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December 2, 2013December 2, 2013

The Clone Wars gets 2 Annie nominations

While we are eagerly awaiting news of how the bonus content for The Clone Wars will take shape, the show picked up nominations for the 41st Annie Awards, given out for the best in animation. Announced by ASIFA-Hollywood, nominations for The Clone Wars included two individual achievement categories: Keith Kellogg for Character Animation in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production and Jason W.A. Tucker for Editorial in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production. The nominations were released today, and the award winners will be announced in February.

Our frequent interviewee Michael Price, writer of the LEGO Star Wars specials earned a nomination for Writing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production for his work on The Simpsons. Juried awards have already been announced, including the Winsor McCay Awards to Steven Spielberg and Phil Tippett.

ILM also continued its streak of Annie award nominations, with four nominations, three of them in a single category of Animated Effects in a Live Action Production (two different teams for Star Trek Into Darkness and one for Pacific Rim). Another Pacific Rim ILM team got a nomination for Character Animation in a Live Action Production.

November 8, 2013November 8, 2013

Interview: Ryder Windham on Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual

Ryder Windham has written over fifty Star Wars books, across the spectrum from comics to junior books to hefty reference books. His latest book, the Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual, came out this week as a Haynes manual, and focuses on the saga’s favorite armored space station. Windham spoke with me about the new book, illustrated by Chris Reiff and Chris Trevas, who had worked previously with Windham on the Haynes Millennium Falcon Owner’s Technical Guide which came out in 2011. Here’s the interview with Ryder Windham about the new Death Star reference book:

Continue reading “Interview: Ryder Windham on Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual”

October 9, 2013October 10, 2013

NYCC: Star Wars at New York Comic Con

This weekend is New York Comic Con, and Star Wars will be out in full force – even more than their presence at San Diego Comic-Con back in July. From October 10 – 13, the Javits Center in New York City will be wall-to-wall fandom, and topping it off for Star Wars fans will be Pablo Hidalgo’s panel on Rebels on Saturday at 2:45 pm. On Tuesday, @StarWars warned that there will be a giveaway item at the Rebels panel – some sort of Imperial propaganda.

Del Rey announced their lineup of authors doing signings at their Star Wars Books booth (and free book giveaways), with John Jackson Miller, Drew Karpyshyn, J. W. Rinzler, Ryder Windham, Jason Fry, and Chris Reiff making appearances.

Rooqoo Depot has a great listing of more Star Wars goings-on, including a list of the Star Wars panels (Anthony Daniels! Origami! Making of Return of the Jedi!), as well as booth signings for DK Books and Dark Horse Comics.

For those looking for exclusive merchandise, Hallmark has a Rancor ornament, Kotobukiya has an R2-Q5 ARTFX+ Statue, and Dark Horse has a NYCC sketch cover variant for The Star Wars #1. Her Universe will be selling at the official Reed Pop store.

October 4, 2013October 4, 2013

Star Wars Reads Day is Saturday

Tomorrow, October 5 is the second annual Star Wars Reads Day. Last year, over 1,000 bookstores, libraries and schools got into the action with events to promote literacy combined with Star Wars, and this year aims to be bigger!

Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million are hosting events chainwide, and there are at least a dozen local events where Star Wars authors and illustrators are participating. Many locations will also be getting visits from their local chapters of the 501st Legion, Rebel Legion, and Mando Mercs costuming clubs.

Check out the list of author events at the official Star Wars Reads Day page, or view a larger list of participating libraries and bookstores by state (and even some outside the US). Aaron Allston, Tim Zahn, John Jackson Miller, Pablo Hidalgo and Jason Fry are among some of the authors hitting up their local shops for Star Wars Reads Day.

Bonus: Helen Keier of the New Essential Guide to Alien Species will be at the Mahopac Public Library, in Mahopac, NY for a reading and Q&A.

If you can’t make it to a participating venue, there’s also an online author chat on Saturday on GoodReads with John Jackson Miller, Jason Fry, Ryder Windham, Chris Alexander, Tom Angleberger and more. Or just watch the fun on the Star Wars Reads facebook page.

The Star Wars Reads Day program is sponsored by all of the main publishers of Star Wars books (Del Rey, DK, Dark Horse, Scholastic, Chronicle, Quirk, Abrams, Titan, Randon House Audio, Workman), and We Love Fine has the official Star Wars Reads Day tees (in men’s sizes only, seriously?!):

In honor of Star Wars Reads Day, Dark Horse Digital is having a 50% off sale on a bunch of digital comics this weekend, mostly from the Star Wars Adventures and Clone Wars digests.

