Club Jade

As first reported a few days back, Del Rey was promoting Joe Schreiber’s upcoming Deathtroopers novel with a free soundtrack CD at the New York Comic Con. Now, Schreiber goes over the soundtrack playlist on his blog. With some of the aforementioned musicians, the soundtrack also included some Pixies, Allison Krauss, Tool, and Rob Zombie — and starts off with the 20th Century Fox fanfare. Not since “Christmas in the Stars” have some lucky fans gotten a Star Wars album so eclectic.

Rounding off the con, io9 has gathered their favorite NYCC costumes, including several Star Wars folks and an entire section devoted to Jayne hats. (Photo by Ellen Wright.)

It was pretty overshadowed by the Invasion reveal, but NYCC also brought another project to light: A Fixer comic, ‘From the Shadow of Twin Suns,’ co-written by Anthony Forest, who played the character in scenes cut from A New Hope. But don’t get too excited: Here’s what Dark Horse editor Randy Stradley said on TheForce.Net boards this morning:

I feel that I should state for the record that this is NOT a Dark Horse title, and it is NOT on our publishing schedule. It is a story that has been proposed to us. Period.

In short, that chicken is not yet hatched.

Peter Roan (peterjr1961) captured these Rebel cheerleaders (and droid friend) at New York Comic Con this weekend. I hope there are enough of these folks out there to do a whole Bring It On skit with their Sith counterparts.

(And anyone care to explain this? Statue? Costume? Life-sized bobblehead?)

The Clone Wars was a big draw at NYCC’s Star Wars panel, where Steve Sansweet debuted a trailer for season 1’s three-part finale, The Ryloth Trilogy. Now it’s up for everyone to see!

And I don’t think anyone is surprised to hear that Cartoon Network has picked up the series for season 2.

(At right, a great Clonetrooper costume shot by Muckster at the con. Check out the whole set!)

• The Hidden Enemy: Read the expanded episode guide or watch the video commentary for last week’s episode. And check back later today for a guest review from The Stooge!

• Next week: Padme and Jar Jar are joined by the Michael York-voiced Dr. Nuvo Vindi in ‘Blue Shadow Virus.’ (Logan’s Run? I don’t think the target audience will remember that. I barely remember that. Try Austin Powers. Or Gilmore Girls!)

Not a ton of breaking news here… The bulk of TFN’s report deals with some Clone Wars stuff, including some deleted scenes and a peek at the S1 finale. (Speaking of: Cartoon Network has picked up the second season, shocking absolutely no one.)

But we can expect a Celebration V announcement sometime this summer!

News out of New York Comic Con! Dark Horse is launching a new ongoing series based in the New Jedi Order era, Invasion… It follows the Yuuzhan Vong and will feature main characters like Luke and Jacen. It’s scripted by Tom Taylor with art by Colin Wilson, and will launch with a web-only preview issue on StarWars.com in May. (via)

UPDATE: Dark Horse is not adding a another book; Rebellion is getting the ax and Invasion is replacing it. Check out a full report from NYCC’s Dark Horse panel at Newsarama.

Also coming up, Fixer. Um, okay. And a webcomic tie-in with The Old Republic.

The hype continues. Joe Schreiber reports that that the first look at Deathtroopers got over 50,000 page views. It’s officially big on the internet! (Plus he’ll be at NYCC this weekend with some extremely unofficial swag – the book’s soundtrack.)

Meanwhile, we have another sighting: Literary agent Colleen Lindsay, with nothing but praise.

• Solicitations: StarWars.com has the May 2009 comics, including Star Wars Adventures: Princess Leia and the Royal Ransom, Legacy #6, Knights of the Old Republic #41, Dark Times #14 and The Clone Wars #6.

• Comic: Get your Dark Times fix with ‘Blue Harvest’ part 2 on MySpace.
• Short stories: A new Hyperspace story, ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Praji,’ by Nathan O’Keefe.

This weekend is the first major con of the year, New York Comic Con. Steve Sansweet and “some famous—maybe infamous—guests” will be there to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Phantom Menace, along with folks from Del Rey, Dark Horse and Robot Chicken. And for The Clone Wars fans, the official site promises “an exclusive sneak peek of something very special.”

The Beat has the schedule of Dark Horse events, including a Star Wars panel and several signings on Saturday. And Star Wars is certain to come up at the Random House panel later (?) that day.

In other event news, dates were announced for Disney’s Star Wars Weekends last week.

Photo from NYCC ‘08 by elorgwhee on Flickr. All hail Creative Commons!

Random House has posted their spring catalog as a PDF, and it includes a blurb (though no cover) for Fate of the Jedi!

Fate of the Jedi launches a huge story arc, with heroic roles for the galaxy’s most beloved characters — Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo, and their surviving children, Ben Skywalker and Jaina Solo. While Luke and Ben set off on the journey of a lifetime — of discovery and hardship, of obstacles and victories—the others remain in more familiar territory, dealing with the aftermath of the civil war that rocked the galaxy in the Legacy of the Force.

Some of that is familiar from early rumors but it’s good to have some sort of official confirmation. (When are the print catalogs sent out, exactly? Could it be the source of the early leak? Plus there are a few recently-revealed things missing, like the title of book 1, Outcast.) We can also expect a seven-city author tour, a “free PDF sampler giveaway,” an “original prequel short story” and a live chat (that’s been a while) on StarWars.com. (No, FateOfTheJedi.com isn’t live yet!)

Millennium Falcon also gets a page, which touts that it will have an excerpt from Outcast. Excerpts in hardcovers? That’s new…