It’s the last San Diego Comic-Con 2011 post, I swear! Here’s some different thoughts and recaps on what came out of Comic-Con this year:
DC Comics opened up a new can of worms with their whole universe relaunch in September when a fan asked in Q&A: “Why did you go from 12% in women [creators] to 1% on your creative teams?” – Check out some commentary on ComicsAlliance and then an official reply on the DC blog, and Newsarama does some fact checking.
Tangentially related to the topics of gender and the DC comics universe, LAWeekly has a write-up and photo gallery of the Gender-bent Justice League cosplay group at Comic-Con.
Jill from Newsarama gives her recap of the con, including being on the Oh You Sexy Geek panel, cosplay, and meeting George R. R. Martin.
Big Shiny Robot sums up the Doctor Who panel and finds out why bow ties are cool.
Gamespot takes a look at Kinect Star Wars, bring Jedi adventures and podracing to motion-controlled gaming.
SirStevesGuide sums up the Star Wars collectibles panel. And what’s this? Sideshow Collectibles is bring out a life-size Han Solo in Carbonite.
Missed The Old Republic MMO panel? TORWars has the whole thing online to watch.
The Official Star Wars blog catches some of the best in Star Wars costuming at the convention.
And let’s end our wrap-up with a photo gallery progression of the artwork drawn on the Volkswagen Passat in the Star Wars pavilion by a Sharpie-wielding comic artist, Ken Lashley. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8.
Turning to Star Wars for comedy value is nothing new – in the past few years, three Family Guy parodies and three Robot Chicken specials have mined the saga for laughs. But LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace breaks some new ground for Star Wars entertainment: not only is it funny and full of jokes, it also tells a new adventure that builds on both the classic and prequel trilogies. It breaks from the style of the LEGO Star Wars video games by having the characters talk rather than just use gestures and non-word vocalizations, but it would be slow to tell a story if all the dialogue had to be pantomimed. The Padawan Menace in two words, stolen from one of the younglings: Totally Awesome! Continue reading “Review: LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace“
StarWars.com announced today the release date for Red Tails: January 20, 2012. The film, being produced by George Lucas and directed by Anthony Hemingway, focuses on the story of the Tuskegee airmen in World War II, and stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Bryan Cranston, and Ne-Yo.
January seems a telling time for Fox to release the film – it seems that it is neither going for Oscar contention nor summer blockbuster status, and it comes out less than a month before The Phantom Menace 3-D.
Her Universe hosted its second annual panel at Comic-Con last Thursday, with Ashley Eckstein moderating a panel entitled “What Women Want in their Female Sci-Fi Heroes.” The six announced panelists were Dave Filoni of The Clone Wars, Betsy Mitchell (Editor in Chief of Del Rey), Gail Simone (comics writer, including Birds of Prey, Secret Six, and the upcoming Batgirl), Chris Sanagustin (Senior VP Development & Current Programming for Universal Cable Productions), Bryan Q. Miller (Exec. Story Editor for Smallville, comic writer Batgirl), and Melinda Hsu Taylor (writer/producer- Lost & Medium and Supervising Producer on Touch) . They were joined by unannounced panelist Alison Scagliotti (Claudia on Warehouse 13).
Eckstein started the panel by giving each panelist a question regarding developing female roles in their particular media, especially with the female audience in mind. Watch portions of the panel:
Chris Sanagustin on making characters accessible to the audience, including a bit about Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome
Bryan Q. Miller on character vulnerabilities and breaking down the notion that a butt-kicking heroine has to be either a robot or a sexbot
Betsy Mitchell comparing now to 30 years ago for women sci-fi readers and women writers and editors, and the rise of female-oriented urban paranormal fiction.
Gail Simone on progress in the portrayal of women in comics, moving past the Women in Refrigerators trope, and the industry’s gradual awareness of growing female readership, and developing female characters.
Ashley Eckstein commenting on the progress in recognizing that there is a female fan base in science fiction.
Finishing up with Gail Simone and then Melinda Hsu Taylor on being inspired by sci-fi growing up in Maine, and some of her favorite female characters from science fiction and fantasy.
Dave Filoni on the process of developing a female Jedi character like Ahsoka Tano and also reading Éowyn as a child.
Allison Scagliotti on playing her character Claudia Donovan, the women characters of Warehouse 13 and the issues of being a female actor – and being a role model of the cool smart girl.
In the Q&A, Simone, Filoni, and Scagliotti fielded most of the questions, with Filoni and Simone clarifying how their approaches to writing female characters were similar. Even though the panel went over time, the audience remained and the panelists stayed on stage to answer questions about incorporating female biology into developing and portraying female characters, the differences in creating female villains from male villains, predicting the future of the importance (or nonimportance) of being critical of gender for characters (and for creators), and finally ended with a young fan thanking the panelists for making it cool to be a young female fan.
