Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Fellow fansite EUCantina launched their Summer for Children’s Literacy yesterday. The program, which runs through September 12th, is focused on raising awareness of the issue, and money for Reading Is Fundamental, a charity that Club Jade has long supported.
The site will be hosting several contests, with prizes donated by Del Rey, and is also selling t-shirts featuring the program’s logo. Head over to EUC to donate and get more details on what’s to come.
SDCC kicks off tonight with Preview Night, while those of us at home hang on Twitter and our RSS feeds for tidbits from the floor (and brace for the floods that’ll be unleashed tomorrow.) Until then, here’s what Star Wars fans need to know. (Besides the panel schedule!)
Home base. On the Star Wars Blog, Mary Franklin made her debut and then dropped some hints about what we can expect to see from Lucasfilm at the con. Here’s a hint: Snakes. Here’s a closer look.
UPDATE: Mary has also made her debut on Twitter as, fittingly, @MaryLFL! To find other Star Wars luminaries, check out our Twitter guide.
Pregaming. Course of the Force coverage marches on from San Diego – and we had a few of our own on the course yesterday.
Expanded Universe. We’ve already got the basics on Dark Horse’s Star Wars, so we’re on the edge of our seats for Del Rey’s contribution at the The Future of Star Wars Publishing panel on Friday. In the meantime, check out the Del Rey booth, with a Scoundrels photo opportunity. (That’ll also be at CVI!)
Merchandise. Here’s a handy list of all the Star Wars exclusives and debuts at the con. I hope that Chewy Messenger Bag makes it to CVI! Apparently Kotobukiya’s Jaina Solo statue will be there?
On that note, Bleeding Cool’s Kate Kotler talked to Ashley Eckstein about what we’ll be seeing from Her Universe this week, and details on the new Doctor Who and Star Trek lines. Plus a look at their new Artoo charm!
So last week contained a holiday, which means I spent less time trolling for tweets, which means this week’s roundup is a little thin. Oh well. (Yes, you may have seen this – briefly – yesterday. Many thanks to Storify, who raised it from the dead!)
Continue reading “Binding the universe together: Last week’s best #StarWars and #SWEU tweets”
Yes, this is actual news. Well, here’s one Star Wars debut due at SDCC: A comic called just Star Wars by “prolific author” Brian Wood. Wood’s name doesn’t ring any bells for me, but you may recognize some of his previous titles: DMZ, Channel Zero, Northlanders and The Massive. And the cover artist should be familiar: Comic legend Alex Ross.
The series represents a refocusing on “the core characters of the Original Trilogy.” (Fan reaction should be interesting, as it seems a lot of the love Dark Horse gets in EU fandom is for not doing that.) Randy Stradley tells io9:
It’s back-to-basics in the sense that we’re going back to the beginning, but Brian Wood is exploring aspects of the characters and their relationships that have, in many ways, been glossed over in the past, or shoved aside in favor of big action set pieces. Don’t get me wrong, this series has plenty of action, but all of it is informed by, or springs out of, the characters’ reactions to events in A New Hope.
Well, I’m intrigued, though I’m not sure of how this will go over. Still, Dark Horse is clearly going for a wider audience here, one not bogged down in the minutiae of “impenetrable continuity,” and I for one can’t blame them for aiming higher than their usual audience of ultra-concentrated fanboys. Should be interesting, even if the title is going to make it a bit of a nightmare for categorizing.
The book is due to start shipping in January.
Come Wednesday, there will be one Star Wars comic waiting in the shops: Knight Errant: Escape #2.
John Jackson Miller fans have more coming as well. Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories, a trade paperback collection of his Fate of the Jedi tie-in shorts, will be out on the 24th, our sole book release of the month.
Excerpts. It’s easy to miss, but if you head over to the Random House page for X-Wing: Mercy Kill, there are 32 pages from the book available. (Click on the cover.) It includes the dramatis personae that caused such a furor when the ARCs went out as well as the first pages of 22 chapters. Weird, yes? (via)
The blogside. Joysweeper at Scans Daily takes a look at Luke Skywalker’s worst comic outfits. She’s not kidding; there’s a mesh shirt. Oh, Marvel. Also: An interview with costumer Victoria Schmidt; convention tall tales; and a review of Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight.
