Club Jade

Why was the Riptide cover changed? Sue Rostoni answered a reader question on this the other day, saying “The sales folks at Random House weren’t sure it was strong enough — not as dynamic as they’d like.” Not sure I see it, but okay. (Personally, I’d rather they change up the Choices of One cover.) Compare them for yourself by clicking on the thumbnails at right.

In the future… J.W. Rinzler tweeted and then deleted about prepping for “a sequel of sorts” to The Jedi Path. Not a huge surprise in any case, though we all eagerly await details.

Canon, continuity, and The Clone Wars. A certain controversial event happened on last week’s Clone Wars. Leland Chee explains. (Spoilers for ‘Citadel Rescue.’)

Atlasery. Behold the sectors of the Mid Rim in the latest Essential Atlas extra.

Statistics 101. EU Cantina has a new staffer, Andrew, and for his first column he’s taken a look at the complaints that we’re getting less EU product lately.

Comics. Dark Horse’s solicitations for June include Lost Suns #1, Jedi: The Dark Side #2 and trades for Knight Errant: Aflame and the fourth A Long Time Ago omnibus.

On that note… John Jackson Miller’s Knight Errant novel answers, part the second.

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!

Nonfiction corner. StarWars.com talks to Ryder Windham and Pete Vilmur about The Complete Vader. On a related note, take a peek at Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Death Troopers. Did you catch all the Purge letters? No? Well, here are the direct links: DeathTroopers.com, StarWars.com, Star Wars Action News, NJOE, RebelScum, TheForce.net, and ours.

Podcasts. Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace are on the latest Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib. (Warning: auto-pla.)

Blogsided. Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on the pool of knowledge and Star Wars as part of the vernacular.

Ye Olde Databank. New or expanded entries for Jocasta Nu, Cad Bane, and Cato Parasitti. And hey – Ben Skywalker is in there now. That’s new! Newish. Wait, don’t tell me: They added him with the Backlash cover, didn’t they?

Sweet mockery. Checked in with We Hav to Take a Trip with Jacen Solo lately? Havac is currently working his way through Legacy of the Force.

Suvudu has been kind enough to offer up the embed of the chat they did with Atlas authors Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace the other day. Check it out below the cut. (more…)

More on the Atlas. First up, there’s a live chat with Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace today at 2pm EDT at Suvudu. And there’s heaps going on at StarWars.com: Background, an online appendix, and endnotes. And there’s a new interview with Jason Fry over at Lightsabre.

Fate of the Jedi. Lightsabre also has an interview with Troy Denning.

Charity. Another auction to help out John Ostrander. And don’t forget the Aaron Allston Donation Fund!

Short stories. Hyperspace members can now read ‘Passages’ by our own Charlene Newcomb!

The blogside: Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on alien dialogue.

Technology! A select few Star Wars comics are now available on the iPhone. And Death Troopers has a Twitter!

Essential Atlas: Suvudu has a multi-part video interview with Jason Fry and Dan Wallace about this week’s release… And if you still want to know more, there’s a live chat scheduled for September 2.

Darth Bane: Take a peek at the blurb and final cover for Drew Karpyshyn’s Dynasty of Evil. Let me mention again how very, very grateful I am to see John Jude Palencar back on cover duty for this storyline.

A Padawan’s Journal: Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on What Comes After Chapter One and Reality is in the Nuts and Bolts.

The blogside: Mandy considers Karen Traviss’ departure in the first of a four-part series.

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.

Still no detailed reports from the Fate of the Jedi panel (Anyone? Bueller?) but here’s something new out of San Diego Comic-Con: Character portraits scanned from The Esstential Atlas! MizzeeOH was one of the lucky few to nab an early copy of the book at the con, and she’s been scanning and sharing over at NJOE. Above, Ben Skywalker, Jaina Solo and Corran Horn. (And yes, that is a perfectly acceptable shade of red hair on Ben. Right, Kelly?)

First look: StarWars.com gives us a peek at The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I continue to wince at the appropriation of McQuarrie art in the name of designs based on those awful puppets. (Not that people were exactly Ralph’s greatest either, but if one must choose…) Your mileage may vary, but this is probably one Art of I’ll be sitting out for.

• Street date shuffle: The Essential Atlas has been moved back to August 18. Only a month this time!

• The blogside. Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff considers Dash Rendar in her latest Padawan’s Journal.
• Interviews: EUC is taking questions for their interview with Invasion’s Colin Wilson and Tom Taylor.

Drew Karpyshyn talks just a wee bit about Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil on his StarWars.com blog… And he’s moving to Austin to help out with that MMO thing Bioware is working on. People seem pretty geeked about that.

In other bloggy news, Dan Wallace has a few quotes from The Essential Atlas, which is still scheduled for a July release.