Category: books and comics

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Video: Unboxing Star Wars: Before the Awakening, Star Wars Half Marathon & Rebels

Unboxing Star Wars 2-3-16 title card

Unboxing Star Wars is back, with a lot of catch up on. Baby Jawa, Yowie, and I briefly cover The Force Awakens and my Wear Star Wars Every Day fundraising campaign for Collateral Repair Project, before diving deeper into the Star Wars Half Marathon weekend, Greg Rucka’s Before the Awakening, and the first two episodes of Star Wars Rebels for 2016: ‘A Princess on Lothal’ and ‘The Protector of Concord Dawn.’

Check out the Star Wars Rebels episode guide for ‘A Princess on Lothal’ and ‘The Protector of Concord Dawn’ over at StarWars.com. Get more info on Wear Star Wars Every Day or make a donation at GoFundMe.

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1 year in: Marvel’s Jordan D. White on Star Wars comics

Star Wars: Poe Dameron #1Just over a year out from launch, IGN interviews Jordan D. White, who’s in charge of Star Wars at Marvel Comics, about the line – including why they all began in the same time period at first – and what’s coming up in the future.

On why they chose Poe Dameron for the line’s first The Force Awakens ongoing:

Ideally, a miniseries tells a very specific, self-contained story. “Here’s this event.” You know, “Here’s the time when Lando tried to steal the Emperor’s yacht.” “Here’s the story of how Princess Leia dealt with the destruction of Alderaan in conjunction with her place in the Rebellion.” And then once it’s finished, it’s finished. If we were to, as some people have suggested, talk about turning that into an ongoing, it would be, “Well, okay, now we need to come up with a totally different story and direction for it to go in, because that is done.” Whereas as ongoing series, again, you want to come up with something that can generate story after story.

When you look at the main characters of The Force Awakens — all of whom are super awesome, by the way — Poe is definitely the one whose previous stories are adventure stories.

He also teases upcoming miniseries, “some that are going to surprise people” and “some that people are not going to be expecting.”

His Jar Jar idea – which remains vague, just in case – isn’t going to happen “any time soon.” But there’s stuff in the pipeline for “fans of every era of Star Wars.”

The article also previews some interior art from Darth Vader #16.vader16

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Poe Dameron comic coming from Marvel

Marvel’s first sequel era ongoing will be Star Wars: Poe Dameron, USA Today reveals. It’ll be written by Charles Soule (Lando) with art from Phil Noto (Chewbacca).

The comic’s first storyline will focus on the lead-up to The Force Awakens. BB-8 and a new First Order villain will feature, with General Leia Organa and the other Resistance X-wing pilots likely to appear.

Poe’s parents were introduced in the Shattered Empire mini-series last year, but Soule says not to expect flashbacks. Poe’s introduction to Leia and the Resistance is featured in Greg Rucka’s Before the Awakening.

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Upcoming books focus on Star Wars front lines, propaganda

frontlines-wallaceJedi Bibliothek was first to spot two upcoming Star Wars coffee table books from Becker & Mayer. Both appear in the book producer’s 2015 autumn catalog (PDF) so we can probably expect them in the fall.

The first, On the Front Lines: Notes on Tactics, Armor and Valor from Galactic Conflicts is a look at warfare in the GFFA from Daniel Wallace. Here’s the blurb:

From the Clone Wars and the Rebellion to the clashes with the First Order, the galaxy is defined by war. Star Wars: On the Front Lines chronicles the tactics, weapons, and armor used in pivotal battles along with profiling acts of valor. By focusing on elements of the battles that occurred “off screen,” this collection brings the struggles faced by ground soldiers and starfighter pilots to life like never before and places the reader on the battle lines.

propaganda-phThe second is the “in-universe” Star Wars: Propaganda from Pablo Hidalgo.

Whether it’s a Star Destroyer hovering over a planet or an X-wing delivering a message of resistance, propaganda images have become synonymous with life in the galaxy far, far away. This in-world art book explores the creation and stories behind these images of power and persuasion—where the images appeared, why particular planets were targeted, and who were the in-world artists behind the works.

Also featured in the catalog are a trade edition of last year’s Star Wars: Costumes and several crafting titles.

Earlier, Jedi Bibliothek also discovered covers and details for The Force Awakens Storybook (among others) and Landry Quinn Walker’s Tales From A Galaxy Far Far Away: Aliens. (Aliens collects the eBook short stories released last month, and is supposed to contain two new stories.)

These last two scheduled for early April releases, which lines up with the Blu-ray evidence.

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The Force Awakens novelization shoots to #1

The Force Awakens novelizationThe Force Awakens novelization by Alan Dean Foster has made it to #1 on the the New York Times bestseller list, Lucasfilm’s Jennifer Heddle announced today.

The novelization was released in two phases – as an ebook on December 18th, with the hardcover not debuting until January 5.

(Pablo Hidalgo’s The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary has also been doing well, and is probably the most helpful resource out there right now.)

Despite over 20 years of the current publishing program, only 3 previous Star Wars novels have topped the NYT list: Timothy Zahn’s Heir the the Empire in 1991, Terry Brooks’ The Phantom Menace novelization in 1999 and Sean Williams’ The Force Unleashed novelization in 2008. Quite a few have made the top ten, with Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath recently peaking at #4.

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Star Wars out this week: The Force Awakens novelization (again) and Vader Down concludes

It came out as an eBook way back on December 18th, but Tuesday sees the release of The Force Awakens novelization in hardcover.

On Wednesday, the Vader Down storyline wraps up in Star Wars #14 and Darth Vader #15. There’s also the second Darth Vader collection, Shadows and Secrets, in trade… And although it shipped last week, Obi-wan & Anakin #1 was actually supposed to go out this week, so if your comic shop got the memo you may not have been able to find it on sale.

In other book release news, Del Rey officially announced today that Claudia Gray’s New Republic: Bloodlines and Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath: Life Debt have both been pushed back two months each. (Something that’s been reflected on our book release schedule for a while now.) Bloodlines is now due out May 3, and Life Debt on July 19. They’re our next two new novels, though there are a handful of paperback rereleases in the meantime, including the first Aftermath on March 29.

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The Force Awakens concept art gives us a look at the disparate evolution of Episode VII

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With the actual Making of book not due out until October, The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a must-read if you want a look at the development of the film. /Film runs down some of the possible plot points – warning, a lot of them are pretty deeply weird, or at least that’s the impression the book gave me. (The article barely scratches the surface.)

If you just want to look at pretty pictures, check out io9, Wired and Buzzfeed.