Tag Archives: Dark Horse

SWEU News From Comic Con!

Posted on by

The intrepid James Floyd from Club Jade is at Comic Con this weekend, and he oh so generously livetweeted both SWEU panels.

From the Dark Horse panel, notable announcements included a new arc of Dark Times, the introduction of a new villain into Dawn of the Jedi, an Ewoks comic set in the arrival of the Empire era, Tom Taylor working on a secret project, and an upcoming Vader and clone story. For more, see Club Jade’s Storify feed from the event.

James also attended the Del Rey panel. Right at the beginning, moderator Leland Chee stated that the SWEU is in transition as a result of the Disney buyout and Episode VII. Therefore they’re unlikely to announce a new title…but we can dream, right?

Kenobi began as a graphic novel, but got so long it became a novel. Jen Heddle praised the novel, and John Jackson Miller compared Obi-Wan to a well-known superhero, saying he has to learn to be Clark Kent as opposed to Superman. Frank Parisi also praised the upcoming Empire and Rebellion: Razor’s Edge by Martha Wells, and Heddle added that there’s a good focus on the Big Three.

J.W. Rinzler, author of The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, said the book took two years to write and extensive digging into the archives. In a really cool feature, the enhanced e-book will have 30 minutes of audio and 30 minutes of video. Some clips were shown during the panel.

Other items of note:

  • There will be a Death Star Tech Manual.
  • Darth Maul: Lockdown will tie into Darth Plagueis. Apparently Sidious and Plagueis have different plans for Maul in this prison version of Oz and Scarface.
  • Star Wars: Jedi Academy by Jeffrey Brown, coming in August, will tell the story of middle school by a new character writing and doodling.
  • As to the future of the EU, it’s still in flux, but even before, Lucasbooks and Del Rey did their own EU without concern for films and television. Whether it’s used in those mediums is up to the writers and directors.
  • Regarding The Clone Wars, Chee said the possibility of tying up loose ends is a possibility. As to making a definitive timeline of the era, that’s not happening any time soon.

Notable announcements include the cover reveal to Empire and Rebellion: Honor Among Thieves, the Han-centric novel by James S.A. Corey, published March 4, 2014. Heddle compared the novel to Brian Daley’s Han Solo Adventures.

Han Solo Cover

A notable exception: no mention of Christie Golden’s Sword of the Jedi trilogy, scheduled for release next year. Is this good or bad news? We shall see…

Club Jade collected all of James’ tweets on another Storify, which you can find here. Thanks to James for his great reporting!

Dark Horse Adapting Original Star Wars Concept

Posted on by

At Wodnercon yesterday, Dark Horse revealed just what that Jonathan Rinzler-written project would be. According to BleedingCool.com, it’s going to be an adaptation of George Lucas’ original Star Wars concept.

At WonderCon, Dark Horse announces new eight issue Star Wars series for September – The Star Wars. Based on George Lucas‘ original concept that eventually became the Star Wars films.

Featuring Darth Vader not as a Sith/Jedi but just a General. Anakin Starkiller. An old General Luke Skywalker.  Jonathan Rinzler will write and Mike Mayhew will do the art.

Dark Horse also shared some concept artwork for the new series which you can see at the link above. For continuity purists, don’t even try to mesh this into canon and just enjoy it for what it is. A fun Infinities-style what-if.

Will the Star Wars Comic Rights Be Reverting to Marvel?

Posted on by

One of the questions surrounding the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm and today’s rumor mill of the day has concerned the future of Star Wars comic books with Dark Horse.  Many people have predicted that Star Wars will return back to Marvel (Disney’s in house comic company) and rumors today put that return date to be sometime in 2014.  However, Randy Stradley, VP of Publishing for Dark Horse, commented on the Dark Horse messenger boards recently and said “don’t believe everything you read on the internet” indicating that the previous rumors are likely false.

There does, however, remain a decently strong chance that Marvel could reacquire the rights to publish Star Wars comics at some point within the next several years.  I’m going to make it clear that this is all speculation on my part based upon rumors and the current state of comics.  So what would that mean for the books themselves?  First and foremost, the fate of the current or forthcoming books that Dark Horse is putting out could possibly be in limbo.  Judging by the interview with CBR, both Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman seem to have at least a year’s worth of issues and story lines planned out if not more for the brand new Legacy comic.  If Marvel does reacquire the Star Wars IP, will comics like Legacy or Agent of the Empire or the new Original Trilogy era comic continue under Marvel editors or would they be halted completely or halted and relaunched with completely new creative teams?

