The first previews are out for Star Wars: Rebels, a new Disney XD animated series due out in Fall 2014.  And the first images and clips, featuring new characters from the series, are exactly what I expected to see once Disney got hold of the Star Wars franchise.

It’s Star Wars, Aladdin style.

Not to knock Aladdin.  It was a fun Disney film as Disney films go.  But this is supposed to be Star Wars.  Where the animated series Clone Wars was accessible by an adult and child audience alike, Star Wars: Rebels seems to be a bit on the silly side, the kind of antics and humor you’d expect from those sidekicks in your average big-screen, animated Disney flick.  Unlikely to be targeted at the fan base, instead opting for new, younger viewers.  But why exclude the fan base?

Judge for yourself.  After the break, check out these first clips and images from Star Wars: Rebels:

They do have a Mandalorian, but the first images out of the gates aren’t screaming with cool.  Sure, there may be some promise that the Mandalorian is a girl, but a graffiti artist is her forte?   Huh?  As much as I love Boba Fett, we have had way too much of a good thing.  George Lucas went into bizarro land by making the entire clone army copies of Boba’s father–every stormtrooper became a Fett.  The Mandalorian helmet, when churned back through the prequels, became the inspiration for the helmet of choice of the entire Imperial fleet?  Now the first character we see from Disney goes back to the well again.  And the character called Hera is another Twi’lek–the pointy-headed aliens that showed up in the prequels and nearly everything since.  Then there’s a cantankerous, grumpy droid.  Sound familiar?  Innovation… creativity… a Jedi needs not these things– apparently.

The only thing that actually evokes Star Wars in these behind the scenes images is John Williams’ pre-Disney, classic film score.  Is Disney going to rely on Williams’ work for the series or create some new music?  Is that all you need to be able to call something Star Wars?  How many times do you think we’ll hear the line “I have a bad feeling about this?”  How about fixing what needs fixed?  Here’s an idea:  Don’t use the prequels as your guide for the new Star Wars.  Use Episodes 4 and 5.

It’s going to be an uphill climb for sure.  Which is why it’s been so refreshing over the years having all the great Star Wars work coming out of Dark Horse.  We’ll still give Star Wars: Rebels a shot, but the future all seems so predictable.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be proved wrong?

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Back in the 1970s Marvel Comics released the first new entry in the Star Wars universe for the franchise which then consisted of the original movie alone.  With Star Wars Issue #7, Marvel followed Han Solo and Chewbacca beyond the movie adaptation, as they explored the seedier elements of society–the kinds of places a Corellian would roam with fellow smugglers and other dregs.  When Disney recently announced the coming continuation of Star Wars in a third trilogy, everyone knew it had to take place in the far away galaxy decades away from the events in Return of the Jedi.  Then Disney hinted at other movies in the Star Wars universe, and possibly a Han Solo story.

A Han Solo movie is intriguing.  Although the filmmakers are likely to target a younger audience with a young actor for Han Solo, I can’t help think how much fun it would be to see Firefly’s Nathan Fillion play our favorite scoundrel.  Comic book writer Matt Kindt (Mind Mgmt) is now writing one of the last of Dark Horse Comics’s Star Wars stories before Disney pulls the franchise away at year end, and Issue #1 follows Han Solo almost from the view of a modern fanboy googly-eyed as he meets Han Solo in person.  And the Han that is admired could easily be a Han played by Fillion.  Think Fillion playing Han Solo in a Blade Runner noir vibe.

Coming next Wednesday, Kindt plus penciller Marco Castiello, inker Dan Parsons, and colorist Gabe Eltaeb take us back to the days before The Empire Strikes Back with Star Wars: Rebel Heist.  After the break take a look at these preview pages from Dark Horse Comics:

Keep an eye out for some beautiful Adam Hughes variant covers and ultrarare sketch variants.  Star Wars: Rebel Heist is available in comic book stores everywhere next Wednesday, April 30, 2014.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Tomorrow is the fourth of May, and you may hear from Star Wars fans all over the phrase “May the 4th Be With You.”  They aren’t lisping.  Star Wars fans are gathering around the world for their annual celebration of all things Star Wars.  With Episode VII just around the corner in 2015 there is plenty to discuss and speculate.  It also means you can take advantage of some great deals available tomorrow only.

