Six Thoughts: Marvel gets Star Wars

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You wanted news? Well there you go. And now for a jumbled mess of assorted thoughts about said news…

  1. It is a bummer that Star Wars is leaving Dark Horse. As with any comic shop, there are high points and low points. Of late the Brian Wood comic was a definite miss for us, but the new Legacy series was a big favorite. Dark Horse has done a lot of good stuff with the license over the years and that shouldn’t be forgotten.
  2. It’s going to be a really big bummer if the latest Legacy series isn’t allowed to continue, but sadly I’m not holding my breath on that. (Edit: Big bummer confirmed, series to end at issue #18)
  3. I wrote a piece about Star Wars and following Marvel’s multiverse approach. Here’s the heavy-handed and very shameless plug to said piece.
  4. It should be pointed out that Marvel, from a creative standpoint, is absolutely flying high. It’s clear they understand their audience well and are keen to deliver both grand adventures and more character focused pieces (such as blog favorites Hawkeye and Captain Marvel).
  5. While writers like Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction may be too busy with other projects to work on Star Wars, Marvel has shown the ability to attract great creative talent to work for them. If they can do this with Star Wars, we’ll all be better off.
  6. Marvel has done a solid job with LGBTQ and minority representation in their works. It might be a lot to ask them to do that with Star Wars, but here’s hoping.

In all, this is definitely a mixed bag of feelings. I completely get the disappointment and sadness that Star Wars is moving away from Dark Horse, who generally has treated the franchise very well. On the other hand, I’m very optimistic about Marvel taking over. In the last few years, Marvel has proven themselves to be a very capable and, sometimes, progressive shop that’s capable of attracting top-flight talent and putting out a wide variety of stories. I’d say I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ll do with the license.

Excelsior, I suppose.

Marvel Officially Taking Over Star Wars Comics In 2015

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Screen Shot 2014-01-03 at 1.09.21 PMIt was just a matter of when rather than if but today, Disney announced that Marvel Comics will take over the publication of Star Wars comics and graphic novels in 2015.  Marvel takes back the license from Dark Horse Comics which has held it and consistently published Star Wars stories since 1991.

“Dark Horse Comics published exceptional Star Wars comics for over 20 years, and we will always be grateful for their enormous contributions to the mythos, and the terrific partnership that we had,” said Carol Roeder, director of Lucasfilm franchise publishing, Disney Publishing Worldwide. “In 2015, the cosmic adventures of Luke, Han, Leia and Chewbacca will make the lightspeed jump back to Marvel, to begin a new age of adventures within the Star Wars universe.

“We here at Marvel could not be more excited to continue the publication of Star Wars comic books and graphic novels,” said Marvel Worldwide Publisher and President, Dan Buckley. “The perennial brand of Star Wars is one of the most iconic in entertainment history and we are honored to have the opportunity to bring our creative talent pool to continue, and expand Star Wars into galaxies far, far away.”

You can read the full press release over at Marvel.com.

UPDATE: We just received this press release from Mike Richardson, the founder of Dark Horse.

The End of an Era

All things come to pass. So too, do all licensed deals. I am sad to report that Disney, the new owner of Lucasfilm, has notified us here at Dark Horse of their intention to move the Star Wars publishing license to another of their recent acquisitions, Marvel Comics, beginning in 2015. This will end a partnership that has lasted more than two decades.

For those who are new to the industry, Dark Horse revolutionized the treatment of comics based on films. After a history of movie properties being poorly handled with little regard for execution and continuity, Dark Horse took a new approach, carefully choosing licenses and approaching them with excitement and creative energy. Our goal was to create sequels and prequels to the films we loved, paying careful attention to quality and detail, essentially treating those films as though they were our own. Star Wars has been the crown jewel of this approach. We began chasing the title as far back as 1989, and with the launch of Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy’s Dark Empire, a new era in comics was born. I’m not ashamed to admit that we were Star Wars geeks, and we have been determined to spare neither effort nor expense in the pursuit of excellence.

It is ironic that this announcement comes at a time when Dark Horse is experiencing its most successful year ever. For obvious reasons, we have prepared for this eventuality by finding new and exciting projects to place on our schedule for 2015 and beyond. Will they take the place of Star Wars? That’s a tall order, but we will do our best to make that happen. In the meantime, 2014 may be our last year at the helm of the Star Wars comics franchise, but we plan to make it a memorable one. We know that fans of the franchise will expect no less. The Force is with us still.

Tosche Station’s 2013 Highlights

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Our second year was a busy one here at Tosche Station. Here are some of the highlights you may have missed:

Thanks for joining us in 2013 and we hope you’ll stick around next year!

Hondo Caravan: No One Saw That Coming?

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We’re wrapping up Season Two today with more Hondo and some super bad life decisions on the part of, well, most of the characters in the show.

Bounty Hunters
I’m already amused by the parallels between this episode and the MedStar duology and by parallels, I just mean that they are both stories that have to do medical stations in trouble near/on a planet with an incredibly valuable crop.  Okay, it’s a stretch clearly.

