Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
No books this week, but comic fans can look forward to a couple of things on Wednesday: Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness #4 and the trade collection of the Qui-Gon series Jedi: The Dark Side.
Our next two book releases are Joe Schreiber’s Red Harvest in paperback (next week) and Troy Denning’s Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse (March 13.)
This week is strong with the dark side: Not only are we seeing Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D arrive in theaters Friday, but that’s also the release date for Dan Wallace’s Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side, the latest fancy whatsit you can use to frighten impress your friends with your supreme geekery. (A book coming out on a Friday? Unusual, but it’s no ordinary book… Though I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to get it at midnight.)
Appropriately, there will be a mighty bounty of new Star Wars comics in stores Wednesday: Knights of the Old Republic: War #2, Agent of the Empire: Iron Eclipse #3 and Crimson Empire III: Empire Lost #4. There’s even a little something for the Omnibus fans, A Long Time Ago: Volume 5.
I LOL’ed. Oh, 90’s comics. (via)
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.
Covers. Knight’s Archive found the new cover to The Phantom Menace novelization earlier this week. Shockingly, it looks just like the poster. Like the last TPM-centric rerelease, Shadow Hunter, this one contains a new James Luceno short story and may be a bit difficult to find because both editions share the same ISBN. It’s due out on the 31st.
In other cover reveals, StarWars.com has the covers for eighth Lost Tribe of the Sith installment and the paperback compilation. They look pretty much the same as all the Lost Tribe of the Sith stuff.
Fate of the Jedi. The mini-excerpts for Denning’s Apocalypse begin with – who else? – Saba.
Interviews. In a two-parter, James Luceno talks Darth Plagueis at TFN and Suvudu, while John Jackson Miller chats with CBR’s Tim O’Shea.
With Knights of the Old Republic returning to comics with War starting tomorrow, Dark Horse had writer John Jackson Miller take questions via Twitter today. We sum it up so you don’t have to try to read answers before the questions on Miller’s twitter (catch it all on #KOTORWarChat). War was intentionally made as a good starting point into the era, so while there’s Easter egg type connections to the previous fifty-issue run of the KOTOR comics, reading the earlier works is not necessary to understanding the story. And it’s Sith-free!
Continue reading “Tweeting with John Jackson Miller on Knights of the Old Republic: War“
Well nerds, it’s time: James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis will be in bookstores today. If you’re not convinced yet, there’s yet another excerpt at StarWars.com, or reviews at Big Shiny Robot, EU Cantina, Fangirlblog, Knights Archive, Lightsaber Rattling, Roqoo Depot and The Star Wars Report.
Wednesday will be big for comic fans as well: Both Knights of the Old Republic: War #1 and Agent of the Empire: Iron Eclipse #2. Or, you can round out your collection with the trade of Legacy: War.
If Knights of the Old Republic: War is on your radar, James has an interview with John Jackson Miller.
Zahn says… On his Facebook page, Tim Zahn narrows the timeline of his upcoming Han Solo novel from OT era to “around the time of” A New Hope, brainstorms a theory on why Chiss are hanging around The Old Republic, and reveals possible topics for the short stories that would have gone with the probably-not-happening annotated editions of Dark Force Rising and The Last Command. (Two of these originally brought to my attention by Roqoo Depot, since I haven’t been paying as much attention to Facebook as I should.)
Excerpts. With James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis coming out on Tuesday, the machine was in full swing this week, with a mini-excerpt on Facebook, two pages on Entertainment Weekly and the first 50 pages on Suvudu. Is there anything in the book that hasn’t been released as a tease at this point?
Well, this is disturbing. If you’re a Sith in The Old Republic, you get your own Twi’lek slave to torture. Yeeeeah, no thanks.
Short stories. Eric Geller daydreams up some short story anthologies. (Remember anthologies? We haven’t seen one since ’99. They didn’t sell at that well, apparently.)
Chat. Dark Horse and John Jackson Miller will have a Twitter chat on Tuesday for the occasion of Knights of the Old Republic: War #1, which will apparently be coming out on Wednesday. You’ll want to keep an eye on the hashtag #KOTORWarChat.
2011 brought us a plethora of Star Wars comics from Dark Horse. With 44 individual comic issues and 17 books (digests, trade paperbacks and omnibus collections), there was a lot for everyone, with nearly every era getting some stories. As part of Dark Horse’s 25th anniversary, the Star Wars lineup added some new titles (Jedi – The Dark Side, Darth Vader and the Lost Command, and Agent of the Empire), brought back some old favorites (Crimson Empire III) and finished up the Cade Skywalker storyline with the end of Legacy: War. Darth Vader and the Lost Command was Dark Horse’s bestselling Star Wars title of the year, which earned it a special hard-cover trade edition. While Haden Blackman’s tale of Vader on a mission filled with betrayal is a great story, I think there was another story that topped it to be the year’s best.
Wednesday brings the debut issue of John Ostrander’s Agent of the Empire, featuring the James Bondesque Imperial agent Jahan Cross. The series spans a few years before A New Hope, or so I hear.
Also gracing the comic shelves will be a pair of digest reprint collections: Episode I Adventures collects some TPM side adventures, while Episode I: The Phantom Menace is the official movie adaption.
You might also want to be on the lookout for the latest issue of the Star Wars Insider, #130, for the new short story by Matthew Stover, ‘The Tenebrous Way,’ though in some places I’m seeing it dated for the 21st.