Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Dark Horse is reviving the Legacy series – with a whole host of fresh faces, Comic Book Resources reports.
Written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman, the new Legacy (no subtitle?) will star a “a young woman who is the great-granddaughter of original movie characters Han Solo and Leia Organa.” It’s set to release sometime in 2013 and will be an ongoing series, according to Dark Horse’s Randy Stradley.
What will happen to the Expanded Universe? Well, it’s too soon to tell, honestly, but a sequel trilogy could certainly mean upheaval in the galaxy far, far away – and the post-Return of the Jedi continuity that’s been in the works for the past several decades. My bare bones advice? It’s time to start hardening yourself to a more fluid concept of continuity and canon. (You might also want to check out IGN’s Joey Esposito’s great post on the 007 approach to continuity.) But it is far, far too soon to speculate about what new Star Wars movies will bring to the party when we don’t know anything about them aside from their basic existence. (Yes, I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts on all that later, but one thing at a time!)
One place we can speculate on is who’s going to handling that future in publishing. We’ve seen no indication that Disney is going to shake up the way Lucasfilm works, so we can assume that Lucasbooks will remain the guiding hand. But what of the licensees themselves? They all have contracts, so things will stay as they are for now. But once those contracts are up?
Forgive my lack of finesse, as I’m exhausted. Cons are exhausting. Consider that before deciding on one as your vacation. Beneath the cut: Details on panels from StarWars.com, Dark Horse, and Timothy Zahn Retrospective, plus a quick pass on Kevin Smith.
Continue reading “Dunc’s recap of Thursday at Celebration VI: StarWars.com, Dark Horse, and more”
James, that scoundrel, sent in four videos from the panel yesterday, as well as new photos (starting here.) At this panel, they announced two new books and talked about several new comics, including Brian Woods’ Star Wars. Part 1, above, is the introductions and Dark Horse announcements
Then, Del Rey…
Their announcements…
And the longest bit, the question and answer session:
Live, from the con floor, thanks to a few enterprising fans, under the cut! Note, if you’d just like the news, head here: Post-Fate of the Jedi novel from Denning, Dawn of the Jedi novel from new author coming.
Continue reading “LIVE: Star Wars Expanded Universe panel at SDCC”
SDCC released their Friday schedule, and the wording on the Star Wars EU panel has folks speculating that Troy Denning is back for another round.
3:00-4:00 The Future of Star Wars Publishing: Dark Horse & Del Rey. Find out what’s coming up in the Expanded Universe of Star Wars publishing. Editors Randy Stradley and Dave Marshall from Dark Horse Comics discuss what’s next for Agent of the Empire, Dawn of the Jedi, Lost Tribe of the Sith, and Darth Maul, as well as reveal a new secret title that’s on the horizon. From Del Rey Books editors Frank Parisi and Erich Schoeneweiss, along with author Troy Denning (Apocalypse), look at new novels coming later this year from fan-favorite authors Timothy Zahn and Aaron Allston, as well as give a peek into 2013. Also on the panel is Jennifer Heddle, senior editor at LucasBooks. Moderated by author Pablo Hidalgo (Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion). Room 7AB
I think that the speculation might is almost certainly jumping the gun, and since Golden’s announcement came so late maybe that’s why she’s not a part of it… And who the hell writes these things anyway? Basically, I don’t know. So let’s not panic about Dark Nest 2: Electric Bugaloo just yet, okay? (via)
UPDATE: Roqoo Depot has some thoughts on the comic portion (which I won’t even touch,) but they also speculate that the book announcement might be the upcoming Kemp duology.
However, remember that Heddle told EUC last month about post-Fate: “We’ll be making an announcement about that at San Diego Comic-Con, so stay tuned.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some news on the duology, or even at it being set after Fate of the Jedi, but with Kemp’s wheelhouse thus far being rather niche, I’m not sure it would qualify as big enough news for a general con like SDCC. Still, it’s one of the few announced projects we have little-to-no detail on at the moment, making it a certain contender.
The year of Maul, indeed. Dark Horse’s Randy Stradley announced two upcoming projects featuring Darth Maul yesterday. Up in August will be a digest, The Sith Hunters, from Henry Gilroy and Steven Melching. There’s also an four-issue mini-series from Tom Taylor that we’ll learn about in “the near future.” (Celebration, maybe?) Stradley also reveals that the Maul storyline will bridge S4 and S5 of The Clone Wars.
Authors. Drew Karpyshyn has retired from Bioware, where he worked on The Old Republic, to “focus more time and energy on my novels and other non-video game related projects.” Karpyshyn is currently working on the fourth Old Republic novel.
Curious… A new book appeared on the Random House site this week: Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars by author and cultural critic Camille Paglia. It’s set for an October release.
Excerpt. This week’s mini-excerpt is from Jeff Grubb’s Scourge. It features Wookiees slapping droids around a bunch of other people I’ve never heard of.
Interviews. Graphic Novel Reporter talks to John Jackson Miller about Knights of the Old Republic: War. On that note, the last standalone Lost Tribe of the Sith story is now available for preorder. (Yes, it’s still free, it just won’t be out until March 5.)
Review. James has good stuff to say about Dawn of the Jedi #1.
Last week, folks from Del Rey and Dark Horse were at Lucasfilm to discuss future Expanded Universe projects. Frank Parisi shared a tease from Del Rey, and new editor Jennifer Heddle tweeted that she’s “Feeling very energized about SW publishing!” There’s also an interview with Heddle at Suvudu, though note it does predate the big meeting.