‘”I wanted HEIR’s villain to be a military leader, as opposed to a governor, Moff, or Sith. But a normal admiral seemed too commonplace. Hence, the Grand Admirals. I first ran across the title, by the way, in connection with the German navy in William L. Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.”
The novel is due out September 6th. While the slipcover is the new silver cover, the actual bound cover will be a reprint of the classic Heir to the Empire cover artwork.
Joe Schreiber, author of Death Troopers and Red Harvest, was kind enough to sit with me for an interview about his two Star Wars novels and more at Comic-Con.
Friday is traditionally Star Wars day at Comic-Con, and we had a full slate of Star Wars-related panels, and Seth Green returned to crash another one of them. While there was no Star Wars Spectacular, attendees in San Diego got their fill from different Star Wars licensees.
Del Rey’s Star Wars book panel was minimally staffed this year – only editor Shelly Shapiro and Choices of One author Timothy Zahn were up on stage. Shapiro gave a quick overview of upcoming titles (both novels and reference guides) and release dates from Del Rey, with no new title announcements. She did mention that in X-Wing: Mercy Kill there will be two Wraith Squadrons, and neither knows about the other. The original novella being written for Lost Tribe of the Sith print edition was described as a “big chunk” by John Jackson Miller, lurking in the audience.
Tim answered questions about Thrawn’s characteristics. Shelly responded that the canceled Blood Oath is essentially erased and overwritten in the timeline, while Imperial Commando 2 isn’t being pursued for the near future, though they do want to finish the series. Tim talked about having his bits of his EU works overwritten by George Lucas by using Bill Slavicsek’s analogy of working in Star Wars: playing on George Lucas’ driveway when he could back up the truck at any moment. He also gave his views of how the Force works: for power or guidance, with Yoda focusing more on listening to the Force for guidance over using it for power. More questions focused on Tim’s response to Mara Jade’s death (and how Tim would have written Serenity), Shelley’s views on character death and the anecdotal revelation that George Lucas gave the approval to kill off Han Solo when they were developing Vector Prime for NJO (only Luke and Leia were declared no-kill). And, of course, some of the usual questions about continuity and such.
You can check out the Del Rey panel for yourself: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Randy Stradley, in his Imperial officer uniform, started off Dark Horse’s Star Wars panel with some minor announcements (apparently New York Comic Con will get the official announcements): Star Wars comics being finally available digitally (some even for free), a new John Ostrander and Jan Duursema project, a new John Jackson Miller project, and a new Tom Taylor project. He then got all the panelists to reveal their favorite Star Wars comics moments, which led to hoojibs. Some further announcements include the opportunity for The Clone Wars comic story between seasons 4 and 5, and that one The Clone Wars comic story will be adapted an story arc for the show, and a new Vader project by Haden Blackman. Most of the Q&A was directed at Holocron keeper, Leland Chee, but then later went to hoojib zombies, constantly making the galaxy bigger, and another new series – Agent of the Empire, with a focus away from the Jedi or Sith. And Seth Green took the podium in this panel to relate his favorite Star Wars comics: Tag and Bink, and mentioned that his upcoming animated Star Wars comedy series may “smell like Robot Chicken”.
The LEGO Star Wars panel started off Friday morning as a one-stop shop for all things LEGO Star Wars: a little look at the most recent LEGO Star Wars video games, some of the upcoming LEGO Star Wars building sets, including a new TIE Fighter set, and the new Queen Amidala figure, and ending with a few clips of the LEGO Star Wars animated special, The Padawan Menace, which aired last night on Cartoon Network (and will be running a few more times over the weekend). My recommendation: watch this hilarious animated special. While it takes place in the Clone Wars and focuses on C-3PO (voiced by Anthony Daniels) as he manages a group of unruly padawans, while Yoda and a youngling named Ian (or is it really someone else we know that’s just one letter off?) try to keep Asajj Ventress from stealing some plans. Written by Michael Price (from The Simpsons), there is a lot of fun and comedy here for all Star Wars fans. It was revealed after the panel that The Padawan Menace will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 16, to coincide with Blu-ray release of the Star Wars saga.
Thursday’s lineup at Comic-Con in San Diego included panels for The Clone Wars Season 4, The Old Republic MMO.
The Clone Wars panel started off with a general trailer for season four, which will be subtitled ‘Battle Lines’ – the preview showed off many cool things, primarily focusing on an underwater battle between Republic forces and Mon Calamari fighting against Separatist forces, Quarren, and more. Also shown were clone soldiers getting their type two armor & helmets (moving closer to the Revenge of the Sith look). Moderator Pablo Hidalgo tossed questions to director Dave Filoni and producer Cary Silver and showed several more video clips and art slide shows, which hinted at:
“Battle Lines” will focus a lot on “Things going boom!” – more action and battles.
