Comics. Writer Scott Allie talks about the Qui-Gon Jinn comic Jedi: The Dark Side with CBR. He reveals that the series will take place 20 years prior to The Phantom Menace, that the focus of Dark Side will be a personal story, and talks a bit about Xanatos. Yoda, Mace Windu and even Dooku will make appearances in the mini-series.
Releases. Del Rey will be reissuing The Phantom Menace novelization and Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter next year to tie-into the first 3-D release. Both books will feature new original short stories for the occasion.
Events. Authors John Jackson Miller and Paul S. Kemp and Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss will talk about Star Wars books at a panel at Chicago’s C2E2. The schedule isn’t up yet, but the panel will be Friday, March 18. (Question: Is C2E2 worth a vacation day and a 4-hour drive in the days of social media? I’ll have to think about it.)
History lesson. Tor.com’s Emily Asher-Perrin takes a slightly snarky (yay!) look back at the evolution of Star Wars galaxy maps. In retrospect, that first one was probably the only reason at all to be excited about Vector Prime. I must admit I do still like the old-timey calligraphy look it has.
The blogside. Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff reveals that one of the locations for Shadow Games (née Holostar) is Bannistar Station.
Kids. The folks behind The Strange Case of Origami Yoda will be back with Darth Paper Strikes Back in the fall.
New short stories? Yay!
Shadow Hunter was my first real Star Wars book, and persists as one of my all time favorites.
Also, is there any particular reason that in the comic cover above, the number 25 appears to be a part of the large ship?
The 25 is a Jedi padawan prank gone seriously wrong. Most hooligans spraypaint their favorite tag on stuff – Jedi hooligans carve it with their lightsaber.
New short stories? What a way to tempt us to re-purchase the book ten years later. Remember that the TPM novelization had four different variant dust covers!
What would be cool is if they released a short story collection that was nothing but short stories and ebooks that made it into paperback editions. Especially if it was published as a hardcover.
Isn’t this DH’s 25th anniversary?
James: I really don’t get the bitching about that. If people have put it upon themselves that they want to own the shorts, than it’s upon them to buy them. Nature of the beast.
and yes, 2011 marks Dark Horse’s 25th anniversary as a comics company. but that’s a behind the scenes explanation.
I had so much fun with the TPM book release. I saved up to buy every book released. There were dozens, plus the novelization variations in adult and kid.
I felt like a millionaire swooping in and buying it all.
And you know I’ll be buying the novelizations again.
Oh. And people need to check out Origami Yoda. It’s an awesome book that will take you right back to middle school.
I would love a short story collection as well.
I totally didn’t notice the “25” in the cover art for Darth Vader and the Lost Command until now (Wheatley version)….pretty slick.