Hopefully this means we’ll be seeing more news trickling out in the coming months… The cupboard has been pretty bare lately!
While a lot of talk this week has been focusing on the changes coming in the Star Wars Blu-ray release, there’s also been some news and chatter in the world of the Expanded Universe:
Shadow Games: Del Rey has posted two mini-excerpts from Shadow Games on the Star Wars Books account on Facebook. The novel, by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, comes out at the end of November.
Mini-excerpt #1 (from last week):
“Confidence,” Dash retorted, annoyed at being pulled out of his pleasant reverie. “The Outrider is twice the ship the Falcon is.” As far as he was concerned Solo’s boat was a scow compared with Dash’s heavily modified YT-2400.
“Then where am I supposed to come by these steely-eyed, laser-toting…characters?”
A smile curved Kendara Farlion’s lips and her teeth showed, white and even in her face. “I never thought I’d say this, but there are advantages to being from Mos Eisley. I know exactly where to look for that kind of character.”
Comics:
Favorite Scenes: Del Rey asked fans on Facebook to identify favorite scenes from the novels. A lot of deaths pop in: Anakin Solo, Ganner, Chewbacca (I guess fans have mellowed a bit on that) and Thrawn, as well as scenes from the X-Wing (both comedic and action scenes), Republic Commando, and Darth Bane series. Did not see any mentions of Waru or the Black Fleet Crisis, and that makes me sad.
Fact mirrors Star Wars fiction: Discovered: A real life “Crystal Star” (well, a crystallizing former star) – Formerly a white dwarf star, this planet is believed to be turning into one giant diamond. At 4,000 light-years away, it’ll take a while for this rock to be a girl’s best friend. Also, did not see any mentions of Waru, and that makes me sad again.
Friday is traditionally Star Wars day at Comic-Con, and we had a full slate of Star Wars-related panels, and Seth Green returned to crash another one of them. While there was no Star Wars Spectacular, attendees in San Diego got their fill from different Star Wars licensees.
Del Rey’s Star Wars book panel was minimally staffed this year – only editor Shelly Shapiro and Choices of One author Timothy Zahn were up on stage. Shapiro gave a quick overview of upcoming titles (both novels and reference guides) and release dates from Del Rey, with no new title announcements. She did mention that in X-Wing: Mercy Kill there will be two Wraith Squadrons, and neither knows about the other. The original novella being written for Lost Tribe of the Sith print edition was described as a “big chunk” by John Jackson Miller, lurking in the audience.
Tim answered questions about Thrawn’s characteristics. Shelly responded that the canceled Blood Oath is essentially erased and overwritten in the timeline, while Imperial Commando 2 isn’t being pursued for the near future, though they do want to finish the series. Tim talked about having his bits of his EU works overwritten by George Lucas by using Bill Slavicsek’s analogy of working in Star Wars: playing on George Lucas’ driveway when he could back up the truck at any moment. He also gave his views of how the Force works: for power or guidance, with Yoda focusing more on listening to the Force for guidance over using it for power. More questions focused on Tim’s response to Mara Jade’s death (and how Tim would have written Serenity), Shelley’s views on character death and the anecdotal revelation that George Lucas gave the approval to kill off Han Solo when they were developing Vector Prime for NJO (only Luke and Leia were declared no-kill). And, of course, some of the usual questions about continuity and such.
You can check out the Del Rey panel for yourself: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Randy Stradley, in his Imperial officer uniform, started off Dark Horse’s Star Wars panel with some minor announcements (apparently New York Comic Con will get the official announcements): Star Wars comics being finally available digitally (some even for free), a new John Ostrander and Jan Duursema project, a new John Jackson Miller project, and a new Tom Taylor project. He then got all the panelists to reveal their favorite Star Wars comics moments, which led to hoojibs. Some further announcements include the opportunity for The Clone Wars comic story between seasons 4 and 5, and that one The Clone Wars comic story will be adapted an story arc for the show, and a new Vader project by Haden Blackman. Most of the Q&A was directed at Holocron keeper, Leland Chee, but then later went to hoojib zombies, constantly making the galaxy bigger, and another new series – Agent of the Empire, with a focus away from the Jedi or Sith. And Seth Green took the podium in this panel to relate his favorite Star Wars comics: Tag and Bink, and mentioned that his upcoming animated Star Wars comedy series may “smell like Robot Chicken”.
Watch the Dark Horse panel: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
The LEGO Star Wars panel started off Friday morning as a one-stop shop for all things LEGO Star Wars: a little look at the most recent LEGO Star Wars video games, some of the upcoming LEGO Star Wars building sets, including a new TIE Fighter set, and the new Queen Amidala figure, and ending with a few clips of the LEGO Star Wars animated special, The Padawan Menace, which aired last night on Cartoon Network (and will be running a few more times over the weekend). My recommendation: watch this hilarious animated special. While it takes place in the Clone Wars and focuses on C-3PO (voiced by Anthony Daniels) as he manages a group of unruly padawans, while Yoda and a youngling named Ian (or is it really someone else we know that’s just one letter off?) try to keep Asajj Ventress from stealing some plans. Written by Michael Price (from The Simpsons), there is a lot of fun and comedy here for all Star Wars fans. It was revealed after the panel that The Padawan Menace will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 16, to coincide with Blu-ray release of the Star Wars saga.