Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Not a ton of breaking news here… The bulk of TFN’s report deals with some Clone Wars stuff, including some deleted scenes and a peek at the S1 finale. (Speaking of: Cartoon Network has picked up the second season, shocking absolutely no one.)
But we can expect a Celebration V announcement sometime this summer!
This weekend is the first major con of the year, New York Comic Con. Steve Sansweet and “some famous—maybe infamous—guests” will be there to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Phantom Menace, along with folks from Del Rey, Dark Horse and Robot Chicken. And for The Clone Wars fans, the official site promises “an exclusive sneak peek of something very special.”
The Beat has the schedule of Dark Horse events, including a Star Wars panel and several signings on Saturday. And Star Wars is certain to come up at the Random House panel later (?) that day.
In other event news, dates were announced for Disney’s Star Wars Weekends last week.
Photo from NYCC ’08 by elorgwhee on Flickr. All hail Creative Commons!
You can listen to Steve Sansweet, Pablo Hidalgo, Josh Kushins, and Mary Franklin talking The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia on the ForceCast’s ‘Holiday Special’ right now. On Sunday, Steve will be appearing on Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib.
After going through practically every holiday since 1999 with some sort of “coffee table book” from the Star Wars franchise, you would think that I’d be mentally prepared for the weight associated with it. Well, I was fooled again with the latest edition of The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. I nearly dropped the blasted thing (all 12 pounds of it — I weighed it) when I tried to pick it up.
Still, this baby’s beautiful! Three hardcover volumes in a shell. (Which is making it resemble, more and more The Encyclopedia Brittanica.) That beautiful Empire red and black coloring. Images subtly glowing out. Each hardcover has its own different cover design. Each book has its own quote for the dedication page. A lot of fun! Continue reading “Review: The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia“
This is a big week (literally) for Star Wars stuff: The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia finally arrives in bookstores tomorrow, along with Karen Miller’s The Clone Wars: Wild Space. And on Wednesday, comic fans can pick up The Clone Wars #3, aka ‘the one where Anakin thinks a eyepatch is an effective disguise.’ If that’s what they teach in those fancy Jedi disguise classes, why bother with Order 66?
StarWars.com features The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, including several sample pages that the more keen-eyed among us might actually even be able to read. The book, written by Steve Sansweet, Pablo Hidalgo and Dan Wallace, Bob Vitas, Chris Cassidy, Mary Franklin and Josh Kushins, will be in stores next week. (Santa Maul would no doubt encourage you to consider it for your holiday lists.)
Also on the official site tonight are the March 2009 comics, including upcoming issues of Legacy and Knights of the Old Republic, along with a new Clone Wars digest, The Wind Raiders of Taloraan.
Last year’s big Star Wars holiday book offering, the Star Wars Vault, is enjoying a one-day-only sale for $25 at Woot.
It’s pretty fantabulous! (via)
UPDATE: Miss it? You can always console yourself with all seven seasons of Buffy for $70. – Dunc
Steve Sansweet gets quoted in a story on the Harry Potter fans miffed at the Half-Blood Prince delay.
Some think the outsized reaction could actually be a boon for the studio. Steve Sansweet, who runs fan relations for George Lucas’s Lucasfilm Ltd., says “Warner Bros. should be delighted. Sure, they have a problem on their hands, but they are also seeing the passion of their fans. The real problem comes when you have fans that don’t give a damn.”
Granted, the quoted Potterheads are certainly on the raging, ranty, please-calm-down end of the spectrum, but Steve has a point. Just, uh, refrain from sticking your hands between the bars.
So I was in the audience at Dragon*Con when they showed the first episode of the upcoming Clone Wars cartoon. Do yourself a favor: give it another shot.
I was in the same group as others who found the movie to be, um…tedious. I wasn’t terribly impressed. But the first episode I saw was great! A nice balance of character, story and battle. And I think Yoda has more lines in this first episode than in all the movies combined. It descends into a couple of spots of “only funny to kids” humor, but only for a few seconds here and there. And I suspect that will fade as the series finds its legs.
So don’t give up on it just yet. Stick with it for a few episodes and see if it doesn’t win you back. You might just be surprised!
UPDATE: There is probably a Clone Wars trailer tonight on Cartoon Network at 8:00pm: The channel is teasing something very big for that time, and TCW fits that bill a lot more than TFU. (Big thanks to Mike and Tagne!)
Both TFN and Yoda’s News have reports from Dragon*Con on Steve Sansweet’s presentation. He showed the first episode of The Clone Wars and said that the premiere date should be announced early next week with a “month long promotional series for the launch of the show.” Could said date be October 3rd?
Sansweet also mentioned Celebration 5, but without solid specifics: 2010 is a likely date, with a location in the midwest or eastern U.S, consistent with what we’ve been seeing.
He also showed some new The Force Unleashed clips. Tune into Cartoon Network for a game trailer tonight at 8:00pm. (Or… something else? Whatever: Tune in.)