Only 593 Days To Go

Dark Horse Comics is offering 150 digital Star Wars comics for only $100–considering many had original cover prices at $3-4 each, the sixty-seven cents per book is quite a good deal.  There’s also a kids’ digital mega-bundle for only $30, and free digital starter bundles including Issues #1-4 of Star Wars Legacy, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, and Star Wars Empire.  Go to Dark Horse Digital’s website here for details.

Entertainment Earth is offering a whopping 40% off all Star Wars action figures (in-stock), also for May 4, 2014, only.  Click here to check out the selection, which includes the new Star Wars Black Series figures.  For the week of May 4 through May 10, all Star Wars statues and busts are 20% off.  Click here to see the selection of busts and the selection of statues here.

Our friends at The Prop Store are offering Star Wars fans fifteen percent off all framed Star Wars items.  There are many original one-of-a-kind pieces available, including production art and storyboards.  You must use the code “SWFRAME” at checkout to take advantage of this offer.  Check out The Prop Store’s website here for details.

Finally, at Her Universe you can get 40 percent off select Star Wars apparel here.  For $10 you can try your luck at a Star Wars mystery T-shirt here and check out three new Star Wars apparel products.  It’s all at the Her Universe website here.

May the 4th be With You!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Earlier this week Disney announced the casting for Star Wars Episode VII.  Global highlights of this year’s “May the 4th” included Star Wars themed rugby matches in Australia, Star Wars 6K runs in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, character appearances in London, fan events in Shanghai, China and an event at the Roman Colosseum in Italy.  Through a collaboration with NASA and Space Center Houston a message from R2-D2 was delivered from International Space Station.

For the “May the 4th” worldwide Star Wars celebration Disney released its first full trailer for its new animated series Star Wars Rebels.  According to Disney the new trailer for the animated series was broadcast in more than 160 countries 439 million households worldwide.  Whether 439 million people saw it yesterday or whether it was just available to that many homes is not clear from the Disney release.

We expressed our doubts from the early looks of Star Wars Rebels discussed here at borg.com previously.  The YouTube version of the new trailer version was jammed all day yesterday, but you can watch the full trailer at this link and judge for yourself.

It looks a bit like the prequel Rebels meet the original trilogy Empire.  The Empire artwork looks pretty good.

A new poster has also been released for the series this past week featuring spray paint graffiti from one of the series’ key characters.

Star Wars Rebels premieres on DisneyXD this Fall.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

It’s Wednesday again, and that means the new comic books are out for the week at your local comic book store.  We’ve got several previews for a whopping seven issues of new books that should have something for everyone.  There’s Dark Horse Comics’ great ongoing Star Wars series, which will be wrapping up this year.  Then there’s Bill Willingham’s excellent steampunk series Legenderry for Dynamite Comics, reuniting the best of classic pulp heroes with new twists, like the Six Thousand Dollar Man.  We also have previews of two issues from Archie Comics–one from Archie Comics Digest and the other from the SEGA video game universe: Sonic the Hedgehog.

Also, a new Angry Birds series begins, IDW is releasing a brief history of Godzilla comics, and a preview of the next issue of the ongoing Star Trek series is here, all from IDW Publishing.

After the break, check out previews for one or all of them, courtesy of their respective comic book publishers.

Here are high quality links to the IDW previews:

Angry Birds Issue #1 preview

Godzilla history one-shot preview

Star Trek 34 preview

Add one to your pull list today!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

We thought we’d share some of the best exclusives and other offerings scheduled to be available at San Diego Comic-Con International this weekend for those of you who just can’t decide what to spend your money on.  There’s too much to be able to see everything at the big Con, so we’ve listed booth numbers so you can make sure you don’t miss out on those toys, posters, and comic books that you simply must have.

But first, how about some early SDCC reveals, like this image of Roy Harper’s new Arsenal costume from CW’s Arrow:

and this great new SDCC 2014 exclusive poster for the final installment of The Hobbit trilogy, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies:

And what’s better than news of a new comic book series tie-in from IDW Publishing for Orphan Black?

