Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Lo, there is a comic coming out on Wednesday. Keep an eye out for Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison #1 in your local comic shop.
We’re in a dry period for Star Wars books, with nothing but reprints for the next couple months, but certain Jaders may be interested to hear that the third and final book of Mira Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy, Blackout, is out today. Despite being fairly adverse to zombies, I recommended the first book, Feed, way back in 2010.
It’s another week of slim pickings. Comic fans, at least, can head out on Wednesday to find Dawn of the Jedi: Force Storm #4.
We’re still two weeks to our next book release, the paperback reprint of Paul Kemp’s The Old Republic: Deceived.
The blogside. There are, so, so many great responses out to EUC’s gender post now. (Why ours is the only one with 100+ comments and some hella tangents, I remain perplexed. Or maybe that’s just my headache speaking.) Synlah and Skuldren at Roqoo Depot were first out the gate with cluelessness in Star Wars. Emily at Tosche Station wrote Why Star Wars needs women – now more than ever. Rachael of The Galactic Drift says that asking for equality in Star Wars isn’t sexist, and, later (inspired by our comment section, I believe) how turning women into sex objects removes their humanity. And Tricia and Lex at FangirlBlog addressed how the original post missed the point of Star Wars and fandom, and Tricia came back last night with a look at the silver linings of the whole thing.
And, finally, Pete Morrison at Lightsaber Rattling took a look at the dramatis personae of Star Wars novels from the last few years and did a gender breakdown that showed male characters outnumber females almost 2 to 1.
Say what you will about EUC’s post, but it certainly got fandom talking!
Get your X-Wings in bulk. Knights Archive found a listing on Random Houses’ Smart Archive for an eBook bundle of the X-Wing novels. There’s no price yet, but it does include all the classic Stackpole and Allston books and goes on sale July 30th. That’s cutting it a little close for those who want to catch up or reread: Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill will be out the very next week.
The most magnificent motivation of all. Peter David has republished the first draft of Skippy the Jedi Droid, his classic Star Wars story from the much-missed Star Wars Tales comic. (via)
Celebration VI. The first Celebration Show Store exclusive to be announced is a 12″ figure of Clone Commander Ganch from Sideshow. Why is he here? Because he was created by Pablo Hidalgo and Tom Hodges for the The Clone Wars webcomics.
Background. Even more endnotes for The Essential Guide to Warfare..
Reviews. James reads Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness #5 and Boba Fett is Dead #1.
May the Fifth be with you! May the Thors be with you? Or something.. But get out to your local comics book shop to get your free comics for this annual celebration of sequential art. As previously mentioned, Dark Horse has a few different offerings, including a Han Solo and Chewbacca Star Wars story, ‘The Art of the Bad Deal’, in a flip-cover comic that also has a Zack Whedon-penned Serenity comic. Both stories have a common theme – a man and his ship. Dark Horse’s second freebie is a flip cover for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Guild. Combine both free comics together, and you will also have a two part story of Caitlin R. Kiernan’s Alabaster.
From other publishers for Free Comic Book Day: The Avengers, The New 52, Yo Gabba Gabba!, Simpsons, Mouse Guard, Transformers, Peanuts, and a whole lot more!
To find a comic shop near you, call 1-888-comicbook or visit ComicShopLocator.com.
There’s only one release this week, but it isn’t until Saturday, when you can head to a participating comic shop for Free Comic Book Day. Among the offerings is a two-sided Star Wars/Firefly book from Dark Horse – no, not a crossover, just two stories. And yes, there are plenty of kid-friendly choices and they really are FREE, so bring the younglings.
Our next couple book releases are paperback reprints: Paul S. Kemp’s The Old Republic: Deceived (May 29) and Timothy Zahn’s Choices of One (June 26.)
Have you heard about Jeff Grubb’s Scourge yet? Because it comes out Tuesday and I swear I have an entire EUbits worth of links for it. At least someone is excited… Roqoo Depot even has a reader’s guide.
Last week, Grubb chatted about the book on Facebook. (For the impatient, TFN has a recap.) He also chatted with the Fictional Frontiers podcast, EUCantina, Rooqoo Depot and Suvudu.
The reviews have been pretty positive, at least so far: Read up at EU Cantina, Lightsaber Rattling, Knights Archive, NJOE and Roqoo Depot. Or you can try a 50-page excerpt to see if it’s to your tastes.
Meanwhile, it’s a good week for comic fans, with three comics and a trade collection coming to stores on Wednesday. Two of the books – Crimson Empire III: Empire Lost #6 and Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness #5 – close out their storylines, while another begins with Blood Ties: Boba Fett is Dead #1. And for the final offering, the third volume of Invasion, Revelations, is collected.
The blogside. Over at Tosche Station, Brian has a two-part retrospective of Fate of the Jedi. The series has garnered some mixed reviews, but overall I have to agree with some of Brian on this one, particularly regarding Luke/the Jedi, the arc-welding in Abeloth’s backstory, and the overall issues with Denning. Brian’s also revised his review of Apocalypse.
Warfare fallout. Jason Fry has posted his endnotes for The Essential Guide to Warfare in three parts, while his co-author Paul Urquhart writes (naturally) about the wackier side of the book at Suvudu.
Interviews. EU Cantina talks to comic writer Tom Taylor about his upcoming Darth Maul mini-series, Invasion, and Boba Fett is Dead. Meanwhile, Newsarama has John Ostrander to discuss Dawn of the Jedi in some detail.
Whoops! I caught the release date change for Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories last week, but not that it had changed formats from paperback to trade paperback. Guess someone likes the Sith…
WTF of the week. Kevin J. Anderson invented the Killiks. Of course he did.
Reviews. James enjoys the unexpected trickery in Knights of the Old Republic – War #4 and is satisfied (sort of) by the big ending of Agent of the Empire – Iron Eclipse #5.
Be sure to make it out to your local comic shop on Wednesday, as Dawn Of The Jedi: Force Storm #2 will hitting the shelves. Also on the list are two new trades: The Old Republic: The Lost Suns and an Other Sons of Tatooine omnibus, featuring such luminaries as Biggs Darklighter, Janek “Tank” Sunber and… BoShek. Alrighty then.
In other news, Del Rey’s Star Wars team now has a dedicated twitter account, @DelReyStarWars.
Once again, we have a week without a book release, but Wednesday does bring a few things to your local comic shop. First up is Crimson Empire III: Empire Lost #5, as the series winds up to next month’s conclusion. Then, for the The Clone Wars fans, there’s The Enemy Within trade, which Dark Horse is describing as “Dirty Dozen in space.”
Of course, next week, we’ll finally get the last Fate of the Jedi book, Troy Denning’s Apocalypse. Which means now is the time for those of us who’ve been slacking (ahem, yours truly) to finally get around to reading finishing Ascension. For those who are hanging on every word, Lightsaber Rattling has the first review. He hints at some spoilers, but nothing major.
Dark Horse Comics announced yesterday that Issues #0 and #1 of the new Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi series would be reprinted after retail outlets reported selling out and not meeting demand. Not a bad way to kick off a new series! If you missed getting the backgrounder guide of #0, or the first part of the story in #1, make sure your local comics shop sets them aside for you when both come back on March 21, which conveniently is when #2 is also going to hit stores. The series by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema goes back 25,000 years, to a time before Jedi and lightsabers. On the fence? I’ve handily reviewed the two issues over at Big Shiny Robot: Issue #0 and Issue #1.