Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
It’s time to start looking in earnest for the art book Star Wars: Visions. While it’s been listed online with a November release date, there have been several reports of it being in stores, which I take to mean that it’s not formally street dated. Preview some of the pieces at Underwire, and be sure to check out Paula’s review.
(Note: This post originally said that The Clone Wars S2 DVDS and TFUII were coming out today. That’s, uhh, next week. Sorry for any confusion.)
I’ve never been big on the idea of Star Wars fiction having to be like movies: Novels are an entirely different format that requires different things. I don’t read Star Wars novels to experience the movies; I read them because they are different kind of stories. I’ve always been a reader above all else, and I don’t have any problem admitting that while it was the movies that turned me to fandom, it was the novels (and to some extent their illegitimate step-sisters, fanfic) that kept me here.
So if you really want to make me wince, you come out with a lazy, ill-thought-out list like Totalfilm’s 40 Star Wars stories that should be movies. Particularly when the list is inhabited by some of the worst stories the EU has to offer (Splinter of the Mind’s Eye) and things that are really only of interest to seriously hardcore fans (Luceno’s Millennium Falcon.) Hitting the random article button on Wookiepedia is no way to write a list.
Not all the stories on the list are from the EU, though that doesn’t mean they make any more sense as choices. Red 5 is a perfectly good web series, but I can see the concept getting old fast if you took it to two hours. Ryan vs. Dorkman doesn’t even have a plot.
I’m not completely against adapting the EU to other formats, mind. Splinter, Millennium Falcon or Rogue Squadron might might make good episodes of a Clone Wars-esque take on the OT period. (Let’s forget such a series would send the continuity-savants screaming into the night.) Knights of the Old Republic could function as an animated series or even a live-action mini-series. The concept of any Thrawn trilogy adaption makes me want to run screaming into the night (particularly if people start talking about live-action casting) but I could see it possibly working as serial animation as well. And I really hope that someone sent Seth Green some Star Wars Tales anthologies to mine for his upcoming humor series.
But as movies? A Star Wars movie should be epic, and the EU? Not so much. It’s there to continue the stories, let us know different characters and eras and cultures that we only get glimpses of (if that) in the films. It exists to build on the movies, not become them.
Do you want to make people smile? Get The Jedi Path (Vault Edition) and tell them to push the button.
I brought this to my local Star Wars club meeting, yesterday, and people actually squealed with delight when the vault opened. And when they calmed down enough to do it again and listen to the sound effects? Delighted claps that made them look like five-year-olds on their birthdays.
Going beyond the coolness of the vault, the book itself is fantastic! It’s designed as an orientation manual/text book for younglings at the Jedi Temple that has been passed from master to apprentice in a line descending from Yoda to, belatedly, Luke. (And, yes, they explain how this happens.)
As with many textbooks, it’s filled with notes scribbled in the margins. And I think this is my favorite part. It represents a conversation through the ages. And Dan Wallace really captures each owner’s voice in these notes. Of particular amusement, however, are Darth Sidious’ notes after he captured the book in the Order 66 aftermath.
There are also tons of keepsakes inserted by its various owners that are hilarious. My only complaint would be a coin that keeps falling out of the book and rolling across the room; a particular source of amusement for my dogs. I suspect that will make it difficult to keep this collectible intact in the future.
As to the book itself? It’s a brilliant compilation of thirty-three years of Star Wars lore in a spackle job at a level not seen since Michael Stackpole’s I, Jedi untangled the Bantam Era. Contradictions are explained. Disparate details from several different authors are melded into a coherent theory. And it’s all in the style of textbook; along with some stunning illustrations.
I’m no Santa Maul, but I would definitely add this one to your holiday/birthday wish list.
It seems that for the past couple episodes, The Clone Wars really hasn’t lived up to the words in its name – mostly a lack of clones, and instead of wars, we’ve been focusing more on trade disputes and politicians. Last week’s episode, ‘Corruption’ continued this streak as Senator Amidala visits Duchess Satine on Mandalore and helps stamp out some black marketeers after a tainted product scandal. If this season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is called “Secrets Revealed”, the only revelation here is that some Padmé-focused episodes work (like last season’s ‘Senate Spy’) and some don’t. Continue reading “The Clone Wars review: ‘Corruption’”
Jessica Johnson (@laregista) interviewed Ashley Eckstein at New York Comic Con. We can expect new items for Cyber Monday (the day after Thanksgiving – Santa Maul will be thrilled) and then again in March or April.
