Dark Horse offers entire Star Wars comic library for $300. With their license expiring in mere days, this is our last chance to get the comics from Dark Horse themselves. The digital bundle includes 568 comics, aka 28353 pages, and will remain in your collection after the new year. Yes, Marvel will be reprinting some of these, but who knows how many? In any case, this is a great bargain.
Video: Meet the authors of the new original trilogy illustrated novels
Alexandra Bracken, Adam Gidwitz, Tom Angleberger and artist artist Iain McCaig talk about their upcoming adaptions for children.
Aaron Allston is one of Cracked’s overlooked deaths of 2014
Aaron Allston is one of Cracked’s overlooked deaths of 2014. Sure, he may not be overlooked to us, but the mainstream is another matter. And, as another Jader pointed out, he’d get a huge kick out of being described as “author of Star Wars storylines J.J. Abrams will probably disregard.” Yub yub, Emperor.
Del Rey previews Luke Skywalker art for the Star Wars Insider
Del Rey previews Luke art for the Star Wars Insider. The artwork by Magali Villeneuve will illustrate an excerpt from Kevin Hearne’s Heir to the Jedi in issue #155.
Marvel remastering original A New Hope adaption
Marvel is reprinting their first Star Wars adaption next year in hardcover, CBR reports today. The comics by Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin will be fully recolored by Chris Sotomayor and feature a new cover from Adi Granov.
While I find the old school coloring charming – the new version just looks super generic, at least in the example provided – I have no doubt this will find plenty of buyers. (Presumably the original versions will be available in January’s Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years.) The ‘remastered’ adaption will be out in April, followed by similar editions of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi later in the year.
Marvel confirms that new Star Wars #1 has sold 1M copies
Marvel’s David Gabriel has confirmed last week’s report that the new Star Wars #1 has sold more than a million copies to comic retailers. He tells Comicbook.com (who originated the report) that it’s due mainly to “the strength of the Star Wars brand” and says it’s been “one of the easiest sells in a long time.”
Meanwhile, Jedi News has a rundown of the variant and exclusive editions of the comic, because that stuff is crazy and as an avowed non-collector, I Simply Cannot.
Dark Disciple cover revealed
Christie Golden’s Dark Disciple, based on unproduced scripts from The Clone Wars, now has a cover – and a release date. StarWars.com says the novel will be out July 7, 2015.
Will the new Marvel Star Wars #1 actually sell 1 million copies? Comic retailers seem to think so
Comicbook.com claims today that Marvel’s new Star Wars #1 will sell over a million copies. Or rather, that comic retailers have ordered a million copies – who knows how many will find themselves in the hands of readers.
According to the story, no comic has broken the 1M mark since 1993’s Batman #500, and “fewer than fifty comics have sold more than 200,000 copies” in the last 15 years. The bestselling comic book in that period sold only about 530,500 copies, per Comichron. (Though it’s worth noting those numbers, through the comic shop distributor Diamond, don’t include digital sales – everything here reflects the ‘direct market,’ aka actual comic shops.)
Dark Horse’s Star Wars comics sold steadily, but they weren’t exactly topping the charts regularly. Their 2013 Star Wars #1 clocked in at nearly 100,000 copies, per writer Brian Wood, and was reprinted multiple times. Marvel has the benefit of heightened interest in the franchise due to The Force Awakens. But will it bring people into the shops? The retailers seem to think so…
In any case, StarWars.com just posted a preview of Star Wars #1. The comic will be on sale January 14 – and I doubt you’ll have a hard time tracking down a copy.
Win a Heir to the Jedi ARC next Monday
Del Rey to give out Heir to the Jedi ARCs. You could get an early copy of Kevin Hearne’s Luke Skywalker book during the Rebels on Monday, November 24. The book is coming out in March.
Are The Force Awakens novelizations coming out after the movie itself?
Among the Disney Lucasfilm Press books Jedi Bibliothek discovered earlier this week was one called ‘Telegraph Hill Movie Junior Novel,’ which the full Edelweiss listing reveals is “A junior novel tie-in to the film, Star Wars: Episode VII.” It’s set to release December 22, 2015 – the first Tuesday after The Force Awakens’ December 18th release. Granted, this is only the junior novelization, but could the adult novelization come out on the same date? It seems likely.
During the prequels, the novelizations – and other tie-in books – often appeared shortly before the movie release, which meant spoilers galore. Nothing is going to stop spoilers coming out before the actual film – the merchandise will simply have passed through too many hands for things not to leak – but at least the actual books may be hard to get hold of.