Not able to make it to a comic shop Saturday? Or were they out of the Star Wars comic before you got there? Well, stop your moping: Dark Horse will be putting their offerings up for free on Digital.DarkHorse.com come Wednesday. You don’t even need to download an app – you can read them right in the browser.
Out this week: Boba Fett And The Ship Of Fear
Fett fan? Than you’re in luck this Wednesday, as our sole release this week is the latest Star Wars Adventures digest, Boba Fett And The Ship Of Fear
We’re two weeks out to our next new book release, Allston’s Fate of the Jedi: Conviction, on May 24.
Latest street date shuffle: Choices of One, Ascension, Heir to the Empire and Riptide
Del Rey announced a few schedule tweaks on Facebook today. The changes are due to “an adjustment to the book schedule as dictated by our publisher.”
Moving up are Zahn’s Choices of One (from July 19th to July 12th – the same day as one of the year’s most anticipated fantasy) and Golden’s Fate of the Jedi: Ascension (From August 23 to August 9.)
The pushbacks are just a tad more dramatic, sadly. Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition moves the most, from June 28 to September 13 — the same week as the Blu-Rays. Kemp’s Riptide goes almost a full month, from September 27 to October 25.
Our release schedule has been updated.
Don’t forget about Free Comic Book Day!
Head to a local comic book store tomorrow to get free comics – including a Savage Oppress-centric Clone Wars offering from Dark Horse.
You can find a shop that’s celebrating the day using Free Comic Book Day’s store locater. Folks from the 501st Legion will be in costume at select locations, so check the website/Twitter/Facebook of your local garrison. (Or, if you know of one, post it in the comments!)
Heir to the Empire annotation #8: Not quite ship-shape
Our eighth preview of Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire annotations takes on the state of the Imperial fleet. There’s not a doubt in my mind that thisis from the first chapter.
I wanted to set up the Fleet as having suffered during the chaos and retreat of the years since Endor, slipping back from the generally efficient war machine shown in the movies to something less polished. Lieutenant Tschel was an example of the eager but inexperienced crewers that the Empire now had to whip into fighting shape, contrasting with Captain Pellaeon.
Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition will be out in hardcover June 28.
FOTJ: Ascension pushed back a week; Del Rey wants your input on The Old Republic era books
Del Rey announced today on Facebook that Fate of the Jedi: Ascension by Christie Golden will have its release date pushed back from August 16 to August 23. (Our book release schedule has been updated.) Don’t forget that the next FOTJ novel, Aaron Allston’s Conviction, comes out on May 24!
Also, their reader poll this week gives a chances for readers to give feedback on continuing The Old Republic era after the third novel, Revan, comes out. Did people read and like Fatal Alliance and Deceived? Get your thoughts in on their Facebook discussion.
New audio coming for Heir to the Empire anniversary?
NJOE discovered a new listing for an audiobook download called Heir to the Empire: Behind the Scenes. Set for release the same day as the annotated novel, the audio listing carries the subtitle of ‘An Expanded Universe is Born’ and credits for both author Timothy Zahn and the book’s original editor, Betsy Mitchell.
I suspect this will end up containing an interview/discussion about the book and it’s long-ranging influences of the Expanded Universe. Or, if we look to the new audiobook art lurking in the Random House database – a new, unabridged recording. (The image credits Marc Thompson as the reader — according to Wookieepedia — Denis Lawson read an abridged version back in the day.) We’ll have to wait for an official announcement to know for sure!
EUbits: Don’t expect a Big 3 novel from Kemp
Interview. Paul S. Kemp’s Star Wars books so far have seemed to be fairly well received, but will we ever see him step up to write Luke, Han, Leia and the rest? In an interview with the Dearborn Press and Guide, Kemp says “I don’t think so.”
“Writers bring certain things to the table as part of the craft. Some are very good at plotting, some are gifted at prose, I think where I excel naturally is developing interesting, conflicted characters. To do that, I need a lot of room. It’s hard to do that with characters with so much history already behind them. It’s difficult for me to tell the kind of story I’d like to tell and have it star Luke, Han, Lando, and Leia, and their kids.”
The rest of the article echos much of what he said in a blog entry about getting started as a writer.
The Old Republic: Revan. Drew Karpyshyn has a brief Q&A on his site about the upcoming book – which, you may be happy to know, is already in the hands of Del Rey. The book is current scheduled for an October release.
Comics. Comic Book Resources interviews John Ostrander about the upcoming series Agent of the Empire. Also at CBR, six pages of Jedi: The Dark Side #1.
Art. If you’re a fan of the Hildebrandt’s artwork for Shadows of the Empire, you’ll want to check out this gallery by Paxton Holley on Flickr, which contains some shots of the models for the some of the paintings. (via mMathab)
Opinion Chris over at EUC has some suggestions for the various publishing eras.
Heir to the Empire annotation #7: Pronunciation
Foreign pronunciation issues arise in our seventh preview of Tim Zahn’s Heir to the Empire annotations:
A small thing that I never would have anticipated, and never even knew before I was invited to a Star Wars convention in Munich: The “thr” combination apparently doesn’t exist in German, or so I was told. German Star Wars fans therefore have terrific difficulty pronouncing Thrawn’s name.
Pronunciation issues are fairly common in these books, even in English: Is it Mar-uh or Mare-ah? (Trust me: It’s Mar-uh.) How do you say C’baoth? Fey’lya? Damn apostrophes.
Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition will be out in hardcover June 28.
Video: Disneyland Sith Girl speaks
Jennifer Landa talks to Sariah Gallego, the girl who gained internet fame by pledging herself to the Dark Side at Disneyland. Her inspiration may surprise you!