Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
While at Comic-Con in San Diego, I got the chance to sit down with Star Wars author John Jackson Miller to discuss his upcoming novel Kenobi, his recently published sci-fi work Overdraft: The Orion Offensive, and his other upcoming projects, and a Kenobi giveaway from Del Rey at Comic-Con.
And below, Miller gets a surprise visit from Lisa Curtis (dressed as Miller’s character Zayne Carrick from Knights of the Old Republic comics), who presents him with an honorary membership in Rebel Legion
With today being the release date of the fifth and final issue of the Fire Carrier story arc for the Star Wars: Dark Times comic, I wanted to highlight this fantastic comics storyline, so I got the chance to discuss the story with Randy Stradley, the writer of Dark Times as well as senior Star Wars editor and VP of Publishing at Dark Horse Comics.
Let’s hear what Randy has to say about writing the latest adventures of the Whiphid Jedi, Master K’Kruhk and a group of younglings under his care, posing as refugees on an Imperial backwater world. We won’t spoil the final issue, but if you want to learn more about the story so far, you can check out my reviews of all individual issues at Big Shiny Robot: #1 #2 #3 #4 #5.
Continue reading “Interview with Randy Stradley on Dark Times: Fire Carrier“
With the first episode of LEGO Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles debuting later this month, I was able to chat with the show’s writer, Michael Price, about the upcoming episode ‘The Phantom Clone’ and see what sorts of fun adventures await us and Master Yoda. In addition to writing the previous two standalone LEGO Star Wars specials, Michael Price has been a long time writer and executive producer on The Simpsons, having won several Emmys for his work on the show.
‘The Phantom Clone’ is the first of three specials that comprise The Yoda Chronicles, and will premiere on Cartoon Network on May 29th at 8 PM (ET/PT). Price takes us behind the scenes of the show in this exclusive interview:
Continue reading “Interview: Michael Price on LEGO Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles”
John Jackson Miller, author of Knight Errant and the upcoming Kenobi novel, has recently started a new original story, Overdraft: The Orion Offensive as a Kindle Serial. The first episode was released on April 2, and today is the release of the second installment, ‘Golden Handshake.’ Miller was kind enough to answer a few questions for us, as well as give us a prize to give away: copies of the short story prequel to the series, ‘Human Error’.
I’ve enjoyed Miller’s work as writer of the Knights of the Old Republic comics, as well as the Knight Errant comic series and novel, and the Lost Tribe of the Sith short stories, and I think that this serial, while set in an original universe, will delight readers with its characters, world building, and Miller’s mix of action and humor. Let’s get into the mini-interview on Overdraft:
As reported last week, some of the cast and crew of Star Wars: The Clone Wars were at MCAS Miramar in San Diego on Friday for special USO screenings of the show, including the US premiere of last week’s episode with Darth Maul, ‘Eminence’. Before the screening of ‘The Gathering’, voice actor James Arnold Taylor (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Plo Koon, etc.) took time to sit with me and chat about season five of the show, his work with the USO to give back to the troops, looking at the growth of Obi-Wan Kenobi and his connections to other characters on the show, and some of Taylor’s other characters on The Clone Wars.
Check out my event coverage of the USO screenings over at Big Shiny Robot or check out photos from the event in my Flickr album.
Continue reading “Interview: James Arnold Taylor at the USO screening of The Clone Wars: ‘Eminence’”
There’s lots of buzz out there to celebrate Star Wars: The Clone Wars hitting the 100 episode milestone! Variety magazine has got a buffet of light articles on the show:
Also, Channel Guide Magazine has a good interview with Dave Filoni on reaching the big one hundred mark, whether he would go back to special edition the original Clone Wars movie, and the change from Friday night to Saturday morning. StarWars.com has a big pile of quotes from the cast and crew on the occasion.
And, if you missed it, you really should check out the five minute trailer summing up the past 4.5 seasons with some peeks at what is to come (and who is noticeably missing)!
Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, co-author of Shadow Games and Coruscant Nights III: Patterns of Force, was a featured guest at Conjecture/ConChord in San Diego this past weekend for her work on writing filk songs, but she had time to give me the scoop on her upcoming Star Wars novel with Michael Reaves, The Last Jedi, as well as shares about writing Dash Rendar in Shadow Games, and characterizing droids like I-Five and Leebo. She also discusses how the short story “And Leebo Makes Three…” came about, and her other upcoming works.
I was a little disappointed that the programming staff for the joint convention (ConChord is a Southern California filking con, for which Bohnhoff and her husband were toastmasters, while Conjecture is a San Diego sci-fi/fantasy lit con) didn’t get their ducks in a row to have Bohnhoff on any Star Wars panels, such as readings for Star Wars Reads Day, or joining the discussion with Patricia Wrede, David Brin, and myself. Still it was a treat to have a chance to sit down with Bohnhoff about the writing process and baseball. Smaller cons are great places to actually meet and talk to the featured guests.
The Last Jedi, by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, comes out on February 26, 2013 in paperback.
Patricia C. Wrede was the guest of honor at Conjecture, a sci-fi/fantasy convention in San Diego, this past weekend. While known more for her young adult fantasy work (including The Enchanted Forest Chronicles and Frontier Magic series), Wrede is also the author of the middle school novelizations of the three prequel movies (from Scholastic). As part of Star Wars Reads Day, she and voice actor Mark Biagi performed a reading of different scenes from her junior novelizations. I got a chance to chat with Wrede about getting into the heads of Amidala and other prequel characters as well as other aspects of writing the novel adaptations for movies that weren’t complete at the time she was writing. She also discusses her most recent Frontier Magic novel, The Far West, the conclusion of a tale of magic in frontier America.
As a panelist at Conjecture, I got to moderate a panel entitled “What Didn’t George Lucas Steal?”, with Patricia Wrede, David Brin (of Star Wars On Trial), and Donna Keeley. While we started on topic about original concepts in the Star Wars films (and whether original ideas in storytelling even matters), we soon moved into the usual dissection of the saga, with Brin serving up his usual gripes against the moral lessons of Star Wars and George Lucas. Wrede had some good counters when examining the parallels between Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi, and Keeley broke down how haters of “Do or do not. There is no try.” are missing the context.
Learn more about Patricia C. Wrede on her official website.
With LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out premiering this Wednesday night on Cartoon Network, I checked in with the show’s writer, Michael Price, who also wrote last year’s LEGO Star Wars special, The Padawan Menace. That first animated show (reviewed last year), which had Yoda, C-3PO and a young Han Solo, ranks up as the best Star Wars based comedy I had seen in years, and one of my top Star Wars on screen for 2011. In this interview, Michael talks about the comedy of The Empire Strikes Out, and the challenges of solo writing Luke and Vader. Continue reading “Interview: Michael Price on LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out“
I had some time to catch up with PIGGY, the well-traveled Gamorrean Guard, at Star Wars Celebration VI. Thanks to PIGGY’s handler, Jon Leopold, for his assistance. It’s amazing how much PIGGY likes the same things I do in Star Wars.