SDCC: Eight Star Wars comic series coming in 2011, including Blackmen on Vader

So much for there being no EU news out of Comic-Con… Comic Book Resources reports that editor Randy Stradley revealed that there will be eight new Star Wars series in 2011, including something Vader-centric from Hayden Blackmen:

Most will be revealed at Star Wars Celebration, but Stradley said Blackman will be writing a Darth Vader series. “It chronicles one of Vader’s greatest failures ever,” the editor said. Vader then lit up his lightsaber and choked Stradley using The Force.

I suspect most of those – including the Vader one – are actually mini-series, but time (and Celebration) will tell.

Quickly! Dispatches from San Diego Comic-Con

I suspect Pablo took this.San Diego Comic-Con is here, and StarWars.com has snapshots from Preview night. (Watch their Flickr for stuff from today/tonight.) Of special note for EU fans: The cover to John Jackson Miller’s Knight Errant novel. Newsflash: It snows.

The geek girls panel was this evening, but I’m not seeing any reports just yet… It did launch a hashtag, though.

Familiar faces at SDCC’s Her Universe panel

Ashley Eckstein will be joined by our Star Wars peeps Mary Franklin and Bonnie Burton, artists Cat Staggs and Katie Cook, writer/producer Jane Espenson (Battlestar Galactica, Buffy The Vampire Slayer,) author Melinda Snodgrass and the Syfy Channel’s Director of Development, Erika Kennair. The panel, ‘Her Universe: Shining the Spotlight on Female Fans – the Past, Present and Future of Science Fiction Through Female Eyes’ will take place Saturday evening.

The fandom minute: Anakin’s borderline is not a disorder

He has issues. Just not those. Psychology Today disagrees with the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder for the Sithling, saying “While Vader/Anakin seems to fit some of the criteria, a closer look shows the traits don’t add up to provide a cohesive portrait of a person with the disorder.”

Con of Cons. There’s no Spectacular at San Diego Comic Con, but since we weren’t expecting much news until August, I think we’ll manage. There is a Her Universe panel, though.

Ballot-stuffing for the win! Clone Wars fans beat out fans of Futurama, Family Guy and some show on FX I’ve never heard of to nab Best Animated Show in TV.com’s Now Awards. (Note to readers: Turn down your speakers before clicking. Note to TV.com: AUTOPLAY IS NEVER OKAY.)

Stop. Just stop. The leader of the Jedi Church has landed a “reality show,” except by “reality show” they mean he’s going to be filming himself and putting it on Youtube.

Has Twilight shone a new light on female fandom?

It certainly made MSNBC take notice (well, technically Newsarama, but let’s take a wild guess at which version got the most eyeballs) that more women are flocking to geek fandom – or at least the traditional aspects like San Diego Comic Con.

“Hollywood is finally waking up to the fact that girls like a wide variety of things beyond Barbie and Sex and the City,” said actor Mike McMillian, who plays the Rev. Steve Newlin on the HBO television series “True Blood”, a sexed-up vampire show that has proven itself popular with both male and female fans. “The universal success and appeal of ‘Harry Potter’ probably kicked this off in some ways. There are obviously concepts out there that are more appealing to boys than girls, and vice versa, but things don’t always have to be organized into ‘pink’ and ‘blue’ categories.”

McMillian counts himself among the fanboy culture and is writing next year’s comic book series “Lucid” from publisher Archaia. But the actor said he thinks there have always been fangirls — Hollywood just never courted to them before now. “There are legions of women out there who love this stuff, but I think they’ve been largely disregarded up to this point,” he said.

Is it time to step back from the hate and take a look at the bigger picture here? (via)

The fandom minute: Comedy, charity, fanboy brawling and everything in-between

Too soon?Video: io9 has a fine collection of Star Wars-themed stand-up videos, some of which we’ve seen before. They also discovered Darth Vader’s Psychic Hotline.