Category: books and comics

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More Expanded Universe designs are coming to Her Universe!

Ashley in the CVI Mara shirtIf you were wondering why The Clone Wars’ Ashley Eckstein was chatting on the Star Wars Books Facebook today, well here’s your answer: She announced that Her Universe has acquired the rights to make Expanded Universe products! (As you may recall, the Mara Jade shirt for Celebration VI was a one-off and limited availability due to not having the EU rights.) Here’s what Ashley had to say about what’s to come:

We are designing Several NEW Star Wars designs this year. Everything will be debuting in May. We are making shirts, dresses, jewelry…We have Rogue Sqaudron designs AND I am SO excited to announce that Lucasfilm has given us the rights to design shirts for the women in the EU, so expect more Mara Jade and Jaina Solo designs!

She later asked fans to be sure to speak up about what EU stuff you’d like to see.

Later, a (male) fan asked “Why do girls pretend to like Star Wars?” (Really people? Really?) Ashley handled that pretty well:

Girls definitely do not pretend to like Star Wars. It’s a fact that close to half of all Star Wars fans are girls. There may be some girls and boys that pretend to know more about Star Wars than they really do, but I would encourage you to talk about Star Wars with them and teach them more. Sometimes people may pretend to know more than they really do because they want to fit in. But even if there is a seed of interest in Star Wars, it’s our job as fans to welcome NEW fans into this Universe. Especially during this exciting time! We are about to get more movies!

Of course there was plenty asked about The Clone Wars:

I honestly don’t know Ahsoka’s eventual fate. I encourage you to watch the Season 5 finale on Saturday because there are some surprises. You will get some answers and then you will also probably have a lot more questions…You must tune in and bring some tissues…

There’s plenty more, so check out the chat!

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EUbits: Take a Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell

Rebel Mission to Ord MantellAudio For you audio drama fans, Big Shiny Robot has unearthed Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell a ye olde (scripted by Brian Daley!) tale that takes place between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.

The blogside. EUCantina debuts a new column, with a look at what they’d like to see in Kenobi (some Clone Wars spoilers.) Meanwhile, Bria’s Waru Express has pulled into Tosche Station with The Thrawn Trilogy.

Interviews. There’s a real surplus of them since we last checked in, with new writers (Martha Wells, Tim Siedell, Corinna Bechko & Gabriel Hardman) old writers (Kevin J. Anderson) and of course Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, co-writer of The Last Jedi, which came out yesterday.

Speaking of The Last Jedi… The reviews! NJOE, EUC, Jedi News, Lightsaber Rattling, Roqoo Depot and Bry/Megan at Knights Archive are all fairly positive, while Bria at Tosche Station is unimpressed.

Comics. Preview Dark Horse’s Free Comic Book Day offering, and behold a Legacy variant cover. Also, James has his reviews of the most recent comics: this week’s Dawn of the Jedi: Prisoner of Bogan #3 and ,a href=”http://www.bigshinyrobot.com/reviews/archives/49301″>Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets #5 and Brian Wood’s Star Wars #2.

Congratulations to your publicist. Forbes, of all publications, profiles Dark Horse and their role in making licensed properties cool for comics. There’s some interesting stuff from a generalized viewpoint, but despite use of the term ‘expanded universe’ it’s more focused on video game tie-ins than things like Star Wars and Buffy.

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Random rumor roulette: Episode VII to focus on OT in tone; Simon Pegg and Alfonso Cuaron likely?

SEQUEL TRILOGY RUMORS: Take seriously at your own risk.Marketsaw‘s spy is backing up the claims that Episode VII will focus on the Skywalker spawn, and also the film’s tone:

The focus is on the original trilogy in regards of reverence and tone. Remember I told you before that the tone was important, well I believe they are really taking that seriously. From everything I know, they’re focusing on that directly. Remember everything has the ability to change drastically, as Star Wars right now apart from the twin trilogies is a huge blank canvas. However, the trilogies ongoing narrative will continue to focus on that particular branch, whereas the stand alone movies, will fill and expand the voids in between in multiple timelines, and have potential to then be franchised themselves in regards to the worlds they open up.

The ‘news’ here, however, is the claim that Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men) may be a very important name in the hat for future Star Wars directing jobs, and to “expect” Simon Pegg in “some capacity.” Dengar?

UPDATE: Pegg tweets:

Oh, and they mention Plagueis as a possible spinoff, because of course.

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You’ve never heard of the Millennium Fusion? Best #StarWars, #EpisodeVII and #SWEU tweets for Feb. 18-24

@kenleyyoung: I was just asked if I could make a fast @Target run. "Fast? I'm in a car that made the last Target run in less than 12 parsecs."

Last week, we all made the Kessel Run, one lost soul sees the light, or at least the proper way to spell ‘Lucasfilm’ and the Oscars were nigh-irrelevant to our interests! (Business as usual, basically.) All this and more below the cut.

Continue reading “You’ve never heard of the Millennium Fusion? Best #StarWars, #EpisodeVII and #SWEU tweets for Feb. 18-24”

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Out this week: The Last Jedi. No, the other one.

The Last Jedi (detail)Out Tuesday is Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnoff’s The Last Jedi, which continues the story of Jax Pavan from the Coruscant Knights book.

Wednesday has plenty to offer comic fans, with Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets #5 and Dawn of the Jedi: The Prisoner of Bogan #3. Plus there’s the third printing of Star Wars #1.

Our next novel release won’t be until May, with Tim Lebbon’s Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void.

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Your weekend rumor: Is Knights of the Old Republic in the mix for a spin-off movie?

Darth Malak, I guess.Somewhere on the scale between ‘Ugh, no’ (Boba Fett/Yoda) and ‘Well… okay?’ (Han Solo) there exists AICN reporting a possible Knights of the Old Republic spin-off movie. Somewhere a gamer is screeching like a little girl, but I just roll my eyes. Don’t get too excited, though – “literally a ton of activity going on regarding a whole bunch of ideas,” the report also says.

Apparently there are also rumors going around Bioware about Drew Karpyshyn being involved. I thought he was working on some fantasy novels (and a screenplay that will need to be shopped around, which doesn’t exactly scream ‘part of a major franchise’ to me.) Whatever, rumor mill.

UPDATE: Let the record show…

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Wells’ Leia novel gets an October release date; Miller’s Kenobi moves up to August

LeiaDel Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss updated fans on Facebook today with a few release dates. Martha Wells’ untitled Leia novel is the first of the Rebels series to drop, with an October 29 release. (Erich mentions that it’s moving up a week, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time they’ve given us a date publically.)

Meanwhile, John Jackson Miller’s Kenobi moves up a whole month, from September 24 to August 27. As always, our book release schedule has been updated!