September 26, 2013

Disney Press gives some details for Rebels launch

Knights Archive spotted some extra details about the timeline for the marketing and launch of Rebels in the Disney Press catalog. Listed among the key selling points for the Rebels read-along storybook and CD, scheduled for August 2014, are a few tidbits about how Rebels is going to be hyped:

TERRIFIC TEASERS: Four short-form interstitials will release in Summer 2014, introducing viewers to the characters of Star Wars Rebels. In Fall 2014, a one-hour debut special will air on Disney Channel and Disney XD, followed by the series roll-out on Disney XD.

And the depth of the merchandising:

SUPER SYNERGY: Star Wars Rebels will have A-level company-wide marketing in Summer/Fall 2014, as well as a huge push across consumer product divisions, including digital, electronics, toys, apparel, stationery, and home furnishings.

What, no mention of health and beauty products?

September 11, 2013September 11, 2013

Review: Mobile app Force Collection doesn’t require much in the way of strategy

Last week, Konami introduced Star Wars: Force Collection, a card battling game for mobile platforms (Android/iPhone/iPad). I think I’m addicted to it, but I can’t say that I’m actually having any fun. It has plenty of Star Wars graphics and sounds, but has very repetitive and incredibly simple gameplay, though it may appeal to those who like to accumulate rewards and level up. Here’s my review and a simple gameplay guide and tips for Force Collection:

Continue reading “Review: Mobile app Force Collection doesn’t require much in the way of strategy”

September 4, 2013August 29, 2013

The Yoda Chronicles: Menace of the Sith airs tonight!

‘Menace of the Sith’, the second episode of LEGO Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles, will broadcast tonight on Cartoon Network at 8 PM (ET/PT). In addition to our interview with writer Michael Price yesterday, you can get more behind-the-scenes info with another interview with Michael Price over at ToonBarn. Get caught up on the full story of The Yoda Chronicles so far with a rerun showing of the first episode, ‘The Phantom Clone’, at 7:30 PM

September 3, 2013August 29, 2013

Interview: Michael Price on The Yoda Chronicles: Menace of the Sith

With the second episode of LEGO Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles coming up on Cartoon Network on Wednesday, I had a chance to chat with Michael Price, the writer of the fun LEGO Star Wars specials, and see what’s in store for the audience this time. Mike’s a great guy, always willing to talk Star Wars and comedy, and this time, we’ve got some secrets for latest installment of LEGO Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles: “Menace of the Sith”. As announced in August, the new episode premieres on Cartoon Network on Wednesday, September 4 at 8 PM (ET/PT). Continue reading “Interview: Michael Price on The Yoda Chronicles: Menace of the Sith”

August 30, 2013August 30, 2013

Review roundup: Everyone likes (at least!) Kenobi

Star Wars: Kenobi came out in hardcover this past Tuesday, and you’ve already seen Dunc’s review on John Jackson Miller’s novel set under the Tusken suns. Hint: she gave it an B+. And we know know critical she can be.

But what are other folks saying about the Western-style tale on Tatooine? Here’s a big stack of reviews (both spoiler-free and other wise) with your name on them! Most everyone seems to give strong approval to Kenobi!

Continue reading “Review roundup: Everyone likes (at least!) Kenobi”

August 23, 2013August 23, 2013

Firefly returning to comics, teases Dark Horse

Dark Horse Comics teased Serenity fans for #FireflyFriday with a ‘watch-this-space’ post for the #WheresSerenity? hashtag. Then they followed up with animated gif going from a sketch to the shot above – see the animatedness in its full size glory on BigShinyRobot.com.

Looking at the copyright block, you’ll notice that this is for a Firefly title and not a Serenity title (as they have done in the past), which means that hopefully these stories will take place in the time frame of the TV show, licensed from Fox, and not in the movie-and-beyond time frame that the Serenity license from Universal granted. The Serenity: Firefly Class 03-K64 title was used on the 2012 Free Comic Book Day story, written by Zack Whedon. Will they be rebooting the ‘Verse to have a couple of seasons of material, like has been done with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel? Or will it all still fit into the established time line. No doubt Dark Horse was gauging fans’ opinions at the Star Wars vs Serenity panel they hosted at Comic-Con in San Diego.