As we reported earlier, Dark Horse Comics announced at the Star Wars comics panel at WonderCon a new title coming this fall: The Star Wars, based on George Lucas’ original 1974 screenplay. This eight-issue arc, written by J. W. Rinzler (of The Making Of Star Wars books) and Mike Mayhew will tell the Star Wars story as it was in the first drafts, and using imagery that first appeared in Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art. We’ve got a preview page to help get you excited for the series, starting in September: Continue reading “More on The Star Wars comic based on George Lucas’ original draft screenplay”
I expect we’ll hear more soon, but Bleeding Cool reports live from WonderCon that Dark Horse will be publishing The Star Wars, an eight-issue series based on George Lucas’ original concept for the films. It’ll be written by Jonathan Rinzler with art by Mike Mayhew.
I admit I’m sick of hearing from certain segments of fandom that the sequel trilogy absolutely must conform to the books – I’ve already written twoposts about how that’s a completely unrealistic expectation that folks need to get over, and fast. I’ll probably write yet another post on this at some point, but for now, I beg you to go read Star Wars, Marvel, and the Multiverse by Brian over at Tosche Station.
One way or another, the sequel trilogy means that change is coming to the Expanded Universe. Denying it isn’t going to make it go away, and now is the time to make peace with all the possible directions this could go. Please. I promise it won’t hurt half as much as you think it will.
This week, fandom launched an effort to #SaveTheCloneWars, Star Destroyers appeared in a cunning disguise of clouds and farmboy grammar was considered. Also, what is that pocket on the back of Han’s vest? Wookieepedians, I summon you! Until then…
SciFiNow talked to Ian McDiarmid on his Star Wars character. He talks about Palpatine’s spinoff potential and even calls the Darth Palgueis novel ‘fascinating.’
But the highlight is perhaps his own thoughts on the character, and the possibilities going forward:
“I thought Sith were just somehow born evil, that’s what they were. But I’ve… with reference to a few things that George has said, I realised that that’s not true. He might well have a tragic arc too, but I don’t know. And even if he does I’m not sure we’ll ever see it. But obviously, if we did and if it happened it would be something that would be completely fascinating to do and it would be like building a Shakespearean character.
“Also the great thing about these movies is that George doesn’t give much away in advance to anybody,” McDiarmid continues, “which is good because that’s what a good storyteller should do, you should really want to know what’s going to happen next or how it all started.”
“And that’s all there in George’s head, and he’s released it, I suppose, in one way or another over the last few years. And although, of course, Disney now owns the franchise, George is there very much as a creative consultant and I’m sure they’ll be very grateful for that. And those storylines will still continue to emerge from that sort of databank, that extraordinary databank which is his brain.
For all the squee over Plagueis, I never really felt that it revealed much about Palpatine’s own motivation: The character himself is still very much a mystery, and I can how exploring that could be more fruitful with all the EU’s restraints removed. But somehow, I doubt that spinoff is very high on the list…
The new Legacy #1 will be in comic stores tomorrow. Boasting an all-new creative team (Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman,) the new volume taes place after the events of Legacy: War but focuses on Ania Solo, the “great-great granddaughter” of Han and Leia.
If interest here is any indication – the posts on this series have been some of the most popular comics content on CJ to date – plenty of you are looking forward to this one.
In the meantime, there’s a new interview with Bechko and Hardman at Comicosity.
On that note, Rebelscum has a first look at Gentle Giant’s Grand Admiral Thrawn Mini Bust. The Mara Jade bust they mentioned came out in 2006, by the way, so at this rate we can probably expect a Karrde or something in another 8 to 10 years, assuming the Thrawn trilogy isn’t totally irrelevant at that point.
Short stories. Christie Golden will have a story in Star Wars Insider #142. “It takes place between Apocalypse and Crucible and stars three of the galaxy’s most intrepid ladies,” Frank Parisi says.
Dark Horse and contracts. For those still pondering the chances of Marvel taking over the Star Wars comic contract in the future, Brian Wood says his contract runs through issue #20 of Star Wars and letterer Michael Heisler has some evidence for why it’s not a foregone conclusion. And there’s some sort of big series announcement coming.
The blogside. Nanci at Tosche Station points out 
Just one release this week, coming to a comic book store near you on Wednesday: 
The new 