Dark Horse announces Vector

Newsarama reports from the Diamond Retailer Summit in Baltimore:

2008 will see Star Wars: Vector, a crossover story that will be “similar to Civil War in its scope and style,” according to Dark Horse’s Jeremy Atkins. One constant character will experience the story as it travels through all four of Dark Horse’s Star Wars titles: Knights of the Old Republic, Rebellion, Legacy and Dark Times. John Ostrander and John Jackson Miller will oversee the story direction through the titles.

A multi-book crossover? I believe that’s a first for the Star Wars comics.

As one might expect, the TFN fanboys have already got their whine on, but John Ostrander promises no flow-walking. This ought to be interesting…

Dark Horse for November

Appearing on the Dark Horse site today, several November comics: Legacy #18, Dark Times #9, Knights of the Old Republic #23 and a KOTOR handbook.

Also: Another Boba Fett hardcover (how many of these things are there?), the first Dark Times collection and a ROTS photo comic I’ve given up trying to understand the whole Boba Fett phenomenon, but can someone explain to me the appeal of photo comics? Is it more than the thrill of seeing the same old photo stills and dialogue?

ETA: TFN has the actual solicitations, which include… A hardcover of Union? So they’re not pretending that whole era of the EU doesn’t exist? Shocking!

CIV: The Expanded Universe

First things first: all the EU fans were scrambling for the early copies of Sacrifice, which promptly sold out before noon on Thursday morning. I was working all morning and thus missed out, but enough CJers grabbed copies that I was able to borrow one and check on a few spoilers. The second shipment came in Saturday morning, and I was finally able to grab a copy of my own. I only hope that next time the hotly anticipated book can come out a few weeks before the con, if for no other reason than…

Friday’s Legacy of the Force panel was the major EU event, at least for those of us with a focus on the books. All three series authors, both editors, and Pablo moderating. No Sacrifice spoilers allowed, which is a shame. I can understand the reasoning, but how long will it be before fans have access to that entire lineup again, with the pivotal book of the series hot on everyone’s mind? Hrrm. We did learn that the final LOTF book is titled Invincible. There were the usual allotment of questions regarding Jaina’s harem and the oh-so-hot topic of traditional Mandalorian dance. Quite a few Mando questions, actually – enough to warrant a dedicated panel next time, I’d say. (Please.) There was also some sort of recording going on during the panel, so it may be that audio will go up on the TOS in time.

Saturday was the Publishing/Continuity and Dark Horse panels. Continuity was sparsely attended, but whether that was due to it being the first panel on a day where folks were having trouble getting in or a general lack of interest I’ve no idea. The folks who did show up were quite enthusiastic, and the Wookieepedians were excited to get a look at the mighty and mysterious Holocron. And we learned that Plagueis is still a Muun, even with his book canceled. (Curses!) They also may reprint the Making of books for ESB and ROTJ, adding new photos and material.

The Dark Horse panel, later in the day, was packed, but they’re holding back any big announcements until later in the year. Something big is planned for 2008 and 2009… Let’s hope it’s not just TFU tie-ins. They did, however, talk about reviving the Tales concept as an annual… And there were a lot of Legacy questions, but nothing particularly groundbreaking.

Other EU news

And of course, the Clone Wars footage…

Book and comic updates

Nonfiction: J.W. Rinzler talks about wrapping up work on next year’s Making of Star Wars. He mentions two books I don’t think we’ve heard much about, a scrapbook and a pop-up book.

Fiction: Sue Rostoni posts a short timeline of Tempest. And in comics, John Jackson Miller has announced that Dark Horse is going to revive the in-continuity news source starting with in Knights of the Old Republic #13. No word on if this will spread to the other comics.

ETA: Apparently letter columns are returning to the comics as well, though it’s not known in what issues yet. (Thanks, Broox!)