Now on to the exclusives:

From the Weta Workshop (Booth #3613) you can get this Smaug scales T-shirt inspired by The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies:

and a pre-release copy of the new book The Art of Film Magic, signed edition:

From Alex Ross Art (Booth #2419) pick up original comic book art or limited prints, or this great 10-print edition portfolio of some of Alex Ross’s Marvel Comics work:

BOOM! Studios (Booth #2229) will be selling several exclusive cover variant comic books, including RoboCop #1:

Planet of the Apes: Contagion #1:

Big Trouble in Little China #1 (great Adam Hughes cover!):

or Issue #1 of the popular and critically acclaimed Bee and Puppycat:

Entertainment Earth (Booth #2343) has too many exclusives to list, but check out these great color edition figures from the regularly black and white The Twilight Zone retro figure line:

For all those Adventure Time fans, Entertainment Earth has this lunchbox set:

Mondo, the poster company, is now producing toys and their first toys will be revealed at Mondo’s booth (Booth # 835), including this Iron Giant figure:

and this wacky Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtle:

Titan Comics (Booth #5537) has exclusive Doctor Who #1 comic variant covers for The 10th Doctor and The 11th Doctor:

Top Shelf (Booth #1721), is selling copies of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 3 signed by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill:

Star Trek novelist Kevin Dilmore is promoting the new Hallmark Star Trek ornaments among other new items at the Hallmark booth (Booth #2913):

At the Peavey booth #2401 you can register for this Peavey Limited Edition 2014 Comic-Con Eastman/Laird Rockmaster Glow-in-the-Dark TMNT Guitar:

From NECA (Booth #3145), you can buy an exclusive 3-figure jaeger pack from Pacific Rim:

From Disney (Booth #3635) the Big Hero 6 first release action figure “Baymax” from the November 2014 release:

Quantum Mechanix (Booth #3245) three-poster set of Ant Lucia’s DC Bombshell prints:

The new annual Overstreet Price Guide is out today, and sold at the show each year:

Gentle Giant (Booth #3513) has several exclusives, including this great droid statue:

This AWESOME Rocket Raccoon statue from Guardians of the Galaxy:

and this large-sized series retro AT-AT driver from The Empire Strikes Back:

ThinkGeek (Booth #3849 has this cool Star Wars droid car adapter:

and an inflatable sword from Bee and Puppycat:

Finally, pick up the new comic book from the Vikings series from The History Channel:

The comic book will be available in limited numbers at the “On the Set” display from the series at 450 2nd Avenue across from the convention center.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

Last week Dark Horse Comics released the trade paperback and hardcover of The Star Wars—the eight-issue comic book series adapting George Lucas’s original screenplay for Star Wars from 1973, including its original three-word title.  Writer J.W. Rinzler, artist Mike Mayhew, and colorist Rain Beredo created a parallel universe for Star Wars that stands by itself as the single best Star Wars universe graphic novel ever produced.  It’s now hit #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List for Paperback Graphic Books and #3 for Hardcover Graphic Books.  If you dodge Times bestsellers because they are usually trite, banal and over-hyped, The Star Wars is certainly commercial, but it’s the exception to the rule.  You will not have read a Star Wars comic book this much fun and so brilliantly and vividly illustrated since the classic Archie Goodwin/Al Williamson adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back. 

Lucas’s giant story, fleshed out over six movies via his Episodes I-VI, was concise in its infancy, and greatly right-sized and polished by Rinzler for this adaptation.  Its genius is in its essential Kurosawa-inspired story elements: last of their breed wizard-warriors versus a suffocating empire led by heartless dictators, a broken royal family saved by a band of rogues, a mix of disparate races and conflicts, and an unlikely pair of androids.

The planets and systems are not the same, yet they are entirely familiar: the desert planet Aquilae for Tatooine, a wookie battle on Yavin for Ewoks on Endor.  Some of the occupants of the story are familiar, like Han Solo and Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.  Yet here they are very different.  Annikin (not Anakin) Starkiller and brother Deak would later become the impetuous Luke Skywalker.  Obi-Wan Kenobi was far more energetic and a hands-on warrior when he was the bearded and military garbed Jedi-Bendu General Luke Skywalker.  Han Solo by every appearance was a cousin of Swamp Thing.  Princess Leia would become more dynamic and tough in the movies, but was originally more like Padme Amidala in her infatuation with her young love, Annikin Starkiller.