But the information most relevant to our specific interests is towards the end, where Jessica asks about the Mara Jade shirt. From the transcript:
J: I have to ask you this question because an onslaught of people are asking about it. What’s up with the Mara Jade tee, is it happening, is it not?
A: I kinda opened up my mouth too soon. It is going to happen. I don’t have a date for how soon yet. I still don’t have a design for it but I’m definitely talking to artists. It’s definitely going to happen I just don’t have a date. I kinda made it sound like it was happening tomorrow but I wish it was but it’s not. But hopefully, I would say next year I will push it forward so I will keep you updated. The second we start designing I will let the fans know.
I doubt this was the kind of revelation that Lucasfilm was hoping would make waves in the wake of the new Making of book, but it’s been tough to miss Carrie Fisher’s disclosure down under that she did cocaine on the Hoth set of The Empire Strikes Back. “I didn’t even like coke that much,” she says. “It was just a case of getting on whatever train I needed to take to get high.” She goes on to talk about John Belushi and (of course) her show ‘Wishful Drinking,’ which she’ll be performing in several Australian cities through November.
UPDATE: Fisher blogs about the cocaine incident with her characteristic zing:
So, a long time ago, in a nostril far far away, I ventured outside the perimeters of the appropriate by inhaling a substance that would render me less than professional by abusing the privilege of playing the powerful space princess that I had been given.
And yes, she goes on to say, “I suggest you stay away from ingesting this anxious making powder.”
Wait, what’s that? Lucasfilm is building a new facility in Singapore that resembles a chromed Jawa sandcrawler. Pretty interesting, particularly given that the company seems to prefer a more vintage look when it comes to architecture (or maybe that only applies in California.)
The Maker… blogs? George Lucas has come down from on high to blog for The Huffington Post on the importance of education. Note: He probably wrote it on a yellow pad and had one of his many employees type it up, so don’t start holding your breath for his tweets.
Spreading the word. Ashley Eckstein talks Her Universe in an interview with McClatchy Newspapers.
A short blurb for Joe Schreiber’s prequel to last year’s Death Troopers showed up back in June, but now Random House’s online catalog has a longer version:
The era of the Old Republic is a dark and dangerous time, as Jedi Knights valiantly battle the Sith Lords and their ruthless armies. But the Sith have disturbing plans—and none more so than the fulfillment of Darth Scabrous’s fanatical dream, which is about to become nightmarish reality.
Unlike those other Jedi sidelined to the Agricultural Corps—young Jedi whose abilities have not proved up to snuff—Hestizo Trace possesses one extraordinary Force talent: a gift with plants. Suddenly her quiet existence among greenhouse and garden specimens is violently destroyed by the arrival of an emissary from Darth Scabrous. For the rare black orchid that she has nurtured and bonded with is the final ingredient in an ancient Sith formula that promises to grant Darth Scabrous his greatest desire.
But at the heart of the formula is a never-before-seen virus that’s worse than fatal—it doesn’t just kill, it transforms. Now the rotting, ravenous dead are rising, driven by a bloodthirsty hunger for all things living—and commanded by a Sith Master with an insatiable lust for power and the ultimate prize: immortality . . . no matter the cost.
Red Harvest is due out in hardcover on December 28. (via)
Vanity Fair has a nice selection of photos from The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Meanwhile, author J. W. Rinzler talks with the folks at Star Wars Action News.
Keep an eye on our Twitter for (hopefully!) more updates throughout the day.
Her Universe’s second partnership is one that’s sure to make a lot of ladies around here happy: It was announced today at the SyFy Digital Press Tour that Her Universe will be producing a line of female-oriented merchandise for the science fiction channel.
We’re still waiting on the details, of course, but this is certainly a good sign for Her Universe and the fans.
UPDATE: TFN has the press release, which namechecks Caprica, Eureka, Battlestar Galactica, Destination Truth, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Hunters Academy and Warehouse 13.
Two big releases this week! Coming up first, on Tuesday, is J.W. Rinzler’s eagerly anticipated The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the follow-up to 2007’s The Making of Star Wars. I was lucky enough to find a copy early this weekend, and while I haven’t had a chance to do a proper read, I can say one thing: It is huge.
I suspect we’ll see a good deal of press on this, but so the biggies are Vanity Fair’s interviews with Rinzler and Jeremy Bulloch (Irvin Kershner coming soon.) Meanwhile, io9 has some tidbits out of NYCC.
The other new release that’s been getting a lot of buzz in fandom is Knight Errant #1 by KOTOR’s John Jackson Miller. Look for it in your comic store on Wednesday.