Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
The Star Wars #6 by J.W. Rinzler and Mike Mayhew hits comic stores everywhere today. We’re nearing the end of The Star Wars and our first draft heroes aren’t any closer to saving the galaxy.
They made it to space but that’s not enough to get free from the Empire’s grasp just yet whose ships are hot in pursuit. Fast flying and good shooting aren’t enough to save our heroes though. Instead, they make a crash landing on Yavin, the planet of the wookiees! And not everyone lands together…
Grab your hat and hold on to your swears because Star Wars: Empire and Rebellion: Honor Among Thieves is out today! Written by the author duo James S. A. Corey, Honor Among Thieves turns the spotlight on Han Solo and Chewbacca as Princess Leia sends them on mission only a pair of scoundrels like them can successfully pull off.
Set before the previous Empire and Rebellion novel, Honor Among Thieves opens with Leia asking Han to go into the middle of Imperial space and retrieve one of their field agents. Scarlet Hark is a professional though so this should be a relatively simple mission. Too bad the bounty on Han’s head is about to catch up with him, adding in a slight complication. Oh. And not to mention that Scarlet doesn’t actually want to be retrieved quite yet. An Imperial astrocartographer is rumored to have made a discovery that could put him towards the top of the Emperor’s list of favorites and Scarlet wants to get her hands on it first with Han’s help. Nothing ever seems to stay simple for long when it comes to missions for the Republic.
After a month off, Rinzler and Mayhew are back with the next issue of the adaptation of George Lucas’s original screenplay. The Star Wars #5 hits shelves in a local comic store near you today as our heroes find out whether or not Kane Starkiller’s sacrifice was worth it.
There are some spoilers for this issue in the review.
It’s a dark side sort of day with the first Expanded Universe book release of 2014. Out today is Maul: Lockdown by Joe Schreiber. What happens when you send one of the most dangerous beings in galaxy on a do-or-die mission? A heck of a lot of carnage for starters.
Cog Hive Seven has a new inmate: Darth Maul. Sent by his Master Darth Sidious to infiltrate the prison and find the elusive Iram Radique, a legendary arms dealer. What might seem like a simple task is layered in complications. No one’s actually seen Radique and lived to tell the tale. Some think he’s just an urban legend. On top of his mission, Maul must survive the nightly fights to the death organized by the warden and the gamblers across the galaxy want to see their newest champion fight.
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.
Alert, alert! This is not a drill: we finally did get to meet Han Solo this time. Issue #4 of The Star Wars by Jonathan Rinzler and Mike Mayhew is out in comic stores everywhere today as the race to escape Aquilae before the Empire can find them continues.
How do you successfully follow one of the most well-received films of the year? With a continuation of the series obviously! Catching Fire, in theatres today, does not disappoint as either an adaptation of a popular novel or as a follow up to the incredibly successful and well-received Hunger Games.
This review contains mild spoilers but likely nothing you wouldn’t have guessed from the trailers and promotional material.
It’s a Desert Ambush as the cover proclaims in Issue #3 of The Star Wars, out in comic book stores today. Jonathan Rinzler and Mike Mayhew continue to adapt the original draft of A New Hope in an action packed issue with more sass than you could possibly imagine. (And hey, I can imagine quite a lot.)
Darth Vader searches for the royal family of Aquilae, hoping to complete the Empire’s victory and a new player joins the search: Prince Valorum; a Knight of the Sith. Meanwhile, See Threepio and Artwo Detwo disagree about how to handle being stranded in the Dune Sea only to both end up being found by Annikan and Leia as they hurry back to the hidden fortress to the Palace of Lite. With the King dead, Leia is now the true Queen of Aquilae but for her safety, Queen Breha orders General Skywalker to take Leia and her younger brothers to the Ophuchi system. But first, they must get safely past the Empire’s army on planet.
