Club Jade

Out right now – I missed it last week – is Star Wars Storyboards: The Prequel Trilogy by J.W. Rinzler.

Meanwhile, Wednesday brings the conclusion of Dawn of the Jedi‘s second arc in Prisoner of Bogan #5 as well as Legacy #3.

Our forthcoming slate includes Aaron Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill in paperback (June 25,) William Shakespeare’s Star Wars by Ian Doescher (July 2) and Troy Denning’s Crucible (July 9.)

Chat. Pablo Hidalgo will be chatting on the Star Wars Books Facebook page this Friday, where we’ll be sure to ask him all sorts of weird stuff about Episode VII. Or something.

Interviews. ScienceFiction.com talked to Timothy Zahn at Starfest, while Roqoo Depot catches up with Patricia A. Jackson, who wrote for the Star Wars Adventure Journal back in the day.

The blogside. On the official blog, Jennifer Heddle talks Star Wars storytelling hallmarks, while J.W. Rinzler discuses The Star Wars comic

Excerpts. The third and fourth excerpt from Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void

Review. Ania and Sauk are on the run, and we get a new awesome droid character in Legacy #2

Out Tuesday is Vader’s Little Princess, Jeffrey Brown’s followup to last year’s wildly popular Darth Vader and Son. Also out now from Chronicle is something I forgot to mention last week – the standalone hardcover edition of Daniel Wallace’s Book of Sith.

Both Brown and Wallace, along with Lucasfilm’s Johnathan Rinzler, will be chatting about Star Wars on May 1 at the Star Wars and Chronicle Books blogs. Submit your question(s) now!

Meanwhile, comic fans will have something waiting for them on Wednesday as well: Legacy #2.

On Friday afternoon, Dark Horse hosted a Twitter chat with the writers of two of their most recent Star Wars comics series, Brian Wood of the top-selling new Star Wars ongoing series, and the team of Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman of the new Star Wars: Legacy (Volume 2) series.

With Brian Wood’s series that has been flying off the shelves since its premiere in January (the 4th printing of Issue #1 comes out on April 17, while Issue #4 comes out April 10), there were a lot of questions about the focus on Leia. Bechko and Hardman discussed Legacy’s new protagonist, Ania Solo, and gave a few hints for what’s in store for the series, which had its first issue on March 20. I’ve got the highlights of the conversation at #SWComicsChat below, and even have a handful of questions of my own.

(more…)

Join several of Dark Horse Comics’ writers for a live twitter chat, on Friday, April 5th at 4 PM ET / 1 PM PT.

Brian Wood (@brianwood), writer of the new ongoing Star Wars series, and the team of Corinna Bechko (@corinnabechko) and Gabriel Hardman (@gabrielhardman), of the new Legacy series featuring Ania Solo, will be on hand to chat with comics fans using hashtag #SWComicsChat. Plus Dark Horse will be giving away some cool swag to a few lucky participants!

The new Legacy #1 will be in comic stores tomorrow. Boasting an all-new creative team (Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman,) the new volume taes place after the events of Legacy: War but focuses on Ania Solo, the “great-great granddaughter” of Han and Leia.

If interest here is any indication – the posts on this series have been some of the most popular comics content on CJ to date – plenty of you are looking forward to this one.

In the meantime, there’s a new interview with Bechko and Hardman at Comicosity.

It feels safe to assume that folks are still chomping at the bit for the return of Legacy, so you’ll be glad to know that Comic Book Resources has a few preview pages from Prisoner of the Floating World #1. You might even spy a few familiar faces…

The first issue of the series, with new creative team Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman, is expected to be in stores on March 20.

Audio For you audio drama fans, Big Shiny Robot has unearthed Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell a ye olde (scripted by Brian Daley!) tale that takes place between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.

The blogside. EUCantina debuts a new column, with a look at what they’d like to see in Kenobi (some Clone Wars spoilers.) Meanwhile, Bria’s Waru Express has pulled into Tosche Station with The Thrawn Trilogy.

Interviews. There’s a real surplus of them since we last checked in, with new writers (Martha Wells, Tim Siedell, Corinna Bechko & Gabriel Hardman) old writers (Kevin J. Anderson) and of course Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, co-writer of The Last Jedi, which came out yesterday.

Speaking of The Last Jedi… The reviews! NJOE, EUC, Jedi News, Lightsaber Rattling, Roqoo Depot and Bry/Megan at Knights Archive are all fairly positive, while Bria at Tosche Station is unimpressed.

Comics. Preview Dark Horse’s Free Comic Book Day offering, and behold a Legacy variant cover. Also, James has his reviews of the most recent comics: this week’s Dawn of the Jedi: Prisoner of Bogan #3 and ,a href=”http://www.bigshinyrobot.com/reviews/archives/49301″>Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets #5 and Brian Wood’s Star Wars #2.

Congratulations to your publicist. Forbes, of all publications, profiles Dark Horse and their role in making licensed properties cool for comics. There’s some interesting stuff from a generalized viewpoint, but despite use of the term ‘expanded universe’ it’s more focused on video game tie-ins than things like Star Wars and Buffy.

Comic Book Resources interviews Dark Horse’s Randy Stradley about their Star Wars line, Brian Woods’ eponymous series and the return of Legacy.

He hints that Wedge will be getting more facetime in the Woods’ series, and how the upcoming Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin came about…

And of course, there’s Legacy, which apparently owes it’s return to the retailers asking for more. Stradley talks about why it’s going in a different direction than the original:

For one thing, I felt too many direct comparisons between creative teams would dilute fan enthusiasm for the series. I also felt that by the end of his arc, Cade Skywalker had become too involved with the movers and shakers within the galaxy. I couldn’t see where to take him. That’s when it struck me there had been no Solos in “Legacy.” What were the Solo descendents doing 140 years after “A New Hope?”

There’s more, of course, on Dawn of the Jedi and Dark Times: Fire Carrier… Plus Dark Horse still has “a huge announcement coming up in the next few weeks.”

Adjustments. The Han on the Crucible cover got a slight tweak. (Why yes, it is a slow week for EU news!) The important thing is, the release date remains the same: July 9.

Street dates. Speaking of upcoming releases, pencil in Joe Schreiber’s Maul: Lockdown for a January 21, 2014 release. Not because we don’t believe it’s coming, but because this far out, dates are subject to change. And on that note, 2014 is now an actual thing on our release schedule. Meanwhile, if you don’t want to wait most of a year to read about Maul, Aaron Goins has a list of 7 tales you can check out right now.

Comics. Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman chat about their forthcoming Legacy: Prisoner of the Floating World at Geek of Oz.

Reviews. Over at Big Shiny Robot, James gets enthusiastic about the happenings in Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets #4 and Dark Times: Fire Carrier #1.