Club Jade

Foreign pronunciation issues arise in our seventh preview of Tim Zahn’s Heir to the Empire annotations:

A small thing that I never would have anticipated, and never even knew before I was invited to a Star Wars convention in Munich: The “thr” combination apparently doesn’t exist in German, or so I was told. German Star Wars fans therefore have terrific difficulty pronouncing Thrawn’s name.

Pronunciation issues are fairly common in these books, even in English: Is it Mar-uh or Mare-ah? (Trust me: It’s Mar-uh.) How do you say C’baoth? Fey’lya? Damn apostrophes.

Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition will be out in hardcover June 28.

StarWars.com has revealed that the Heir to the Empire anniversary edition will feature annotations and an exclusive short story featuring Grand Admiral Thrawn. (Naturally.)

Look who’s debuting. Among the new items Sideshow is bringing to Con? A 12″ figure of an old pal of ours, Grand Admiral Thrawn! And some other guys.

From the floor. Mary Franklin and her minions are hard at work already, setting up the Lucasfilm Pavilion! There’s a peek at a few more of The Clone Wars bounty hunters as well, including two brand-new characters.

• Memories. Fan testimonials from earlier in the year.

• Hey, gamers! The Clone Wars: Repulic Heroes launch trailer is here.
• Funny business What Comic-Con means to Seth Green, things people say to him on the floor and his guide to costumes. On that note, Green is joined by partners-in-humor Matthew Senreich and Breckin Meyer to talk about the new Robot Chicken DVD and their SDCC skate party.
• The Empire Muggs Back. Amy Pronovost’s Jaxxon and Sarah Wilkinson’s Shaak Ti.
• Fan sites. TFN and company will be twittering at the con and holding a live chat during the Spectacular.

• New cover from Japan, Timothy Zahn’s Allegiance, over at the Japanese cover gallery. There’s a new Last of the Jedi one up as well. Death Star expected soon, no word on LOTF… (via)

• Thrawn (and Ackbar) get a little love over at io9′s list of greatest space strategists.
• TFN reports that author Troy Denning will be on the Philadelphia-area radio show To Be Continued this Sunday.

Rebelscum spotted a supposed list of next year’s comic packs, which includes names sure to make many EU fans happy (Cade, Karrde, Thrawn.) And some that just make me want to facepalm (Xizor?) but we all have our demons.

Grand Admiral Thrawn by DR Husar. Because, just maybe, there’s a Zahn book coming out on Tuesday.