Initial story arc focusing on the underwater battles between the Mon Calamari (and a young Captain Ackbar) and the Quarren, with Kit Fisto and scuba clones assisting the Mon Calamari, while the Quarren have separatist droids and a new shark-man villain who can slash through a pack of Calamari, like…well, a shark through calamari.
Another arc will take us to the always-dark world of Umbara for a clone-centric story as the Republic forces take on the native Umbarans (a first instead of simply attacking battle droids), who have a very different look to their technology. Look for massive ground and space battles (and the introduction of Z-95 Headhunters!
A new Jedi general, with a different look on things, of the species of the four-armed Dexter Jettster.
Comic episodes with C-3PO and R2-D2 experiencing the war in their own way (and hijacking a Y-Wing) as Grievous duels Adi Gallia. Threepio also ends up with some clonetroopers on a planet mission and hilarity ensues.
The Mortis arc from season three is just the beginning into an exploration of the mysticism of the Force, and those Force-wielders.
Asajj Ventress and the Nightsisters fighting against a droid army. Dave previewed this rough uncolored clip after he brought up a group of Nightsister costumers from Team Unicorn on stage.
As released on Wednesday online, Death Watch is back, and Katee Sackoff voices Pre Vizsla’s lieutenant, who rounds up Lux Bonteri and Ahsoka Tano on a snowy world with her squad of Death Watch Mandalorians.
The return of characters such as Bossk, Boba Fett, Cad Bane, Pre Vizsla and Savage Oppress – and the introduction of Dengar!
During the Q&A, Filoni mentioned that he has put a lot of though into Ahsoka’s eventual fate in the show – and that he keeps changing it (at least 8 times) & discussing it with George Lucas as the show and her character continue to develop. Also from the Q&A:
No Han! Dave Filoni isn’t interested in introducing a young Han Solo, despite Chewbacca’s appearance at the end of the third season.
During the planning of the Holocron Heist story arc, they thought about bringing Durge in as the main villain before George Lucas came up with Cad Bane.
Clone commandos may yet return, though it won’t be Delta Squad.
Clone commander Wolffe has changing armor designs because Dave Filoni accidentally realized that white on gray for his wolf logo was more visible than the other way around, and apologized to costumers who then had to change paint jobs — then only to change the shape of Wolffe’s helmet entirely. Filoni does now expect clone scuba troopers costumes, possibly functional, at Celebration VI.
Seth Green was invited up in the Q&A, and he helped field a few audience questions, but nothing specific to his upcoming comedy animated Star Wars series.
Overall, I am very excited about season four – it looks like they are going to where the show is the strongest: good Star Wars stories: lots of action and battles, and bringing in new heroes and villains, and some more fun with the droids. And no, Captain Ackbar won’t learn from Anakin Skywalker about the possibility of getting snared by enemy forces, so that he can later recognize his situation at Endor.
As for The Old Republic MMO: Pre-orders have officially begun, with a release date of “Holidays 2011” but with major beta test weekends in September. All panel attendees were given tickets to redeem for guaranteed pre-order reservations. I’m not an MMO player, but given what I saw and heard about TOR, and Bioware’s track record with KOTOR and other single-player role-playing games (Mass Effect, Dragon Age), I’m a bit excited for The Old Republic.
The team of The Jedi Path now invites readers to delve into the Dark Side with Book of Sith, coming from Becker & Mayer through Amazon Publishing in January 2012.
At Comic-Con International, Epic Ink (part of Becker & Mayer) is showcasing the amazing (and large) Star Wars: The Blueprints by J. W. Rinzler, in its first public appearance, but is also spreading the word about the upcoming project, Book of Sith. Don’t want to shell out $500 for Star Wars: The Blueprints? Maybe you can win a copy in Epic Ink’s Comic-Con Giveaway! Or just drool over it virtually with the trailer.
1800Recycling.com blogged up a list of Star Wars vehicles made from recycled materials, and one of our Craft-athlon entries was included “Seven Awesome DIY Star Wars Vehicles.”
Michelle Brzozowski’s Red Leader X-Wing, made from a paper towel tube, chopsticks, empty glue stick tubes and more, flies high on the list, which also includes a working robotic AT-ST, the office supply X-Wing, the TIE Fighter made of Starbucks waste, and more. Reduce, Reuse, Rebel!
For the lucky thirteenth annotation from the upcoming Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition, 
The team of The Jedi Path now invites readers to delve into the Dark Side with Book of Sith, coming from 
