EUbits: Random House/Penguin merger confirmed, A look at some of the Essential Characters

Random Penguin parody logo by Peter Muller.

It’s official. Random House and Penguin will be combined, parent companies Bertelsmann and Pearson confirmed today. Both Random House and Penguin have imprints that hold Star Wars book licenses, most notably Del Rey and DK. This isn’t the first time a publishing house with franchise connections has merged – In 1998, Bertelsmann bought Random House, whose Del Rey imprint had recently acquired the novel license from Bertelsmann’s Bantam.

Essential guides. The folks at Star Wars Books revealed some of Doug Wheatley’s art for the new Essential Characters. The book is currently set to come out next August.

The blogside. Del Rey’s ‘ Darth Internous,’ aka Tom, wrote about how to balance your fandom when it becomes your job at Suvudu. On the fan side, Nanci at Tosche Station begins her Jedi Prince retrospective with The Glove of Darth Vader and The Lost City of the Jedi, while Roqoo Depot’s Skuldren and Synlah speculate about John Jackson Miller’s Kenobi.

Interview. Fangirl Blog talks to James Luceno about Darth Plagueis, continuity and the New Jedi Order.

NYCC. We didn’t hear much – or anything, really – about the Dark Horse panel with Brian Wood, but if you’re still dying of curiosity, Bleeding Cool has the audio.