Heir to the Empire annotation #7: Pronunciation

Foreign pronunciation issues arise in our seventh preview of Tim Zahn’s Heir to the Empire annotations:

A small thing that I never would have anticipated, and never even knew before I was invited to a Star Wars convention in Munich: The “thr” combination apparently doesn’t exist in German, or so I was told. German Star Wars fans therefore have terrific difficulty pronouncing Thrawn’s name.

Pronunciation issues are fairly common in these books, even in English: Is it Mar-uh or Mare-ah? (Trust me: It’s Mar-uh.) How do you say C’baoth? Fey’lya? Damn apostrophes.

Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition will be out in hardcover June 28.

Cover for Zahn’s Choices of One tweaked

Is it improved? Yes, quite a bit. (Click the image above for a closer look.) Is it still very obviously a ‘head pasted on yay’ Photoshop job? Yes. But at least the head itself is slightly better? For Mara, anyway. Overall: Meh.

Remember those neat painted covers we were getting for a while? Can we please get more of those? At least for Zahn? (via)

EUbits: Character Encyclopedia, Jedi Path TPB coming

New stuff! We’ve got an announcement for a Star Wars Character Encyclopedia from DK. I hope this means we’re not getting a mean we’re not getting a new Essential Guide to Characters from Del Rey, since the DK version promises only “Star Wars live action movie saga” characters in the same style as The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia. (Though I do expect this will be geared towards the younger fans than an Essential Guide, given the company it’s keeping.) It’s coming in June.

In less perplexing news the link also contains the news that a trade edition of Daniel Wallace’s The Jedi Path is coming in September.

Video. Early Darths Bane and Revan almost appeared in The Clone Wars, Dave Filoni reveals in his ‘Ghosts of Mortis’ commentary.

Press. Bonnie Burton’s Star Wars Craft Book is one of Library Journal’s spring picks. She’s the sixth one down.

Namesake corner. Nancy counts down her favorite Luke/Mara moments.

“We can dream, can’t we?” Imagining our fantasy Zahn novel on Twitter

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about what’s wrong with the EU. That’s nothing new, but there’s only so much one can really take before you start wondering about alternatives instead of just pointless ranting. Luckily, a few of us on Twitter tonight have had… Some ideas. Well, one idea.

Continue reading ““We can dream, can’t we?” Imagining our fantasy Zahn novel on Twitter”

Video: Seth Green on Conan

Green makes the Robot Chicken Star Wars III rounds out to TBS to talk about his wife, his childhood acting career and his trip with ‘Conan’ to New York and Robot Chicken toys. (There are Robot Chicken toys?) There’s an actual clip in there somewhere!

He’s also getting ink over at Hero Complex, where he reveals that a Mara Jade joke was cut out of the show. Now what will I laugh wildly at? NOW WHAT?!?

UPDATE: And again (with Matthew Senreich) at Big Shiny Robot.

EUbits: More Red Harvest, Pablo, comics, and Mara Jade

Read Red Harvest After releasing the first chapter of Joe Shreiber’s Death Troopers prequel a few weeks back, StarWars.com has gone on to post chapters two, three, and four. If they keep going, will there be anything left for folks to read by the time to book actually comes out?

Interview with an internet rockstar. Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo talks to Mexican fan site Datapad de Korpil about his fandom activities before LFL, his books, and the editorial process.

Comics. Dark Horse’s February solicitations include Knight Errant: Aflame #5, Darth Vader and the Lost Command #2, Legacy: War #3, and a pair of trades. Meanwhile, StarWars.com has a Knight Errant atlas extra, and Tom Taylor reveals the cover of Invasion: Rescues #6.

Namesake corner. The 501st’s costume reference for Mara Jade’s jumpsuit. Sure, many of us aren’t fans of the outfit (Doesn’t a sleeve-gun kind of necessitate sleeves? Also, this.) but we can’t blame the legion – they’re only following in Dark Horse’s footsteps.

Ashley Eckstein talks Her Universe, Mara shirt

Jessica Johnson (@laregista) interviewed Ashley Eckstein at New York Comic Con. We can expect new items for Cyber Monday (the day after Thanksgiving – Santa Maul will be thrilled) and then again in March or April.

But the information most relevant to our specific interests is towards the end, where Jessica asks about the Mara Jade shirt. From the transcript:

J: I have to ask you this question because an onslaught of people are asking about it. What’s up with the Mara Jade tee, is it happening, is it not?

A: I kinda opened up my mouth too soon. It is going to happen. I don’t have a date for how soon yet. I still don’t have a design for it but I’m definitely talking to artists. It’s definitely going to happen I just don’t have a date. I kinda made it sound like it was happening tomorrow but I wish it was but it’s not. But hopefully, I would say next year I will push it forward so I will keep you updated. The second we start designing I will let the fans know.

EUbits: Upcoming from DK and Dark Horse

Upcoming. StarWars.com has a look at some of DK’s 2011 offerings, including Secrets of the Jedi, which sounds like a kid’s version of The Jedi Path. Also up are the December 2010 comics, including Knight Errant #3 and Legacy: War #1.

Interviews. Nathan P. Butler and Andrew Lupi talk to Shannon McRandle.

Column. EUC’s column this week, about death in the EU, is… gigantic.

Fanmade. A custom Mara Jade Mighty Mugg.