Upcoming. Rebelscum has covers and summaries for two upcoming comic collections – Dawn Of The Jedi: Force Storm and new Clone Wars omnibus, The Republic Falls – as well as the next arc of Agent Of The Empire.
Awards. Tom Taylor’s Blood Ties has won the The Stan Lee Excelsior Award, which encourages kids to read comics and graphic novels.
Behind the scenes. The Young to Publishing Group has four keys to success in licensed publishing, which features several familiar names.
Endnotes. I’ve run out of things to say about the things, so just let it be known that Jason Fry has posted part 14 and part 15 of his guide to everything Essential Guide to Warfare.
In the fourth mini-excerpt of Aaron Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill, Myri Antilles wants to forge her own path.
“Myri, I thought you were making your living gambling. Nice and safe on the Errant Venture. Making a fortune, from what I heard.”
She nodded, her attention on her rifle.
“So? Why this?”
She smiled. “You must be so proud.”
“What? Of whom?”
“That’s what they tell me. Mostly about Daddy. ‘Wedge Antilles’s daughter? You must be so proud.’ And I am. Some people know about Mom’s career. ‘You must be so proud.’ And I am. Some people know about my sister’s record in the last war. ‘You must be so proud.’ Yes, yes, I am. But maybe it’s time for someone to be proud of what I do. Maybe even me.”
Oh, but look how well resting on their family’s laurels worked for the Solo kids! Wait, nevermind.
Random House Audio is looking for fans to record a five-minute audio sample of their fan fiction stories on the convention floor at SDCC. Only stories from five fandoms – which include Star Wars – are eligible. The winner “be professionally recorded and mixed by Random House Audio for streaming at www.randomhouseaudio.com.”
I am not making this up. (Can we blame Fifty Shades of Grey?)
The other fandoms are Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle, Percy Jackson, Hitchhiker’s Guide and Artemis Fowl. Plus, Sunday is “open mic.” Registration is open now.
If they announce a Laurel K. Hamilton book at the Star Wars panel, I’m applying to become the new divination teacher at Hogwarts. (via)
UPDATE: Bryan Young talked a bit more in depth with the PR people about the contest, and the fan fiction thing “is not the primary goal.” Nonetheless, the whole concept makes me very nervous, something which I’ll explore further later.
Twitter embeds are working again (apparently) but it’s too late. I’ve been seduced to Storify. There are no amazing hastag games this week, but I did find a larger-than-usual number of Star Wars life tweets. Also, the deadest Star Wars joke of the month? It’s very dead.
Continue reading “Put a stormtrooper on it: Last week’s best #StarWars and #SWEU tweets”
SDCC released their Friday schedule, and the wording on the Star Wars EU panel has folks speculating that Troy Denning is back for another round.
3:00-4:00 The Future of Star Wars Publishing: Dark Horse & Del Rey. Find out what’s coming up in the Expanded Universe of Star Wars publishing. Editors Randy Stradley and Dave Marshall from Dark Horse Comics discuss what’s next for Agent of the Empire, Dawn of the Jedi, Lost Tribe of the Sith, and Darth Maul, as well as reveal a new secret title that’s on the horizon. From Del Rey Books editors Frank Parisi and Erich Schoeneweiss, along with author Troy Denning (Apocalypse), look at new novels coming later this year from fan-favorite authors Timothy Zahn and Aaron Allston, as well as give a peek into 2013. Also on the panel is Jennifer Heddle, senior editor at LucasBooks. Moderated by author Pablo Hidalgo (Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion). Room 7AB
I think that the speculation might is almost certainly jumping the gun, and since Golden’s announcement came so late maybe that’s why she’s not a part of it… And who the hell writes these things anyway? Basically, I don’t know. So let’s not panic about Dark Nest 2: Electric Bugaloo just yet, okay? (via)
UPDATE: Roqoo Depot has some thoughts on the comic portion (which I won’t even touch,) but they also speculate that the book announcement might be the upcoming Kemp duology.
However, remember that Heddle told EUC last month about post-Fate: “We’ll be making an announcement about that at San Diego Comic-Con, so stay tuned.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some news on the duology, or even at it being set after Fate of the Jedi, but with Kemp’s wheelhouse thus far being rather niche, I’m not sure it would qualify as big enough news for a general con like SDCC. Still, it’s one of the few announced projects we have little-to-no detail on at the moment, making it a certain contender.