How I realized I was over Star Wars completely

[Tom Foolery]

It seems like everybody is getting all nostalgia over DH, but really they've produced a lot of mediocre SW comics over the decades that don't exactly set the sales charts ablaze. I'm not saying Marvel is gonna make huge inroads or anything, but let's not put DH on a pedestal. The reality is SW is weak ass as a comic property whether it's DH or Marvel. The only people who should give a shit are the 3000 guys who actually buy SW comics anymore.

Does anyone have a final count on how many single issues DH put out? I might start hunting down back issues.

[anarky]

There were a few good SW comics from DH. The bulk were mediocre. Not even bad enough to call shit; just kinda there.

Thing is, Marvel has sucked ass at anything licensed this century.

[Tom Foolery]

There were a few good SW comics from DH. The bulk were mediocre. Not even bad enough to call shit; just kinda there.

And that's after 22+ years. I get that DH was instrumental, along with Zahn's novels in revitalizing SW to get us to this point. But all this praise and faux-rage at them losing the license is too much.

Thing is, Marvel has sucked ass at anything licensed this century.

Hmm. Their Oz series are good. But thats more public domain at this point.
Their Stephen King series were well done. The Dark Tower minis did very well and were well received. They've dropped off in sales but not quality, and are still trickling out.
The adaptation of The Stand was fantastic.
The Ender series were decent. 8 minis and a few one shots. They probably could have done more if OS Card himself wasn't such a douche and PR penis.

But yeah, they've totally dropped the ball on Disney merch. Disney Princesses comics? That's a no brainer.
Taking the Boom! books away from Boom...and then doing NOTHING with them? Stupid. Especially since Boom had the infrastructure of editors, etc already in place to try new titles.
You look at the Infinity video game, and ALL of those properties could be comics. Pirates, Pixar, Everything.



All of which has nothing to do with why I'm over Star Wars. I digress.

[Diabolical]

I bought a lot of Star Wars comics over the years.
Looking back, most were just ok. Back then I bought them because I was in that "Must Buy Star Wars" mentality.

There were some really good comics during the Clone Wars...until almost all of it was negated by Lucasfilm and the animated series. It had a very tight continuity and character progression which focused on all the Jedi and not solely on Anakin and Obi-Wan.

They also had some fun stuff like the Tag & Bink minis and the Droids series.

Star Wars Tales was hit and miss but always great as it allowed so many to put their stamp on the Star Wars universe.

The Star Wars has been pretty good.

Star Wars, the new ongoing (for another year) has been consistent.

[jjreason]

Someone at the CDN sw site I attend hit the nail on the head - you'll see Marvel doing with SW exactly what they do for their comic adaptation movies - lead-in issues or maybe a short lead-in series, followed by adaptations of the movie, followed by nothing. I don't expect they'll do much original stuff with it like DH did - it will simply be another vehicle to pimp the movies. That being said, I will likely buy any Han/Boba lead-in and follow up stuff just to see where they go with it. I embarrass myself sometimes

[anarky]

Tom, I not enraged. I agree DH has had a spotty history. Take out the Republic issues that were the original Clone Wars story (before it was retconned away multiple times) and the Rogue Squadron stuff, and it's mostly quite weak.

Still, Marvel's not doing great. I understand the Dark Tower series simply died a few years ago. But the actual Disney-owned stuff? Muppets was essentially canceled. John Carter would be an obvious choice for a comic, to show whatever Stanton had in mind. Reprints of the old Barks stuff is always welcome.

If Disney cared about comics rather than the IP's Marvel represents, there'd be a shit-ton of Disney-related comics for all ages. But there are none, at least that I know of.

[jjreason]

My left nut for vintage spinner racks at the grocery stores, drug stores, variety stores, book stores, walmarts & targets with $1.99 Star Wars, Marvel & Disney comics.

[Diabolical]

Lucasfilm Have Convened A Star Wars Story Group And They’re Working On Defining A Single, Coherent Canon

George Lucas said that the Star Wars universe exists, essentially, in two versions. There’s his one, and then there’s the one everybody else can play with.

