Star Wars Story Talk: Salt Lake Comic Con, Aliens of the Galaxy, & Year by Year

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Time for a new colossal-sized episode of Star Wars Story Talk as Yowie the Skunk, Baby Jawa, and I cover the latest in Star Wars stories, and we have a lot to talk about: a few recent Star Wars events and check out not one, not two, but three Star Wars books! I give a recap of all the Star Wars goings-on at Salt Lake Comic Con, held at the beginning of September, plus talk a bit on Star Wars Day at the San Diego Padres, and dive into three books: the newest Star Wars Little Golden Book: I Am a Princess, and Star Wars: Aliens of the Galaxy by Jason Fry and the newly released Star Wars Year by Year: A Visual History, Updated and Expanded Edition by Pablo Hidalgo. Plus an update on Wear Star Wars Every Day and a triple dose of Baby Jawa fun time! Continue reading “Star Wars Story Talk: Salt Lake Comic Con, Aliens of the Galaxy, & Year by Year”

Star Wars Story Talk: Rogue One trailer reaction video, SWCE, SDCC, & Aftermath: Life Debt

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We’ve got a jumbo episode of Star Wars Story Talk (AKA the show formerly known as Unboxing Star Wars) as Yowie the Skunk, Baby Jawa, and I cover a whole sandcrawler-load of the latest in Star Wars stories. Baby Jawa does her first reaction video, watching the Rogue One trailer, and Yowie and I talk a bit about Star Wars Celebration Europe, San Diego Comic-Con and review Aftermath: Life Debt, the new novel by Chuck Wendig! Plus a little update on Wear Star Wars Every Day, a visit from a Loth-cat, and of course some Baby Jawa fun time!


Quick reviews
→ Trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – I am really excited for this movie and this trailer just pushes it up another notch. But how will Baby Jawa react to her first movie trailer viewing?
→ Star Wars Celebration Europe – Big thumbs up! A whole ton of fun and a lot of work. Plus seeing old friends and making new ones while in London!
→ Star Wars at San Diego Comic-Con – Even though there wasn’t a big movie panel, Star Wars still brought a lot to San Diego, including the Rogue One costume display and the publishing panel.
Star Wars: Aftermath – Life Debt – Chuck Wendig increases the scale and brings in some favorite film characters into the post-ROTJ era as the heroes help track down Han Solo as he’s disappeared while trying to liberate Kashyyyk. Solid read!
→ Loth-Cat Plush from Star Wars Celebration Europe – A big hit! Mrowwwl! Help me come up with a name for this grinning feline!

Mentioned on Star Wars Story Talk
On StarWars.com: Recent interviews with Chuck Wendig on Aftermath: Life Debt from Del Rey and Jarrett J. Krosoczka on Jedi Academy: A New Class from Scholastic.

Podcasts: Thanks to Coffee with Kenobi for having me on the podcast as a featured guest to talk Bloodline, Life Debt, and Wear Star Wars Every Day, and thanks to Skywalking through Neverland for bringing me on the show to discuss Wear Star Wars Every Day.

Salt Lake Comic Con: Check out my schedule at Salt Lake Comic Con (Sept 1 to Sept 3) or just view the general Star Wars-related programming, featuring Mark Hamill, Jeremy Bulloch, Lucasfilm Story Group members: Pablo Hidalgo, Leland Chee, and Matt Martin; also including Star Wars authors, artists, and voice actors, and the Full of Sith podcast crew: Bryan Young, Amy Ratcliffe, and Mike Pilot.

Get more info on Wear Star Wars Every Day or make a donation at GoFundMe or sign up to make a per-day pledge.

Note: Del Rey provided a copy of Life Debt: Aftermath (Star Wars) for review.

Timothy Zahn and Jeremy Bulloch doing Reddit AMAs today

UPDATE: Jeremy Bulloch’s AMA is now live. And here’s Tim’s! I’ll recap any Star Wars stuff in a new post later.

Both author Timothy Zahn and actor Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett in Empire and Jedi) are doing Reddit Ask Me Anythings today.

