Star Wars Publishing News from SDCC!

sdcc cover

Lots of exciting publishing news was announced this afternoon at San Diego Comic Con. In addition to an author’s panel, Star Wars fans were treated to some sneak peeks at the reading material that will compliment the December arrival of The Last Jedi and more. Here’s a look at some of the titles that caught my attention.

 

 

marvel mace windu cover

To kick things off, Marvel announced that Mace Windu will be getting his own comic. The story is set at the beginning of the Clone Wars and will be a five-issue run, beginning in August. Jedi of the Republic– Mace Windu is being written by Matt Owens, with art by Denys Cowan. It will be great to see Mace Windu back in action with a lightsaber taking down battledroids.

 

marvel thrawn cover

 

Marvel also pulled another surprise out of their sleeve:  An adaptation of Timothy Zahn’s excellent novel, Thrawn! If you missed this novel or Thrawn’s appearances on the past season of Rebels, you’ll want to get into both of those before this series debuts in February 2018. Timothy Zahn reintroduced the Grand Admiral earlier this year, and I can’t wait to see those pages come to life in a comic book. The adaptation will be handled by writer Jody Houser, who blew me away with her comic adaptation of Rogue One. Grand Admiral Thrawn is in very good hands!

 

 

Onto all things The Last Jedi reading related. It was announced that Jason Fry would be handling the novelization of TLJ. As you can tell from his above tweet, the author is no stranger to the novelizations of each saga film, not to mention the Star Wars Universe. I imagine my fellow staff members and I will be pouring over his adaptation as soon as we walk out of our first viewing of The Last Jedi.

 

cobalt squadron cover

 

Elizabeth Wein will be lending her writing to a Last Jedi young adult novel about the Cobalt Squadron. Not too much is known about these fighters we’ve only glimpsed in the trailer, but we know Rose has familial connections to them via her sister. I have a feeling this is going to be an excellent novel, given Wein’s background in historical fiction. I often think writers entering the Star Wars Universe are something of historians, adding to the mythology with each tale.

 

chewy and the porgs cover

 

It seems like every Star Wars fan is porg-crazy at the moment. I imagine that will reach fever pitch as December closes in on us, especially for the younger fans. Chewbacca most likely needs something to do while he’s waiting for whatever becomes of Rey’s encounter with Luke. Why not go on a little adventure with Ach-To’s native species? Looks like Lucasfilm is well aware these little guys were going to catch people’s attention. Fans of all ages will be treated to Chewie And The Porgs, a children’s book that will most likely tell a quick tale about our Wookie’s encounter with these little guys.

 

 

 

Pablo Hidalgo himself is going to be writing The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary. Pablo has been such an asset to the Star Wars fans and I couldn’t imagine a better person to take on this assignment.  The Last Jedi will almost certainly be addressing what has become of the Jedi’s legacy, so it’s a relief to hear Pablo’s at the helm addressing the small details of the film.

 

beyond the armor cover

 

Well now, a look at the evolution of the Stormtrooper. I can’t wait for this, with a foreword by John Boyega, as well. The pearl-white troopers are almost as iconic as the Dark Lord Vader himself, so I’m thrilled with the prospect that we will get a look at how the Stormtrooper evolved from clones to First Order.  This will definitely make for some good reading while standing in line for that midnight TLJ showing.

 

rey cover

 

 

I chose to include this strictly for the cover. Rey is such a badass and I’m so happy a new generation of Star Wars fans have a hero like that to admire.

 

finn and rose cover

 

Another kids novel on the way, covering what Finn and Rose are up to during The Last Jedi. I gather that Finn and Rose spend a great deal of the film together, so this material will most likely abridge their story for younger readers. John Boyega has remarked that Finn is still very much afraid of the First Order, so we’ll see if Rose helps him keep that at bay.

 

These are just a few of the titles that caught my attention.  Star Wars has a full list of these titles, as well as most of their covers, here. In addition to the titles announced at Celebration 2017, we Star Wars fans have no reason to complain about having nothing to read. There is so much here and I hope you are all making room on your book shelves or Kindle like I am.

 

 

+ posts

Kyle Larson lives in Portland, Oregon. When he's not running trails, he's reading and writing.

Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson lives in Portland, Oregon. When he's not running trails, he's reading and writing.

41 thoughts on “Star Wars Publishing News from SDCC!

  • July 22, 2017 at 9:47 am
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    Now if only we can find out what “Rose and Finn’s mission” is actually about…

    • July 22, 2017 at 11:48 am
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      ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

    • July 22, 2017 at 6:27 pm
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      Stealing the plans to Death Star #4. 🙂

      • July 22, 2017 at 11:05 pm
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        Many Porgs died to bring us this information

        • July 22, 2017 at 11:17 pm
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          Re: “Many Porgs died to …”
          Feed a hungry Wookie…?

  • July 22, 2017 at 12:27 pm
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    The Art of is a definite purchase foe me,even if films are weak these books are always great.

    • July 23, 2017 at 12:08 pm
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      Agreed! I wish they would re-release the older ones from the original 6 films- maybe with some added intro by some of the lucasfilm creatives. I’m tracking some of the older ones down but the episode 3 art book is breathtaking, as is that of TFA and Rogue One.

      • July 23, 2017 at 12:56 pm
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        Yeah I have the prequel ones but would love the OT ones, I have a collection of prints but no book.

