Club Jade

32 days to the con and there are mere hours left to order tickets if you want your badge mailed to you: The deadline is 11:59 PM ET. (If you’re reading this Monday morning, you can still register: You’ll just have to pick up your badge in Orlando.)

• You can preorder your program and those nifty Han/Leia t-shirts.

• It may feature Boba Fett (sigh) but I actually kind of like the Empire Strikes Back tribute poster. But if you’re after some laughs, check out the latest promo art.
• The second round of artists is in. My favorite so far? Tsuneo Sanda (at right) though Scott Erwert’s propaganda-style offering is pretty neat as well.
• You can’t go wrong with troopers on Segways! Okay, we all know that’s a boldfaced lie. In any case, someone is going to smack their head on something, and we can only hope we’ll be there when they do.

There have been more guests added (most notably Warwick Davis and Ben Burtt) but if you’ve missed anything (I know I have) check out this handy page at StarWars.com.

I don’t like your jerkoff name, I don’t like your jerkoff face, I don’t like your jerkoff behavior and I don’t like you. Jerk off.

RIP. Artist Al Williamson, who illustrated the Star Wars comic strip and adaptions of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, passed away this weekend. He’s remembered by editor Dave Land at DarkHorse.com

We read it uphill, in the snow, with no boots. Suvudu salutes Heir to the Empire — with a little help from Tim Zahn, editor Tom Dupree and art director Jamie S. Warren — as part of their 25 years of Spectra features.

Solicitations. Look ahead to September comics from Dark Horse, with new issues of Invasion, The Old Republic: Threat of Peace, that Fett thing, and a $1 reprint of Legacy #1.

Blogside. Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on mistakes.

For the nitpickians. A new Essential Atlas appendix – in PDF form. Prime your hole-punchers!

We’ve already covered a bunch of Empire Strikes Back anniversary stuff, but today is the actual day. Here’s more stuff to check out:

The sequel begins. Leigh Brackett’s first draft of the film surfaced on the internet last week, giving us an intriguing glimpse into the could-have-beens, including a “tender love scene” between Luke and Leia, Lando being a clone, and Darth Vader’s pet gargoyles. (If you just want the highlights, Geeks of Doom has a nice rundown.)

Visuals. Lucasfilm gave Maxim magazine some rare photos, and to save us classy broads from buying Maxim (err, sorry guys) they’re also on StarWars.com.

Disturbance. They also have a look back at the Emperor’s first appearance – including some seriously whacked-out concept art. Baron Harkonnen is totally jealous.

In other news…

• Sci Fi Wire’s Periodic Table of The Empire Strikes Back.

• The Beat calls Empire “the movie that made being a nerd cool.”
• Ars Technica’s Ben Kuchera: ESB is “one of the best science fiction films ever made.”
• LA Weekly was also on hand at Wednesday’s Empire screening, chatting up stars on the red carpet; KABC-TV nabbed video of Harrison Ford and Ewan McGregor, while the Los Angeles Times has Ford.
• It’s “Empire Strikes Back Night” at tonight’s Dodgers game.
• io9′s Marc Bernardin pegs ESB as the film that “introduced an entire generation of moviegoers to the notion of tragedy.”
• Empire is (shocker!) Underwire’s choice as the finest in the trilogy. They’re also giving away one of those new Hasbro At-ATs and counting down 30 reasons Empire still rules.
• There’s another iPhone app coming for me to suck at. ‘The Battle for Hoth’ should show up in the App Store soon – it isn’t there as I type this, but I did find a Christian heavy metal song. (If you’re dying for details, TFN published the press release.)
• Hoth is coming to The Old Republic.

See any more unique tributes to ESB today? Post them in the comments or tell me on Twitter (@clubjade) and I’ll get them in.

Pablo reports from last night’s The Empire Strikes Back screening and Harrison Ford Q&A in Los Angeles.

Light speeding towards you in 3-D! (via)

Spike is taking the original trilogy for a go-round beginning Saturday, while Fox will air Family Guy’s ‘Something, Something, Something Dark Side’ as the show’s finale Sunday night. (I doubt it’s worth missing the Lost finale, but I suppose people will watch it anyway.)

May is still showering, but in the land of Hallmark, spring means only one thing: The 2010 Dreambook is out. There are several Star Wars selections: One set of Yoda and Captain Rex (page 56) and several Empire Strikes Back-themed ornaments (pages 60-61) that you can check out below the cut. Luke in flight gear, a snowspeeder, and Vader chatting with holo Palpy are full size, while the mini set is Boba Fett and Han in Carbonite. (more…)

Is your tauntaun sleeping bag lonely? Hold out a few months and you can get him a wampa rug or C-3PO backpack pal!