Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
We’re only a few months out from Celebration VI, and, Friday’s announcement aside, news has been fairly thin on the ground so far. Luckily, Lucasfilm and Reed have give us at Club Jade a first look at some of the convention’s programming.
Head beneath the cut for some, ahh, treats.
Continue reading “EXCLUSIVE: First look at Celebration VI programming”
The ‘Nerdist’ host will be joining us in Orlando as a “special guest host,” whatever that means. He’s known within the geek community for his podcast and being the host of G4’s Web Soup. (Hopefully he’ll be less obnoxious than the last Star Wars ‘hosting’ job G4’s Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn did at SDCC ’09.) He’s also the host of AMC’s Talking Dead.
He’ll also be hosting Course of the Force, a charity run, at San Diego Comic Con.
This is our first major news on the con since the stage hosts, though there have been announcements on standard Celebration fare like the artist lineup, a collecting track, costume pageant, autograph farm and speed dating.
UPDATE. In other shocking news, The Clone Wars’ Supervising Director Dave Filoni will be at the con.
We got the first of what is likely to be several Celebration VI announcements over the next few months: The hosts of the three main stages. The Clone Wars’ Obi-Wan, James Arnold Taylor, will be commanding the Main Stage. LucasArts’ David Collins will handle the Digital Stage, while author and Internet Rockstar Pablo Hidalgo will be hosting the Behind-the-Scenes Stage. We’ll be seeing a lot of Pablo, I expect.
@verojecsguard We are working on a Mara Jade t-shirt for Celebration!
— Her Universe (@HerUniverse) February 20, 2012
It looks likely! We first heard that it was in the pipeline back in 2010 (Ashley Eckstein admitted a little later she had spoke too soon.) I’m hoping it pans out for the con, and I even promise I won’t get too mad if there’s a catsuit.
UPDATE! When I tweeted this post, Ashley replied with a key detail: The artist!
@clubjade The amazing @catstaggs is working on our Mara Jade shirt :o) Send both of us your thoughts if you have any!
— Her Universe (@HerUniverse) February 20, 2012
Staggs has a 2010 commission of Mara on her Deviantart page.
In the meantime… The shirt Erin is wearing above is Mara Jade Nouveau from Mighty Fine, and it does appear to be an authorized product.
In other Her Universe news, Ashley has a new interview with Nerdist News.
The blogside. On Livejournal, Chameleon Irony takes a look at what implications the events of Darth Plagueis may have had on Padme throughout the films. (Contains Plagueis spoilers.) Meanwhile, at Rooqoo Depot, Lane considers fandom, Jaina Solo, and ‘strong female characters.’
Fate of the Jedi. The latest mini-excerpt from Apocalypse features Luke and a Sith.
Celebration VI. Two more authors have been confirmed to be attending: James Luceno and Jason Fry. Paul S. Kemp, not so much.
Art. Two more looks at the interior art of The Essential Gude to Warfare: An Imperial refueling and a fantastic Dave Seeley title page spread showing the Battle of Couscant from Revenge of the Sith. It’s better than the actual cover!
Reviews. Over at Big Shiny Robot, James considers Agent of the Empire #3, Crimson Empire III #4 and Knights of the Old Republic: War #2.
Cover art. Revealed on the official blog today is the finished cover for Pablo Hidalgo’s Essential Reader’s Companion. Clearly inspired by the Micheal Whelan piece used for the preliminary cover, the art was painted by Paul Youll.
Celebration VI. Del Rey has confirmed Aaron Allston, Troy Denning, Drew Karpyshyn, and John Jackson Miller will be at the con in August. And of course we already knew about Timothy Zahn.
Dawn of the Jedi. i09 has some interior pages and an interview on the upcoming series from John Ostrander and Jan Duursema, while Dark Horse gives us a look at some sketches.
The hype continues. On the off chance you haven’t heard of that Darth Plagueis book, there’s a trailer. Of course.
Chats. Author Paul S. Kemp did a Q&A with Reddit’s fantasy group the other day. There are a few questions about Star Wars scattered throughout.
Reviews. James takes a look at Knights of the Old Republic: War #1 and Agent of the Empire: Iron Eclipse #2.
After being absent from Celebrations since 2005 (CIII in Indianapolis,) Timothy Zahn will be attending this year’s Celebration VI in Orlando. And he’ll still make it to Dragon*Con a week later. Here’s hoping he gets another standalone panel!
Reed has given the Celebration VI website a fresh look, including a few features that give fans input into the con. Be sure to do the programming survey – although I find it’s lack of book/comic content disturbing. (Seriously, can we get a formal track already?)
For fans willing to put a bit more in, there are applications for fan panels (that means you, EU fans,) fan tables, and the art show.
The VIP packages for Star Wars Celebration VI will go on sale Wednesday at 3:01 p.m Eastern, according to an email sent out today. The prices have increased since last time – the Jedi Master package is $850, while the Jedi Knight is $400. They’re both limited to the same numbers, though – 50 Masters and 250 Knights.
And this is merely the public sale – the packages will first be made available to VIPs from Celebration V for 5 hours, so who knows how many will be left by then…
Yes, we finally have the Celebration VI announcement. Alas, it’s back in Orlando… Same bat-time, same bat-location.
Yes, that means AUGUST. Again. August 23-26, in the Orange County Convention Center. Ugh.
On the plus side, you can get your tickets and book your hotel right now.