Of the many great Star Wars panels at Salt Lake Comic Con a few weeks ago, one of the highlights was the “Clone Wars & Rebels: How Animation Changed Star Wars” panel. Moderated by Bryan Young, the panelists included Lucasfilm creative executive Pablo Hidalgo, veteran voice actor Dee Bradley Baker, and artist Scott Harben.
Bryan Young moderated another panel that would interest EU fans. He had authors R. A. Salvatore and Mike Stackpole discuss “Why We Killed Chewbacca” bringing in how the decision was made and the fallout from that event.
I’ve been a Star Wars fan since I was barely 13, and became an Expanded Universe fan only days later. My entire experience of falling in love with Star Wars was prompted and is because of the Expanded Universe; I ‘first’ saw the movies on VHS over Christmas break in 1991. And we wouldn’t have even had those copies in the house if not for the release of Heir to the Empire in the spring of that year.
I owe my entire fandom to Heir to the Empire and the Thrawn trilogy. The Expanded Universe, which was pretty much all there was back in those days, formed the nucleus of my fandom. They hooked me, and they hooked me well enough that I sit here, 22 years later, running a fairly popular blog devoted to the franchise, with those same worn copies of Heir, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command not four feet away.
I love the Expanded Universe. It’s a weird kind of love that you get with this sort of fandom; I kept with it through some of the absolute worst fiction I have ever read, and many books that could I barely bring myself to call mediocre and, yes, even those rare gems that make it all worth it.
Forthcoming. Jeffrey Brown, the author of Vader and Son and next week’s Vader’s Little Princess, told the Full of Sith podcast about his next Star Wars project, Jedi Academy. In a hurry? FOS co-host Bryan shares the relevant details.
Comics. Brian Woods’ Star Wars gets a new artist, Ryan Kelly, for the new arc that starts with issue #7. Meanwhile, Cosmic Book News interviews Wood.
Comics. Remember how Entertainment Weekly was supposed to break some ‘interesting’ Star Wars news? And then we heard it out of WonderConinstead? Well, their article on The Star Wars has finally shown up… And Dark Horse’s Randy Stradley is, let’s say, less than impressed with the end result.
There are two other recent, less wrath-inducing interviews with Stradley on Newsarama and Jedi Journals.
The blogside. Two very different takes on the EU/EpVII issue: Newsarama’s Lucas Siegel takes a thoughtful approach, while io9’s Rob Bricken fans the angry paranoia flames. In another direction, Bria’s Waru Express has reached the New Jedi Order.
Flashback. Blogger Rologutwein is creating Star Wars roleplaying modules – based on other films – in the style of the old West End Games. Here’s his covers, and one of the interiors.