SDCC ’09: The morning Star Wars catchup

Use the Force Trainer by starwarsblog @ Flickr aka Pablo HidalgoGet with the now, man! Oh, USA Today. Why are you trying to fan the flames of Prequel vs. Original Trilogy rivalry? Protip: It is no longer 2002. We OT fans can (mostly) roll with it.

Party like it’s 2010. Hey, TFN came back! On the Celebration V note, the rumor mill seems to be favoring Chicago and this pleases me. Midwest represent! No Florida!

Bookstuffs. Check out the cover for The Making of The Empire Strikes Back. And perhaps today someone will enlighten us on this Star Wars: Visions thing. There’s also a panel report on what has to be the most ridiculous visual dictionary so far. And yes, Pablo you are shameless.

New Robot Chicken: Bonus segment from the DVD. Down nerds, down.

Phototacular. StarWars.com and Rebelscum don’t stop snapping.

But wait! It’s a comic con! Dark Horse is bringing select issues of Empire, Legacy and The Clone Wars to the iPhone and will be producing two Star Wars one-shots.

Nerd-spotting. Great White Snark has a Day 1 costume gallery.

Facepalm. Fans say Avatar will be as game-changing as Star Wars. Please stop feeding James Cameron’s ego. Don’t you remember what happened after Titanic?

EUbits: Making of ESB, Karpyshyn, Kemp, Bohnhoff and Fixer’s pie in the sky

Street date shuffle: NJOE notes that The Making of The Empire Strikes Back release date has been moved up to March 23. That’s what Amazon says, anyway.

Interviews: EUC talks a bit of Darth Bane with Drew Karpyshyn.

The blogside: Paul S. Kemp has a brief Crosscurrent update, while Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff explores sci-fi story weaving and hardware.

What Fixer comic? Since I know you’re all dying to hear about that Fixer comic, the artist, Kevin Liell, has posted at TFN clarifying some things from NYCC. I’d still file this one under ‘long shot.’

Confirmed: Del Rey has the Star Wars license through 2013; Fate of the Jedi series is post-LOTF

The contract renewal we’ve all been expecting has finally been announced, (45 books: 35 novels!) along with the Fate of the Jedi series which has been burning up all the rumor mills. Aaron Allston, Troy Denning, and SW newcomer Christie Golden will be handling author duties on the post-LOTF series, but perhaps the biggest surprise here is that it will be entirely in hardcover. The first book, Allston’s Outcast, will be out in April.

Also name-dropped is The Making of The Empire Strikes Back coming in 2010, though whether it’s a reprint or reworking of previous material we’ve yet to learn.

There’s no mention of several other projects we’re awaiting official word on, like Cunningham’s Blood Oath or Traviss’ Fett standalone, but further Essential Guides are mentioned.