Time to get stuck into some panels at Celebration VI, and we kick off with the Dark Horse Comics Looks Ahead: 2013 panel in room W414. Our talk was hosted by Pablo Hidalgo and featured John Jackson Miller, Randy Stradley, Jan Duursema, Dave Marshall and Doug Wheatley.
Kicking off proceedings they talked about the new Darth Maul digest, which leads into the currently running Death Sentence and discussed how it runs off the back of season 4 Maul episodes right into season 5 and sits behind a Dave Filoni cover.
The next topic was Ghost Prison, which they discussed briefly before Miller moved us on to Lost Tribe of the Sith. He talked about the useful synergy between the different media’s of ebook, comic and printed books, the use of the ebooks for promoting the Fate of the Jedi series and the fact that the collected printed book was now in it’s third printing already and has the prerequisite maps. He also noted that the comic series Spiral visualises the characters from the books and sees them trapped on a world where they are not the only ‘superpower’.
Agent of the Empire returns in October in a new arc that features Bail Organa, Princess Leia, Winter, Darth Vader and Boba Fett in a story that revolves around finding a successor to the Count of Serreno, who has been assasinated. When a young boy is chosen but seen as too young, a regent is required to stand in his stead. The Empire have their preferences, which Cross is required to make sure is elected but when that choice decides to kill the boy, Cross’ morals dictate that he must find anopther way to still serve the purposes of the Empire but without seeing the boy slain.
Dawn of the Jedi is returning with a new story arc called Prisoner of Bogan, as readers of Jedi News will know from our exclusive posting of the first cover last month.
Xesh meets someone on the moon of Bogan that the Jedi do not want to leave the dark side prison. Teaming up, they go on the run and their adventures can be seen when the story launches 28th November 2012.
Now for some exclusive new stuff. Dark Times returns with a new arc called Firecarrier and features K’Krukh, last seen a few years back protecting the younglings. Now a touch older, they escape the jungle moon in a pirates ship but crash on an even more dangerous world. Meanwhile, vader is training the assassin we last saw in Out of the Wilderness. His mission? Unknown, but it’s sure to be a cracker.
Another exclusive – Purge: Tyrants Fist sees Vader arrive on a primitive world where the Jedi are legendary characters. Vader learns that the extermination of the Jedi is far more than simply destroying their bodies, it’s the eradication of their legend and what they represent as well.
Before the Q&A session started we finished with the new ongoing Star Wars title, which for the first three issues sits behind Alex Ross covers. Randy Stradley went to great pains to explaon that while there will certainly be surprises, all the rumours of wholesale changes, reboots and cannon clashes are untrue. The series will explore previously unasked questions, such as how did Leia cope with the destruction of her planet and how young Luke, a farmboy only weeks before, handled the pressure of being the saviour of the rebellion.
That’s where I left it, to come here and post the news, so back into the fray I go. Wish me luck.
