EUbits: Darth Maul is coming to comics as well

The year of Maul, indeed. Dark Horse’s Randy Stradley announced two upcoming projects featuring Darth Maul yesterday. Up in August will be a digest, The Sith Hunters, from Henry Gilroy and Steven Melching. There’s also an four-issue mini-series from Tom Taylor that we’ll learn about in “the near future.” (Celebration, maybe?) Stradley also reveals that the Maul storyline will bridge S4 and S5 of The Clone Wars.

Authors. Drew Karpyshyn has retired from Bioware, where he worked on The Old Republic, to “focus more time and energy on my novels and other non-video game related projects.” Karpyshyn is currently working on the fourth Old Republic novel.

Curious… A new book appeared on the Random House site this week: Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars by author and cultural critic Camille Paglia. It’s set for an October release.

Excerpt. This week’s mini-excerpt is from Jeff Grubb’s Scourge. It features Wookiees slapping droids around a bunch of other people I’ve never heard of.

Interviews. Graphic Novel Reporter talks to John Jackson Miller about Knights of the Old Republic: War. On that note, the last standalone Lost Tribe of the Sith story is now available for preorder. (Yes, it’s still free, it just won’t be out until March 5.)

Review. James has good stuff to say about Dawn of the Jedi #1.

EUbits: Crimson Empire III blitz blasts off

Crimson Empire III. I’m sure we all have things in fandom whose popularity mystifies us. I have many – enough for a complete post, probably – but perhaps one of the oldest is the appeal of Crimson Empire. Is it the eternal love of Dark Horse’s fanboys for bland musclebound men kicking ass? Or that, for years, the third series was dead and the story of Kir Kanos unconcluded? I don’t know. I’m not sure I really care. But for those who do, it’s on now — and mere months away. On Friday, Dark Horse revealed Dave Dorman’s cover for Crimson Empire III #1 and two interior pages from the Dark Horse Presents story. Meanwhile, Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley talk about the series with StarWars.com

Deceived. Gotta love it when the author does their own review roundup. Got questions for Kemp? He’ll be doing a chat on the Star Wars Book Facebook page on Wednesday.

Historic! Shadowlocked takes a look at 20 years of the Expanded Universe. I have a few quibbles – Shadows of the Empire didn’t have a video game based on it because it was popular, but because the whole enterprise was a marketing test run for the PT… And I’m pretty sure Traviss never claimed to have Zahn’s blessing to kill off Mara – but it’s still a fairly interesting primer.

Interview. John Jackson Miller at MidSouthCon.

And finally… You can get an Insider subscription no matter where in the world you live. Handy!

EUbits: A quick peek inside Shadow Games

Two smugglers walk into a bar… Today on the official forums, editor Sue Rostoni shared a brief excerpt from the proof of Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff’s Shadow Games. Black-barred for the paranoid spoilerphobics:

“In case you haven’t noticed, Captain, there are Imperials all over the place. It would be in our customer’s interests to be discreet.”

The Wookiee said something, to which Han replied, “Of course I’m discreet. I’m always discreet.” To Dash he said, “What’d you have in mind?”

The proof, for those of you keeping track, is 338 pages. Shadow Games will be out in paperback in the fall.

Interview. Lightsaber Rattling talks to Paul Kemp about his just-released Old Republic tie-in, Deceived.

Blurbs. In other Kemp-related news, there’s a summary out there now for his September paperback, Riptide. (via)

Comics. The Crimson Empire story that will be in Dark Horse Presents #1 will feature Kir Kanos in a standalone tale that will both recap some of the earlier CE and set things up for CEIII, according to Randy Stradley.

First look. The next in the Lost Tribe of the Sith series, ‘Pantheon,’ will hit July 18th.

New Star Wars comic to be announced next week

Next Friday, Dark Horse will announce (via MTV) a brand-new comic series featuring “one of the most beloved-characters in the universe.” More from in the original post:

The series will be written by a well-known creator who hasn’t worked within the universe for a few years, and will be drawn by an artist coming to Dark Horse for the first time.

On the Dark Horse boards, editor Randy Stradley narrows things down just a tad: The character is from the movies, and it’s not Yoda. What’s your guess? (via)

UPDATE: Stradley clarifies the ‘beloved’ wording:

I feel the need for a disclaimer coming on here. Please be advised, I was not consulted on the “beloved” wording. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but I’m betting “beloved” not the word that will come to mind for the majority of fans when they find out who it is. For some it will be, sure. But for most — though they may love the character — other words will seem more appropriate.

You’ll see.

EUbits: Quinlan Vos to appear in The Clone Wars?

Quinlan Vos making the jump to TV? Yakface spotted a Clone Wars action figure of the character, who was originally slated to appear (but didn’t) in the S1 episode ‘Bombad Jedi.’ Signs are good that Master Vos will finally get his day in the sun… Also curious? The character resembles Dave Filoni. Maybe we’ll see Vos play buddy cop with Plo Koon?

Speaking of comics… Techland has a two-part interview with Star Wars comic editors Randy Stradley and Dave Marshall. Part I covers Marvel and the early years of Dark Horse’s involvement with the franchise and what’s coming up; Part II goes into more detail with the process and challenges.

Upcoming. Dan Wallace and The Jedi Path are getting some buzz: He did a video tour of the book with EU and an interview with Techland.

Giveaway. Win Star Wars ABC and Millennium Falcon: A 3-D Owner’s Guide from The Detroit News’ Geek Watch blog.

SDCC: Eight Star Wars comic series coming in 2011, including Blackmen on Vader

So much for there being no EU news out of Comic-Con… Comic Book Resources reports that editor Randy Stradley revealed that there will be eight new Star Wars series in 2011, including something Vader-centric from Hayden Blackmen:

Most will be revealed at Star Wars Celebration, but Stradley said Blackman will be writing a Darth Vader series. “It chronicles one of Vader’s greatest failures ever,” the editor said. Vader then lit up his lightsaber and choked Stradley using The Force.

I suspect most of those – including the Vader one – are actually mini-series, but time (and Celebration) will tell.

A few upcoming comic hints from Randy Stradley

We haven’t heard much on the comic front since the cancellation of Legacy, but DarkHorse.com has a few hints today:

  • John Ostrander has “already begun work on the scripts for the next very top-secret thing.”
  • Tom Taylor has proposed “a semi-regular series” based on Blood Ties, aka the Fett comic. However, it “will not be what you expect it to be!” So… Not Fett, then?
  • A “well-known” writer has a proposal in for a series that could launch Dark Horse’s twenty-fifth anniversary year. We’ll hear more about it towards the end of July.

Could one of these items be the big news for Celebration. We can only hope.

Oh, and there’s also a peek at the Legacy #50 pencils.

Stradley addresses the future of Legacy

Seems to me that the knee-jerking over the Legacy cancellation was transfered over to the weekend’s cartoon news, but for those still panicking, Dark Horse’s Randy Stradley has come through with a statement. Yes, the book is ending, but…

No door closes without another opening, and to those longtime readers who pointed out that it was not likely that I would end Legacy without having some replacement planned, I thank you for your confidence. Trust me, it will be rewarded.

Well, I’m intrigued.

Star Wars talk at Wondercon’s Dark Horse panel

Randy Stradley and company are in San Francisco for Wondercon, and naturally Star Wars came up. Randy talked extensively about the next Invasion arc, and had this to say about Legacy:

Stradley noted that the recent issues of “Star Wars: Legacy” have brought readers to the “tipping point” where Cade Skywalker puts aside his life as a bounty hunter to fight the Sith. “In the next few months, you’re going to see how that comes together, and really how his involvement spurs so much that happens in the galaxy. I don’t even want to get into all the stuff that’s going on. But we’ve got a big surprise coming, and if you thought the end of the current issue was a big surprise, then you really haven’t seen anything yet.”

Hrm. I have yet to pick up the new issue, but the series is in dire need of a serious game-changer for Cade. Bring it on!