Hondo is back!  Although I don’t exactly know where he’s coming from calling bounty hunters scum since he’s, you know, a pirate…

“Let’s get down to business/to defeat the pirates!”  Honestly, I’m just waiting for Anakin to break out in song as he trains these farmers into soldiers.  It’s been a few years.  Please tell me that someone in the fandom has made this music video already.

Wait and now the metal suit pirate is actually just a small little ranat sized alien?  That is straight out of Men in Black.  I swear, is this entire episode just riffing off as many other films as they possibly can?

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Tosche Station Radio’s Holiday Special

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Happy Life Day and Happy Holidays! From the Tosche Station Radio crew, we’re proud (and horrified) to present our live commentary track discussing the Star Wars Holiday Special. We’re joined by Alli of our sister podcast, Wrong Opinions About Movies.

While we’re not going to tell you where to get your hands on the Holiday Special, we trust you’re resourceful enough to track it down. We’re using the recording complete with commercials and we start 1 minute into the video file.

As a warning, you may want to listen to this with the volume turned down because there are points where we scream in terror over the holiday festivities.

Thanks for another great year supporting the blog and podcast. Join us next week on New Year’s Eve as we livestream a Star Wars and fandom 2013 retrospective with Alli and Katie from WOAM.

Hondo Caravan: Welcome To Mandalore?

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We’ve got a post a day early for you thanks to the holiday this week and… uhhh… Look, we finally arrived at the first of the Mandalorian episodes.  If you’ve seen the show before, need I say more?  Or actually the same applies if you paid even a little bit of attention to the fandom when these aired.  If neither of these applies to you somehow then…. well, just keep reading.

Lightsaber Lost
If you didn’t immediately start doing your best Obi-Wan “This lightsaber is your life!” Kenobi impression when someone stole Ahsoka’s, I’m pretty sure you were doing it wrong.

Ahsoka is really not good at subtle nor at undercover work.  In all fairness, I do sometimes forget how young she is but on the other hand, she does continue to worry me every time we see her act far too rashly and in anger.  I blame Anakin and knowing what he becomes for all my worry in regards to her.

The storyline of the patient old Master who moves much slower than everyone else and who able to teach the impatient young one something new is a clichéd one but it works for Ahsoka.  It’s a filler episode to be sure but that doesn’t make it bad.  I love that the old master’s cane is his lightsaber.  I’m surprised that Yoda didn’t do that too.  Maybe that’ll be the next retcon.

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Go/No-Go: The Jupiter Pirates: Hunt for the Hydra

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It’s hard to write a review of Jason C. Fry’s The Jupiter Pirates that isn’t just me saying “It’s really fun! Go read it!” But that’s the truth. It’s really fun. You should go read it.

In case you’re not willing to blindly follow my recommendations (and why not?), allow me to describe the book a bit more.

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Simon Kinberg discusses Rebels

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Producer Simon Kinberg sat down with StarWars.com in a video interview to discuss Rebels and Star Wars. In his words, Rebels is going to be a “wholly original tapestry” that’s going to feature different stories and different characters than the films. The goal is to be an entry point for a generation of new fans and a “point of return” for existing fans.

Kinberg also discusses the Inquisitor, noting that a challenge was figuring out how to create a character that can live up to the likes of Darth Vader. Additionally, Kinberg’s favorite film? Empire Strikes Back. Take that however you want.

Tosche Station Radio #77: Grinch’d

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On this episode of Tosche Station Radio, we’re feeling grinch-y and discussing characters we loathe!

Kicking off the show, the hosts highlight what’s New on the Blog. Bria reviewed Legacy #10. Her latest two Hondo Caravan installments include Not the Children and And Now, Barriss! Congrats to the winner of our Razor’s Edge giveaway, Kelly! We’ll be mailing that out to her as soon as the holiday rush at the post office is over.

The hosts have been busy in Fixer’s Flash. Holiday Festivities included a trip to Disney and viewings of favorite holiday films. Both of the hosts participated in a Geek Trivia event. Nanci’s been busy reading The Jupiter Pirates by Jason C. Fry.

Deak’s Dirt starts with a rapping llama confirming Rebels will air on Saturday mornings. Is the New Essential Guide to Characters cancelled? There’s a new online video game: Star Wars: Attack Squadrons.We are now two years away from Episode VII’s release date. What do we know so far? At a recent Variety event, Alan Horn mentioned that Disney expects to get an Episode VII script in January. As for a possible Indy movie? Horn says we need a story first.

This week in Camie’s Concerns, our hearts shrink three sizes and we discuss characters that we loathe and why. There’s room here for the hosts to engage in debate, which is always fun.

Tosche Station Radio is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net and a part of Majestic Giraffe Productions. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Nanci and Brian are the co-founders and writers of Tosche-Station.net. You can find Nanci on Twitter with the handle @Nancipants and you can find Brian with @LaneWinree.

This podcast has been brought to you in part by Her Universe and Audible.com.

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