Cade Skywalker) has been stuck in a rut for a good long while. Maybe a big, booming wrap up is just what the comic needs to live up to its early promise.

It does seem odd that the first we hear of this is via the solicitations, though… Particularly considering that writer John Ostrander said in October that Legacy would not be ending with #50.

UPDATE: Ostrander says on the Dark Horse boards: “It was true when I said it. And might still be. . .from a certain point of view.” So hold to this, Legacy fans: The series ending doesn’t necessarily mean that the story will.

Randy Stradley and company are in San Francisco for Wondercon, and naturally Star Wars came up. Randy talked extensively about the next Invasion arc, and had this to say about Legacy:

Stradley noted that the recent issues of “Star Wars: Legacy” have brought readers to the “tipping point” where Cade Skywalker puts aside his life as a bounty hunter to fight the Sith. “In the next few months, you’re going to see how that comes together, and really how his involvement spurs so much that happens in the galaxy. I don’t even want to get into all the stuff that’s going on. But we’ve got a big surprise coming, and if you thought the end of the current issue was a big surprise, then you really haven’t seen anything yet.”

Hrm. I have yet to pick up the new issue, but the series is in dire need of a serious game-changer for Cade. Bring it on!

Diamond’s site was down all day, but the usually trustworthy Midtown Comics isn’t showing any Star Wars releases this week.

Instead, gaze into the future of May and July 2010 comics. Highlights include a very Palpy-looking Luke, Cade continuing his ride in the plot hamster wheel and Poser.

Our first rumor of the new year! Rich Johnston of the comic site Bleeding Cool claims that Lucasfilm, Dark Horse and DC Comics will be “getting into bed for crossovers with epic proportions.” Okay? It certainly seems like Dark Horse has been keeping something under wraps, but that could mean anything… (via)

They’re just not finding an audience, says Randy Stradley. (Shocking!) The bookstore-friendly digests will continue. And this might have changed somewhere along the way, but wasn’t the monthly series supposed to be a limited one anyway?

No books, no comics, just the Obi-centric Star Wars Insider #112. In more forward-looking news (or at least stuff you didn’t read last month,) the official site has December 2009 comic solicitations.