Club Jade

Dark Horse Comics announced their stories for their two Free Comic Book Day releases. The publisher will continue their tradition of having flip covers, but will have three different stories in each comic book.

In their all-ages book, the Star Wars story by Brian Wood and stars both Darth Vader and Boba Fett. Also in that book will be a story about Mai from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and a peek into the upcoming series, Captain Midnight, about the search for a superhero gone missing.

In the other comic, we get a trio of stories: R.I.P.D. (by Jeremy Barlow), Mass Effect and a preview of the police-state world of The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. The best part? They’re free! The worst part? Having to wait until Free Comic Book Day 2013, which is Saturday, May 4.

In a video interview with CBR, Dark Horse founder Mike Richardson says that he and Randy Stradley “have started talking about revisiting the last chapter of Crimson Empire.” Comic fans have been waiting nearly a decade for that one. He also mentions retooling the second mini/graphic novel, Council of Blood, for “fixing all the stuff that got left out” due to possible prequel conflicts. There’s already a thread on the Dark Horse boards – perhaps Stradley will shed a bit more light on this soon? (Keep an eye on the Star Wars zone!)

Could that be the big project for 2009 that Sue hinted at a few weeks ago? Seems likely: It’s sure to get the fanboys all hot and bothered.

UPDATE: Not so, according to Stradley.

But! There’s also Star Wars Adventures, a new all-ages digest series teased in the letter column of the latest Rebellion. We don’t know much, but Jeremy Barlow is writing a story for it about Han and Chewbacca, and it’s slated to debut sometime next year. As someone who was rarely interested in the Dark Horse line until Star Wars Tales came around, I’ll be sure to nab Adventures.

Associate editor Jeremy Barlow is stepping down to concentrate on writing full-time. In his tenure at Dark Horse he’s written several comics and edited Tales, Clone Wars Adventures, Knights of the Old Republic and was helming the Indiana Jones comics. (Dave Land will be taking over Indy.)

Jeremy Barlow and Randy Stradley talk Star Wars comics at Comic Book Resources:

With the vision and dedication these men have to making the Star Wars comics better and better, fans can look forward to greater character development, more exciting storylines and perhaps even a few surprises.