It would also bring the fate of the various creators into question.  It is possible that some of these writers and artists could have exclusive contracts with Dark Horse therefore stopping them from making the change along with the Star Wars IP.  If they don’t have exclusive contracts, it’s possible that some of these titles could simply seamless continue and just change editorial staffs.  More likely than not though, you would probably see at least some creative team shifts but predicting those would be nigh impossible especially since it’s almost equally as impossible to predict what books sales might look like in 2014.

On the other side of things, some people have looked at Marvel’s current line up of writers and artists and become excited about the prospect of something like Bendis, Fraction, DeConnick, Remender, or Hickman writing a story set in the Star Wars universe.  As far as artist goes, I know that I would personally love to see Skottie Young give some of the Star Wars comics and characters his baby treatment or Phil Noto or Jerome Opeña drawing a Star Wars book.  Unfortunately, I honestly do not see that happening especially given the current book assignments and Marvel’s current tendency to double ship many of their more popular books.  For those who don’t know what double ship means, it refers to a comic having two issues published each month instead of one.  Obviously double shipping requires a very strict creative schedule and usually a fair bit of planning so each contributor can meet his or her deadline.  Looking at the current and upcoming Marvel NOW schedule, it is very unlikely that most of the big name writers would have time to add another Marvel book to their schedules in addition to their own creator owned projects.  That’s not saying it’s impossible (because let’s be honest: after the Episode VII announcement, nothing is impossible anymore) but it’s unlikely.  This could potentially give some of the lesser known creators for Marvel a chance to shine or even some new talent to emerge.

On the other hand, there is also the chance that Marvel might not have any immediate interest in working on Star Wars comics in the immediate future especially given their current projects.  Star Wars could possibly have a longer future with Dark Horse than most people anticipated.  At the very least, given Stradley’s comment, it does not look likely that Dark Horse will lose their contract within the next few years.

At the end of the day, we really still don’t know anything for sure about whether or not Dark Horse will be losing the rights to Star Wars once their current contract is up.  Once again though, we’d like to remind you that nothing is officially confirmed as being true until it is announced by StarWars.com.

New ‘Legacy’ Writers Discuss Ania Solo

Posted on by

Over at Comic Book Resources, new Legacy comic writers Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman stopped by to discuss the new series and all-new protagonist, Ania Solo:

The lead character of this adventure is the great-granddaughter of Han Solo and Leia Organa. Beyond that, what can you tell us about her?

Hardman: As far as her actual lineage goes and exactly how she’s related to Han and Leia is something that is a little bit of a mystery and we’re not going to be paying off anytime soon. A lot of the “Legacy” era has been about these larger-than-life Emperors and royalty — we’re taking this down to much more of a ground level. Ania Solo is somebody that is not a part of that world, and she doesn’t have a personal connection to it. She may have even turned her back on it.

Bechko: She’s living in a backwater, Outer Rim system. She runs a junkyard and she doesn’t have that many prospects, and that’s where we start things. Our story takes off there.

Hardman: That’s where the big change in her life is going to happen. She’s launched into an adventure that involves much bigger stakes than anything she’s been up against before.

Bechko: She’s certainly brash enough to recognize an opportunity when she finds it. It’s not necessarily bravery, but it’s maybe not something a wiser person might do.

Now is Ania a Jedi? She is from a pretty powerful lineage so it makes sense that she’d be carrying on that important legacy in some …

Hardman: She finds a lightsaber.

Awesome. Does she know how to use it?

Bechko: No, absolutely not. [Laughs]

Hardman: We’re so far out in the middle of nowhere that they’re not even entirely sure what it is when they find it. She’s not overly Force-sensitive. She’s a character that relies on her wits, and when she finds this lightsaber, it really just gets her into trouble and draws some seriously unwanted attention that launches her into this story.

Okay. I love this. This is the sort of character I’ve been lobbying to take the lead of an Expanded Universe plot for ages and for the first time, I’m legitimately interested in picking up a Legacy comic.

Star Wars: Legacy to Return in 2013

Posted on by

Undeterred by the announcement of Episode VII, Dark Horse Comics has announced today that Legacy will be returning in 2013. CBR has the exclusive:

Next year, fans of the “Star Wars” franchise will still be reading comic stories set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but the latest round of stories from Dark Horse will be set a little less of a long time ago.

The publisher today revealed exclusively to CBR News that “Star Wars: Legacy” will return in the new year. Set over 100 years after the events of the original “Star Wars” trilogy, the newest iteration of the book will be written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman, best known for their well-received run on BOOM! Studios’ “Planet of the Apes” comics.

Here’s the relevant bit that will get comic fans excited:

Detail are scarce on how this new series will follow up on that previous, popular “Legacy” series, which lasted 50 issues with an additional mini series wrapping in early 2011, but one solid piece of info provided by Dark Horse is that this comic will carry the Skywalker bloodline in a new way. Namely, the series lead will be a young woman who is the great-granddaughter of original movie characters Han Solo and Leia Organa! While the pair have born twins in the previous expanded universe tales, the status and the outlook of this new face remain unknown.