      • July 27, 2017 at 1:49 am
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        Try and lay your hands on some of the Books containing McQuarries work, the new set is so expensive, but the older books can be picked up fairly easily as lomg as your patient.
        Also look ‘outside the box’.
        There is an excellent french book, called ‘Star Wars, Objets du mythe’.

    • July 22, 2017 at 5:51 pm
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      Monte Carlo redux

    • July 27, 2017 at 1:42 am
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      Looks like Dubrovnik, so I say a hard yes. Think it was initially referred to as ‘Exotic City’.

  • July 22, 2017 at 3:59 pm
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    Apart from the kids stuff, this all looks very interesting to me, i’m looking forward to the Thrawn comic the most.

    • July 22, 2017 at 6:29 pm
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      Apart from the kids stuff… there’s not much else. Slim pickings unless you’re a child or a man-baby.

      • July 22, 2017 at 8:33 pm
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        “Child or a man-baby”, huh? you are a pathetic troll and incredibly rude, why even comment if you have nothing nice to say?

        • July 22, 2017 at 8:36 pm
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          Sorry if I hurt your feelings.

          • July 22, 2017 at 9:38 pm
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            You’re the one who needs to grow up. Stop insulting things that make other people happy.

          • July 23, 2017 at 4:23 am
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            Well, I didn’t say you need to grow up, but I will say that (a) your reading comprehension is not the best, and (b) you sound quite immature that some stranger on the Internet could upset you so much by having a different opinion from your own. Maybe you should shut down your device for a while and take a break. A little time to clear the head can make you feel right as rain.

          • July 23, 2017 at 5:25 am
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            How about you learn to be respectful and not judge or label people in an insulting manner, i’ve seen a few of your comments recently and you are clearly very arrogant towards other people, but that’s your problem and only you can solve it, bye.

          • July 23, 2017 at 3:46 pm
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            Your feelings are hurt again?

          • July 23, 2017 at 4:52 pm
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            lol

      • July 24, 2017 at 8:24 pm
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        Try not to cut yourself on that edge.

  • July 22, 2017 at 5:37 pm
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    The Art of book and the thrawn comic are what I’m interested in. Can’t wait!

  • July 22, 2017 at 5:49 pm
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    Way to divert any possible love interest by having Finn spend time with a completely different character…

    • July 23, 2017 at 12:06 am
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      huh?

    • July 23, 2017 at 12:12 pm
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      Remember Poe was originally supposed to die in the first ten minutes of TFA and this was only later changed- So whatever Poes role in this story was likely added partway through the writing process of last Jedi. I really don’t see Finn+Poe being in the cards.

      • July 24, 2017 at 8:23 pm
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        Well they said as much when the pushed the release date from May to December. They talked about rewriting after how fans “responded to the new characters” in TFA.

    • July 23, 2017 at 9:36 pm
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      it’s almost as if that was a fan thing and not part of the plan.

  • July 22, 2017 at 6:25 pm
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    What about kylo snoke and hux? They never get any love from books 🙁

    • July 22, 2017 at 10:41 pm
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      Hux’s parantage / childhood has gotta a highlight in the aftermath trilogy. I am guessing that giving too much insight into the thoughts or backgrounds of Kylo and Snoke would spoil some of episodes 8 and 9. They seem to be tiptoeing around those characters even in books from that time period. I’m sure that after the sequel trilogy is completed that we will likely get some kinda of Snoke novel a la the darth bane trilogy

      • July 27, 2017 at 6:55 pm
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        Yes. I really hope so. I love how mysterious the dark side is and those two and very interesting.

  • July 23, 2017 at 12:29 am
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    Wow, on TLJ adult novel news! Jason Fry is in the forefront of the new Canon books with the excellent “Weapon Of The Jedi”. Not only did he get young Luke’s personality down 100%, the world and the plot felt like genuine old-school SW. Very excited about this!

    • July 24, 2017 at 4:48 pm
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      He also did the surprisingly very good Servants of the Empire series following Zare Leonis from Rebels and had a hand in Moving Target, which I thought handled Leia post Episode V very well. This new novel is very much in good hands.

  • July 24, 2017 at 2:17 pm
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    Wait! What? Porgs can fly?!?!?

  • July 24, 2017 at 8:23 pm
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    I NEED THE THRAWN COMIC NOW! Seriously, give it here.

  • July 24, 2017 at 11:11 pm
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    I will definitely pick up the art book for TLJ. I do not have TFA’s, but Rogue One’s artwork really impressed me. So I am tempted to pick up TLJ and perhaps, TFA. That is if it is worth it to which I pose the question to anyone.

    The Thrawn comic adaptation I do not think I will pick up. Not because I hate the story; far from it, as it is easily my favorite book of the New Canon. 🙂 But rather, I do not see the point. I mean yeah, it is nice to see Thrawn drawn and stuff, but Zahn’s writing to me is so rich that it really does paint such vivid imagery. But that is just my view.

    As for the Rey’s Journey’s cover page; I am not going to lie; she looks badass. I prefer this outfit over to TFA. And with how Forces of Destiny managed to make me somewhat like her; I see some good things coming from the ST’s main heroine. Overall, good news.

  • July 27, 2017 at 1:41 am
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    Always get the ‘Art of’ books, the’re the Backbone of my Star Wars and Art book collection.
    The Stormtrooper book looks like one to keep an eye out for too.

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