Other characterizations were flipped on end for the villains, too.  The Sith was originally represented as Prince Valorum, not Darth Vader, a not-so-vile bad guy.  Here, Darth Vader is merely an imposing villainous human.  Neither was Vader the cyborg of the tale—that was reserved for a superbly complex hero of the Jedi-Bendu order named Kane Starkiller, whose sacrifices propel the heroes of this story forward.  Unfortunately Kane never made it to the screen in any form.  An emperor and governor are here, too, but a bit different from the Palpatine and Grand Moff Tarkin we’d meet in theaters in 1977.

The Star Wars, available in trade paperback, a hardcover, and a deluxe boxed set, includes Issues #1-8 of the comic book series released over the past year.  It also includes Issue #0, a “Making of” issue, including original sketches and explanations for the designers’ final renderings and re-renderings of characters we thought we knew all about already.  With a new generation of readers, it would be fun to introduce new readers to The Star Wars before Star Wars.  And what could be a better “what if” than for Marvel Comics to continue this parallel universe with other worlds and stories.  Unfortunately that does not seem likely since Marvel promises it has its own exciting plans ahead.

The Star Wars is a great cover-to-cover read.  Mike Mayhew’s artwork is superb, creative and action-filled. It’s a book that would make a great gift for any Star Wars fan that missed it in its bestselling single issue format.  Each version is available at your local comic book store now.  If you can’t find it there, check out Amazon.com for discounts off the cover price for the trade version here, the hardcover version here, and the deluxe version here.  As Dark Horse Comics’ licensing of Star Wars comes to an end this year, The Star Wars will no doubt be looked back on as the pinnacle of its decades of great storytelling about that galaxy far, far away.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

How did the Empire power all those Star Destroyers anyway?

The new, Disney era of Star Wars story continuity begins today with the release of the novel Star Wars: A New Dawn.  Fans of the Star Wars tie-in novels shouldn’t be disappointed with this new story and completely new characters living in that galaxy, far, far away between the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.  Its primary draw for those fans willing to give the new Star Wars a chance is the introduction of a trained Jedi named Kanan Jarrus and a mysterious Twi’lek named Hera.  But its best success is in author John Jackson Miller’s world building (or galaxy building)–one with more lead female characters than male.

In the galaxy that George Lucas built, the rarest creature to be found was a woman, whether a human, a rebel, an Imperial, or an alien.  Miller does not skip a beat to redefine Star Wars from chapter one.  We meet a black female captain of a Star Destroyer named Captain Rae Sloane, a character who could be on her way to be the next Mara Jade.  She’s young but smart, and exactly the kind of leader a government led by Emperor Palpatine would need to conquer so many systems.  Unlike even the original trilogy, including its often bumbling stormtroopers and officers that fail to follow their Dark Lord’s orders, the personnel building the Empire in A New Dawn don’t make the same mistakes.

Sloane works for a typical Star Wars villain, Count Demetrius Vidian, a cyborg like Darth Vader and General Grievous, which would lend us all to believe a defining piece of Star Wars is a dark cloaked bad guy who has already been blown apart a few times.  The word survivor does fit Vidian.  He is a decisive imperialist, precise, unyielding and villainous–everything you want from your Star Wars bad guy.

A New Dawn follows events surrounding Vidian’s audit of vessels transporting a substance called thorilide, mined on a planet named Gorse.  A moon named Cynda with the potential for a story like Praxis–the moon of the Klingon homeworld examined in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country–becomes the focus of breaches in Imperial security.  Acts of terrorism and sabotage and whistleblowing bring Vidian and Sloane down on a rag-tag group of everyday types, each with secrets revealed throughout the book.