In addition, Dark Horse also revealed the Dave Wilkins cover for the first issue.

 

Celebration VI Coverage: Dark Horse 2013 Panel

Posted on by

Once again, we’re on the move so we’ll just leave the news tidbits! Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter (link in the sidebar) for up-to-the-minute news and observations from CVI. Bullet points!

  • No announcements for this show, Dark Horse’s new offerings likely will be revealed at New York Comic Con.
  • Cover for new Knight Errant revealed. Looks like it’s got a Dragonriders of Pern vibe.
  • John Jackson Miller talked about the next Knight Errant arc. Kerra learns that her parents may still be alive. This will be the “most important moment in Kerra’s life.”
  • New Jedi to be introduced in the next Darth Maul arc.
  • Lost Tribe of the Sith an example of synergy between Del Rey and Dark Horse.
  • New Agent of the Empire arc will feature a lot of cameos from familiar names like Bail Organa, Leia, and Winter. Revolves around the current Count of Sereno. Both Nanci and I were particularly gleeful over this announcement.
  • There IS a new announcement! A new arc of Dark Times is coming. Gabriel Guzman will provide the interior art.
  • Cover for a new Star Wars: Purge: The Tyrant’s Fist revealed. Features Vader and stormtroopers. Look for the new Purge in December.
  • The new Star Wars comic is NOT a reboot. It’s NOT ignoring continuity. It’s NOT trampling pre-existing canon. So cool your jets on that front, so says Randy Stradley. This is going to be a gateway point for new Star Wars fans who want to get into comics.
  • Invasion stopped because a satisfying conclusion was reached. That said, Randy Stradley said to keep your eyes open to see what might happens next as far as Legacy goes.
  • No plans for more Tales Of comics, but John Jackson Miller certainly seems interested. That said, Lost Tribe of the Sith is probably your Tales of the Jedi for a while.
  • Del Rey and Dark Horse have been talking about a “really, really cool” collaboration which would culminate in a big climactic event. Another Galactic Apocalypse of the Week plot?

New Dark Horse “Star Wars” Comic Goes Back to Basics

Posted on by

io9 has a first glimpse into a new project from Dark Horse that’s simply called Star Wars. Randy Stradley lets fans know that they have brought in author Brian Wood (of DMZ, Channel Zero, and Northlanders fame) to helm what they’re calling a “back-to-basics” approach to Star Wars comics and narratives.

We — the Dark Horse editorial team and the folks at Lucas Books — felt that the time was right to rack focus back on the core characters of the Original Trilogy. It has been a few years since there had been any comics stories set in the era of the OT, as it’s called, and the time was just right. Both we and Lucasfilm had ideas for how to return to the classic characters, and all told it took us about a year to work out a plan with which everyone was happy.

As for how this series is “different” from past entries in this time period, I guess the answer would be that we’re trying very had to keep everything fresh — as if Episode IV had just come out in theaters. This is the Star Warsseries for everyone who has loved the films, but has never delved into any of the comics or novels. There is no vast continuity that a reader needs to know beyond the events in A New Hope. This is the beginning of the adventures of Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie.

This is probably as close to a reboot of any part of the Star Wars franchise as you’ll see in your life. By the sounds of it, this project is going to be something that’s accessible to new comics and expanded universe fans, something that isn’t bogged down by thirty years of continuity dead weight. Frankly? That’s a good thing. It can be difficult for new fans to so much as set foot in the EU because there’s so many strands of continuity to keep track of. For someone that wants to get their foot in the door, a project like this might be just the gateway needed.

No doubt this is going to cause an uproar among the continuity diehards in the fandom, but I’m not worried. Maybe I’m just at the point in my personal fandom where I don’t care about the continual canon angsting anymore. If this series delivers a solid narrative, I will be more than content.

(via)

New Mystery OT Era Project from a Big Dark Horse Talent

Posted on by

James Haley spotted some interesting Dark Horse-related news coming out of the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2).

The second arc of “Conan” by Brian Wood will be a three-issue arc by James Herring, but Becky Cloonan will continue to work on the series long term. “Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi” did well for the publisher, Parkinson said. There are more plans for the original trilogy characters including the death of Boba Fett as written by Tom Taylor in “Star Wars: Blood Ties.” More plans are in store for Darth Vader and Darth Maul comes July. Atkins also announced that readers will soon see a “Star Wars” book set in the original trilogy era written by one of Dark Horse’s biggest talents.

Edit: Not a trilogy, but some sort of project set in the OT era.

Speculate, readers! Speculate!

Via James Haley