In effect, this meant that anybody writing Star Wars outside of the six main movies (to date) was expected to adhere to one another’s work and create story lines that were consistent with one another.

And then, whenever Lucas himself went on to create a new “core” story for the Saga, he had permission to overwrite or ignore anything from that “Expanded Universe.”

But now, Lucasfilm are looking to rework the system and destroy this hierarchy.

Leland Chee is employed by the company on their Story Team and has been answering questions on Twitter about how it all works.

Here’s the thrust of what he was saying, in quotes from his feed, and folding a question into the answer:

"Star Wars Canon is now determined by the Lucasfilm Story Group which [Pablo Hidalgo] and I are both a part of.

Story Group has a hand in all facets of Star Wars storytelling, including movies, TV, games, and publishing. More so than ever, the canon field will serve us internally simply for classification rather than setting hierarchy.

[Disposing of the hierarchy and having one cohesive canon is] definitely a primary goal of the Story Group."

What will this mean in practice? Well, tossing out the hierarchy isn’t necessarily the same as scrapping the Expanded Universe. Not necessarily. And if it was that simple, then Story Group would have a very easy job and might only need five minutes to accomplish it.

Last summer, I was repeatedly hearing fairly strong rumours were that Episode VII pays absolutely no attention to the Expanded Universe. That’s why I’ve never been pushing the notion that our new, young leads would include Mara Jade or Jaina or whoever else the EU gave rise to.

Now… now I’m wondering if, perhaps, they might. That kind of weaving of EU in the main movies would certainly explain the purpose of Story Group, anyway.

Anyway, it’s clear that Lucasfilm and Disney want to tie all new Star Wars anythings into the same continuity, and I can’t say I blame them.

[Ran]

<insert predictable question about them tying the PT to the OT in a douchy manner here>

[Ran]

I was buying a few things on amazon this weekend and decided to see how much the OT was on Blu Ray. It looked like there has been a few releases and all of the reviews were jumbled together. At that point I decided I really didn't need it and gave up.

[jjreason]

I thought the only way of getting the OT on bluray was to buy the whole saga - which I got roped into when it was released. Glad I did though, I have watched a lot of it & some of it more than once.

[Diabolical]

They have the OT and PT in separate sets now, but I think they are the flicks only (no special features).
The collected saga box set has the big bonus features.

I still don't have Star Wars on Blu-Ray either. I can't go and drop $80-$100 on it and that mother fucker never goes on sale for any less.

[anarky]

I got it last summer. Best Buy put it on sale for something like $50, and Target matched it, and I got 5% off that.

Picture is beautiful. Hate the packaging; when something costs that much, it should offer more protection for the discs.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

They have the OT and PT in separate sets now, but I think they are the flicks only (no special features).
The collected saga box set has the big bonus features.

I still don't have Star Wars on Blu-Ray either. I can't go and drop $80-$100 on it and that mother fucker never goes on sale for any less.

In 2011, they released three sets – the OT, the PT, and the Complete Saga. The trilogy sets were three discs each, only including the films and two audio commentary tracks for each. The Complete Saga included nine discs – one for each film, plus bonus features for the PT, bonus features for the OT, and a disc of documentaries (most of which I still haven't watched).

In 2013, they re-released the trilogy sets, but this time the sets include the films on both Blu-ray and DVD. The only special features are the same audio commentary tracks from the 2011 release, seemingly only on the Blu-ray.

The 2011 trilogy sets had new artwork incorporating Yoda for PT and Vader for OT, with numerous characters and scenes incorporated into the artwork. The 2013 sets have publicity stills of Yoda and Vader holding their lightsabers in front of plain backgrounds.

[Diabolical]

The final episodes/season of The Clone Wars will be released on March 7 via Netflix, along with the Clone Wars movie and season 1-5.

Qui-Gon makes a return in the clip released today:
http://www.slashfilm.com/watch-a-clip-f ... lone-wars/