It’s another week of slim pickings. Comic fans, at least, can head out on Wednesday to find Dawn of the Jedi: Force Storm #4.
We’re still two weeks to our next book release, the paperback reprint of Paul Kemp’s The Old Republic: Deceived.
Happy Mother’s Day, featuring the Skywalker moms
I usually don’t do holidays, but after last week, maybe we need one? In any case: Happy Mother’s Day!
Would this have made a better New Jedi Order?
In an excerpt from Pablo Hidalgo’s Essential Reader’s Companion, an early concept for the New Jedi Order series is revealed:
“The story arc was to very closely hew to the myth structure of the Hero’s Journey as outlined by Joseph Campbell, a huge influence on the creation of the Star Wars cinematic story. With that as its basic framework, the plot underwent much evolution and exploration. Its earliest descriptions had Luke Skywalker sending the three Solo children on an epic quest, upon which they encounter a new female character from the invading species sent to infiltrate the galaxy. This unnamed female corrupts Anakin, nearly turning him to the dark side, but she falls in love with him and Anakin instead redeems her. In a fit of intense sibling rivalry, Jacen and Jaina turn on Anakin, and in the resulting conflict, Jacen dies.”
So much in the EU depends on the authors and the execution, but I can’t say this story idea doesn’t strike me as a better one than the muddled mess we eventually got.
EUbits: The great gender kerfuffle of 2012
The blogside. There are, so, so many great responses out to EUC’s gender post now. (Why ours is the only one with 100+ comments and some hella tangents, I remain perplexed. Or maybe that’s just my headache speaking.) Synlah and Skuldren at Roqoo Depot were first out the gate with cluelessness in Star Wars. Emily at Tosche Station wrote Why Star Wars needs women – now more than ever. Rachael of The Galactic Drift says that asking for equality in Star Wars isn’t sexist, and, later (inspired by our comment section, I believe) how turning women into sex objects removes their humanity. And Tricia and Lex at FangirlBlog addressed how the original post missed the point of Star Wars and fandom, and Tricia came back last night with a look at the silver linings of the whole thing.
And, finally, Pete Morrison at Lightsaber Rattling took a look at the dramatis personae of Star Wars novels from the last few years and did a gender breakdown that showed male characters outnumber females almost 2 to 1.
Say what you will about EUC’s post, but it certainly got fandom talking!
Get your X-Wings in bulk. Knights Archive found a listing on Random Houses’ Smart Archive for an eBook bundle of the X-Wing novels. There’s no price yet, but it does include all the classic Stackpole and Allston books and goes on sale July 30th. That’s cutting it a little close for those who want to catch up or reread: Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill will be out the very next week.
The most magnificent motivation of all. Peter David has republished the first draft of Skippy the Jedi Droid, his classic Star Wars story from the much-missed Star Wars Tales comic. (via)
Celebration VI. The first Celebration Show Store exclusive to be announced is a 12″ figure of Clone Commander Ganch from Sideshow. Why is he here? Because he was created by Pablo Hidalgo and Tom Hodges for the The Clone Wars webcomics.
Background. Even more endnotes for The Essential Guide to Warfare..
Reviews. James reads Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness #5 and Boba Fett is Dead #1.
The best smelling tauntaun: Last week’s best #StarWars and #SWEU tweets
I wish I could just crawl inside you like a tauntaun. like a really good smelling tauntaun.
— the girlfriend (@WordsFromMyBF) May 8, 2012
Okay, it could either be sweet or kind of creepy, but it made me laugh irregardless.
Tweets by @clubjade and I are on the @SW_Celebration #SWCVI tri-fold @OCCC table display! #StarWars twitter.com/JustinL81/stat…
— Justin LaSalata (@JustinL81) May 5, 2012
WE’RE FAMOUS! I’m just kind if surprised it’s not one bitching about the lack of Celebration news, because I’m not sure I’ve tweeted all that much else.
Yes, it’s late. And I’m sorry. Below the cut: Star Wars Day, the Supermoon, the #SWEU, and, of course, snark.
Continue reading “The best smelling tauntaun: Last week’s best #StarWars and #SWEU tweets”
Out this week: Knights of the Old Republic
Knights of the Old Republic: War #5 finishes up the arc on Tuesday in our only release this week.
Not able to get out on Free Comic Book Day? Or not able to pick up everything you wanted? You can read Dark Horse’s offerings online now, including the Han/Chewie story, for a limited time.
Why do we want more women highlighted in the Expanded Universe?
This is not the post I set out to write when I asked the other day which Star Wars ladies should be headlining novels. After all, Nanci already quite eloquently laid out why we need more women in the Expanded Universe. But on Friday, EUC posted a rebuttal to her post, titled Let’s Stop Thinking About Gender and it seems there’s still more work to do on the ground level. I know, I was shocked, too. Though I probably shouldn’t be.
Clearly we’ve forgotten that Star Wars is aimed at boys! And that by asking for something as minor as a female characters whose functions include something other than being Big Bad Lady Cthulu or Confused Teenage Girlfriend makes us the sexist ones! For shame, ladies. For shame. Because we’ve never heard anything like this before.
Continue reading “Why do we want more women highlighted in the Expanded Universe?”
Revenge of the 6th: Our news overflowth
May 4th stuff was a busy Friday, Saturday wasn’t much better, and a whole bunch of stuff got lost in the shuffle. As we nurse our Avengers hangover, here it is.
MTV has wondered why Luke Skywalker got no love from the famous folks, asking our pal Bryan Young why not.
Geekmom is throwing a Star Wars week. So far, they’ve highlighted a video on the 501st and the Rebel Legion, are giving away a GPS and interviewed the Wampug.
The Hollywood Reporter looked at where the stars of Star Wars are now. You probably know that already.
There was a couple at Kotaku: A look at Masters of Teräs Käsi, which they call ‘possibly the worst Star Wars video game ever made,’ as well as great moments of Star Wars gaming. And, finally, why Battlefront III was cancelled.
Entertainment Weekly highlight ten things ‘worth celebrating,’ mostly EU stuff.
And finally, Chris Hardwick pimped Course of the Force on Today. He also revealed that they’ve build a sail barge that we’ll see at Celebration VI.
Free Comic Book Day – go get your comics!
May the Fifth be with you! May the Thors be with you? Or something.. But get out to your local comics book shop to get your free comics for this annual celebration of sequential art. As previously mentioned, Dark Horse has a few different offerings, including a Han Solo and Chewbacca Star Wars story, ‘The Art of the Bad Deal’, in a flip-cover comic that also has a Zack Whedon-penned Serenity comic. Both stories have a common theme – a man and his ship. Dark Horse’s second freebie is a flip cover for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Guild. Combine both free comics together, and you will also have a two part story of Caitlin R. Kiernan’s Alabaster.
From other publishers for Free Comic Book Day: The Avengers, The New 52, Yo Gabba Gabba!, Simpsons, Mouse Guard, Transformers, Peanuts, and a whole lot more!
To find a comic shop near you, call 1-888-comicbook or visit ComicShopLocator.com.
Lost Tribe of the Sith now coming to comics
John Jackson Miller’s Lost Tribe is expanding it’s reach. In addition to the upcoming paperback collection of (mostly) previously-published stories, there’s a five-issue comic series on the horizon, USA Today has revealed.
Dark Horse will launch The Lost Tribe of the Sith comic on August 8. Written by Miller with art by Andrea Mutti, the series will focus on the Lost Tribe “in an age of discovery and optimism.”