Star Wars out this week: Aphra, TIE Fighter and Thrawn at SDCC

Two new Star Wars comics are coming on Wednesday, July 17. Head to your preferred venue to nab Doctor Aphra #34 and TIE Fighter #4.

Also happening this week (Thursday-Sunday) is San Diego Comic Con, where attendees have the chance to get a special edition of Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn: Treason. The standard edition goes on sale next Tuesday.

We’re also hoping for some book news out of the con’s Lucasfilm Publishing panel Friday evening.

Zahn’s Thrawn: Treason heads to SDCC with con exclusive edition

Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn: Treason is the latest Star Wars novel to be offered as a con exclusive edition, this time for next month’s San Diego Comic Con. There will be both a hardcover and audio version ($45 each, $90 for both), and wristbands will be required. Each copy has a new cover, comes signed by Zahn, and includes an enamel pin. Check the graphic in the gallery below for more.

SDCC runs July 18-21. The standard versions will be on sale July 23.

Celebration Chicago publishing news (…so far)

There have been two book-based publishing panels here at Celebration so far, and luckily I managed to attend both! They’ve been low on major news, but they did still contain a few revelations about upcoming fiction.

The first, Lucasfilm Publishing, was Friday, not long after The Rise of Skywalker panel, which is pretty much why you’re getting this post on Saturday. (Fan! Blogging!) We did get a cover reveal for Zoraida Córdova’s Galaxy’s Edge YA novel, A Crash of Fate, which was compared to Lost Stars and features two old friends who reconnect.

Delilah Dawson confirmed that Cardinal will be joining Vi Moradi in her Galaxy’s Edge novel, Black Spire. It will have a very different feel from Phasma – she name-dropped the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine as an inspiration at both panels.

Meanwhile, Christian Blauvelt’s Be More Yoda and Be More Vader are getting two new companion volumes in the fall: Be More Leia and Be More Lando. And Jeffrey Brown returns to the GFFA with Rey and Pals. Check StarWars.com for some of the highlights (and decent images!), and my Twitter thread has a few other bits. (Yes, there will be a Journey to Episode IX. No other details, but it will happen.)

The second panel was Del Rey Behind the Scenes, and it featured Claudia Gray, Delilah S. Dawson, Alexander Freed, Tim Zahn and Cavan Scott with Marc Thompson moderating.

We did learn a few things about Gray’s Master & Apprentice and Scott’s audio drama Dooku: Jedi Lost. Scott was such a fan of a new character in M&A, Rael Averross – Dooku’s previous padawan and another mentor to Qui-Gon Jinn – that he became a big part of Jedi Lost.

As for Thrawn: Treason, we got a few more details – Thrawn gets drawn into the power games of Tarkin and Orson Krennic and “it doesn’t end how anyone expects.” Eli Vanto returns, as does Admiral Ar’alani and the Grysk.

For more, check out that Twitter thread!

There will be an author roundtable here on Monday, which seems like it will be the hotbed for announcements. I plan to attend that but wasn’t able to get a panel reservation, so… We’ll see. (Ahh, Reed.)

Meanwhile, there was a Marvel comics panel today – big news is that Greg Pak and Phil Noto will take over the main Star Wars comic in July – plus the cover reveal for Anthony Daniel’s memoir, I am C-3PO: