Club Jade

Nonfiction corner. StarWars.com talks to Ryder Windham and Pete Vilmur about The Complete Vader. On a related note, take a peek at Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Death Troopers. Did you catch all the Purge letters? No? Well, here are the direct links: DeathTroopers.com, StarWars.com, Star Wars Action News, NJOE, RebelScum, TheForce.net, and ours.

Podcasts. Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace are on the latest Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib. (Warning: auto-pla.)

Blogsided. Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on the pool of knowledge and Star Wars as part of the vernacular.

Ye Olde Databank. New or expanded entries for Jocasta Nu, Cad Bane, and Cato Parasitti. And hey – Ben Skywalker is in there now. That’s new! Newish. Wait, don’t tell me: They added him with the Backlash cover, didn’t they?

Sweet mockery. Checked in with We Hav to Take a Trip with Jacen Solo lately? Havac is currently working his way through Legacy of the Force.

So Bonnie Burton (of StarWars.com fame) put together her first Star Wars book (although not her first book) on how to draw Star Wars called You Can Draw Star Wars. It’s from a series called “You can draw…”. So I decided to see if the claim held true.

Y’see. I can’t draw. I’m fairly limited to stick fingers or flowers. (Really ugly flowers.) So I pulled together a couple of friends (some of whom have actual talent) to see if we could follow along with the instructions.

I’m pleased to say that despite ignoring all the real artistic instruction included in the book, we were able to dive in and attempt Yoda. And even though mine came out looking like a wax figure left too close to the fire, you could honestly say that all of our attempts looked like Yoda.

Even if you’re not into drawing, the book is a pleasant read for the various facts and thoughts about Star Wars art. You’ll need to be diligent in finding it on the bookstore shelves, though. The drawing sections of most bookstores are usually a bit of a mess and it took me and two sales people to figure out where her book was. But it was worth it!

Today – or maybe yesterday, depending on your local store – You Can Draw Star Wars by Bonnie Burton, Tom Hodges and Matt Busch is available. There’s even a MySpace profile, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Dark Horse’s website claims that Dark Times #2 and Empire Vol. 7 are out on Wednesday, but neither appears on Diamond’s shipping list.

What’s changed in Return of the Jedi and the movie’s opening night, and an interview with actor and stuntman Felix Silla.

Also…
- Road Trip: Buffalo.
- Send in Road Trip pics
- First Look: You Can Draw: Star Wars
- Toys ‘R’ Us Exclusives
- Drawing LEGO Luke and Vader