Bulloch is first up at noon EDT/9 a.m. PDT, while Zahn takes the evening/afternoon shift at 7 p.m. EDT/4 p.m. PDT. And, uhh, unless they make a HUGE announcement today, I don’t think he’ll be able to tell you if Mara or Thrawn is going to show up in Episode VII or Rebels.

Video: Warwick Davis and the Five Fetts

Sunday at Celebration Europe was the Fett-tastic Four panel, which quickly turned into a quintet with the surprise arrival of Temuera Morrison to join Jeremy Bulloch, Daniel Logan, John Morton (who filled in as Boba Fett for a few days in The Empire Strikes Back), and Dickey Beer (Boba Fett stunts in Return of the Jedi). The stage show was quite a bit of fun, with Bulloch making his appearance in his 501st Legion Boba Fett costume, and Warwick hosting a series of games to see which of the four Boba Fetts was the best: in shooting Nerf guns at Ewoks, and emoting after Jango’s beheading (aka Four Fetts and a Funeral). Here, Warwick Davis chats with the Fett family about the enduring popularity of Boba Fett.

Roundup: Getting ready for May the 4th

emperorUSA Today has done a handful of stories celebrating May the 4th and previewing the 30th anniversary of Return of the Jedi on the 25th. They talked to Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Jeremy Bulloch and blogger Whitney Matheson got a visit from Chewbacca. And on that note, they want your best Chewbacca impression.

Back to ROTJ, Jalopnik has a peice on how they filmed the speeder chase.


Need to convert a friend? Amazon has the Original and Prequel trilogy box sets (but not the saga?) slightly more on sale than usual. And hey, you can alleviate at least some of your Episode VII fears with a discount on J.J.’s Star Trek, too!

And you can save 50% on a subscription to the Star Wars Insider tomorrow as well by using the promo code MAY4TW.


Events. In addition to Entertainment Weekly’s ROTJ screening and the Toledo Mud Hens, Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando will be celebrating, and Change.org is hosting a Star Wars screening in San Francisco.

Still not sure what you’re doing? Find a local May the 4th event on StarWars.com.

Carrie Fisher returns for Celebration VI

Well, they promised us Celebration announcements, are here they are: Carrie Fisher will be back for her third appearance at the con. Also confirmed: Jeremy Bulloch and Daniel Logan, along with the news that this year’s art helmet will be Fett’s. And another Clone Wars guest, CG Supervisor Joel Aron, who will teach “master class sessions” in the lecture hall.

And, of course, to bring us the ‘no duh’ component, the family room will return.

Of a bit more interest is the fan table lineup. I’m not surprised by the amount of costume clubs, but I am a little sad that Wookieepedia is the only straight-up fansite. But then again, all us fansite folks are going to way too busy covering stuff to sit around manning tables..

Out this week: Making of ESB, Knight Errant

Two big releases this week! Coming up first, on Tuesday, is J.W. Rinzler’s eagerly anticipated The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the follow-up to 2007’s The Making of Star Wars. I was lucky enough to find a copy early this weekend, and while I haven’t had a chance to do a proper read, I can say one thing: It is huge.

I suspect we’ll see a good deal of press on this, but so the biggies are Vanity Fair’s interviews with Rinzler and Jeremy Bulloch (Irvin Kershner coming soon.) Meanwhile, io9 has some tidbits out of NYCC.

The other new release that’s been getting a lot of buzz in fandom is Knight Errant #1 by KOTOR’s John Jackson Miller. Look for it in your comic store on Wednesday.

Star Wars fans and personalities unite to help victims of Australian bushfires

The bushfires that raged in the Australian state of Victoria earlier this year killed more than 200 and left over 7000 homeless. The fires may be snuffed, but the victims are still hurting, and Star Wars fans have banded together to help them.

Though there are plenty of items up on Ebay now, including signed photographs from David Prowse, Kenny Baker, Jeremy Bulloch and Bonnie Piesse. But of particularly of interest to EU fans is a chance to get a namesake (tuckerized) character in the fifth Clone Wars novel by Karen Miller or a yet-unannounced Star Wars book (!) from Sean Williams. And Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta are offering an original manuscript from one of the Young Jedi Knights novels.