For an issue that starts with the droids being stranded in the desert, this issue certainly isn’t lacking for action and goes by so quickly that readers will likely find themselves surprised when they reach the last page so soon. Rinzler definitely knows how to keep readers coming back for more. The weirdness of how some of the names are spelled has yet to wear off and I suspect I’ll never be able to type Artwo correctly on the first try but the weirdness is honestly a part of the book’s charm. It’s difficult to find a reason to complain about Rinzler’s grasp of dialogue and pacing. Again, his use of lines from the film invokes smiles instead of eye rolls and that is absolutely a good thing.
One of the best things about this particular issue was the banter between different pairs of characters. To put it simply: the sass levels were off the charts. I frequently found myself chuckling at Artwo’s lines and downright laughing when Threepio puts an end to the argument. This version of Princess Leia continues to take none of anyone’s crap. Some things stay true no matter what alternate universe they are in. She also has quite the mind for retaliation tactics.
I’m also still not over Mike Mayhew’s artwork. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Mayhew also continues to excel at costume design. The official royal regalia that Princess Leia and Queen Breha wear in the throne room are truly magnificent. I haven’t the faintest idea how Leia can sit with that headdress much less stand but wow does it have a visual impact. Another strength of Mayhew’s artwork is the facial expressions of the characters. At times, it feels like some of the panels don’t even need the dialogue bubbles for the words to get across.
The Star Wars #3 has elevated this book from a ‘pick this book up if you’re intrigued by the concept’ to ‘you should definitely give this book a try’ so run out and go find the first three issues!
With The Making of Return of the Jedi, J.W. Rinzler rounds out his trilogy of “making of” books that have become essential to Star Wars fans and film aficionados alike. Does this installment live up to the high standards set by its predecessors, The Making of Star Wars and The Making of The Empire Strikes Back? Find out after the jump.
Imagine Neil Gaiman got drunk and started writing the local dispatches for a small town NPR station.
Welcome to Night Vale.
Here at Tosche Station, we like to bring you the very best of non-Star Wars geekery and flail about the awesomeness of things like Mageworlds and Pacific Rim, in addition to our main mission. Now we are adding Welcome to Night Vale to our collective list of things to be enthusiastic about. In June, Welcome to Night Vale overtook NPR’s This American Life to become the #1 most downloaded podcast on iTunes. (You can listen to NPR’s interview with Night Vale creators Jeffery Cranor and Jeremy Fink here.)
Night Vale has slowly been taking over Tumblr lately. It’s the second best podcast on iTunes (after Tosche Station Radio, of course), featuring the news and events from Night Vale, a small desert community somewhere in the American Southwest where all sorts of strange things happen. Narrated by the sonorous tones of Cecil, listeners can keep up with what’s going on around town, what new civic works are opening (like the dog park), public service announcements (people and dogs are not allowed in the dog park), and be reminded that the sheriff’s secret police and a vague, but menacing government agency are always watching.
It may take a few episodes for the humor to truly sink in, but Night Vale also produces a number of incredibly quotable comments that you can then use to torment your friends and relatives, such as “The future is here, and it’s about a hundred feet above the Arby’s”; “Wednesday has been cancelled, due to a scheduling error”; and “ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD” (The Glow Cloud now being the Night Vale school board president). Citizens of Night Vale include Cecil, the radio broadcaster, Carlos the Scientist with his perfect and beautiful hair, Teddy Williams, owner of the Desert Blossom Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex and its mysterious city under Lane 5, Old Woman Josie and her angels, the Hooded Figures, City Council, and Hiram McDaniels, a 3600 lb. 5-headed dragon currently incarcerated for insurance fraud, among other notables.
If you listen to only one podcast, it should be Tosche Station Radio. But if you listen to only TWO podcasts and have have a yen for something that might have resulted if H.P. Lovecraft had lived in the American Southwest and had a sense of humor, and you also have about thirty minutes twice a month, then we suggest adding Welcome to Night Vale to your iTunes subscription list.
(Trust us, you won’t regret it. Until you will. Good night, dear readers, good night.)
(Also, if you *do* listen to Night Vale and didn’t read this post in Cecil’s voice, you totally should have, because that was completely how I wrote it. For shame, readers, for shame.)