The story primarily follows Kanan Jarrus (who will be voiced in the forthcoming Disney animated series Star Wars Rebels by Freddie Prinze, Jr.).  Kanan was a Jedi who made it safely away from Coruscant when the Empire issued Order 66, resulting in the destruction of nearly all the Jedi Knights.  He’s a cocky and conservative pilot and hauler who has lived the life of Mal from Firefly, and that series certainly rubs off on the ship life of the characters in A New Dawn.

Kanan meets up with Hera Syndulla, the story’s heroine, a Twi’lek (the blue head-tailed aliens we saw in the prequel trilogy).  Hera is a shadowy figure who enters the Star Wars galaxy with a measured steeliness like Darth Maul.  Out to learn more about the destructive forces of the Empire, she is tracking Vidian when she joins up with Kanan, Lal Grallik–a female Besalisk (an alien like Obi-Wan Kenobi’s diner owner friend in Attack of the Clones), Skelly–a Clone Wars veteran, a self-proclaimed whistleblower and accused terrorist whose actions bring the story together, and Zaluna Myder, a Sullustan (the species of Lando’s co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon, Nien Nunb) who stows away on a ship piloted by the story’s heroes.

Except for an introductory section, you’ll find no familiar Star Wars characters or planets in A New Dawn, other than references to Emperor Palpatine–a very good thing.  The story stands by itself and yet the world will be entirely familiar but not awkwardly so as so many prior Star Wars tie-ins have been.  So you may see the odd reference to a mynock or space slug, but no repeated lines from cast of the original films, a trope that plagued Timothy Zahn’s original novel tie-in trilogy.  Zahn’s works were certainly fun at the time–in a world devoid of Star Wars stories, back in 1991 fans were begging for any new Star Wars story.  But Miller’s writing is better.  And although the story surrounds trade routes and commerce and mining, it is presented in a way far better than Lucas’s treatment of tariffs and political blockades in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

Animated Hera and Kanan from Star Wars Rebels.

There is also the always perplexing strange character naming that seems to be part of the Star Wars universe.  Miller dodges that fairly well, but we do get several names that seem to be very similar to other sci-fi characters.  The lead villain Vidian is one–the Vidiians being the popular villains with a similar “lost flesh” issue as Count Vidian in Star Trek Voyager, making this reader think the new Star Wars editors would be wise to also be familiar with other sci-fi franchises.

A preface discusses the new continuity building by Lucasfilm, and it seems like finally Star Wars novels will be managed like Star Trek novels as far as a tighter continuity is concerned.  A good thing.

Star Wars: A New Dawn is available in bookstores today, and online here at Amazon.com.

Thanks to LucasBooks for the advance review copy of A New Dawn.

If holographic television were available today, would you go right out and buy it?

We’re more than four years into the widespread availability of affordable consumer 3D television and the viewing public hasn’t embraced it yet.  My best guess is simply because they haven’t seen it yet, or they are basing their lack of interest on a poor viewing experience with 3D in a public theater.  At borg.com, we’ve got no skin in the game–we don’t work for or with the studios–we’re just after the best viewing experience possible.  And we’re completely sold on both 3D Blu-ray and the lesser discussed 2D/3D “upconversion” technology.

Distributors have been relatively slow at releasing 3D Blu-rays, the current standard for 3D home viewing.  Many films actually produced in 3D, like Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit series, are very quickly released now in a 3D Blu-ray.  Other films are converted to 3D in post-production, like Star Trek Into Darkness, and they are also released on 3D Blu-ray.  Both films look far superior to standard films–you can’t even compare the quality.  The distinctions between a true 3D film and a conversion are probably not all that noticeable to the average moviegoer with normal vision.  But what we’re focusing on today is something different.

A different category of conversion, called 2D/3D conversion, is available on certain affordable 3D televisions today.  This is a technology available to anyone with a 3D television that includes the upconvert technology and compatible 3D glasses.  For films, TV series, or even real-time live or pre-recorded television, this technology manipulates the images to create a real 3D experience for the viewer.  Sounds like a gimmick?  It’s not.  To test it, we tried 2D/3D upconverting on an episode of each of Star Trek, the original series, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.  The result?  We were blown away.  We think if you try it, you too will ask:  Why don’t we watch everything now in 3D, and why isn’t everyone talking about it?

If you’re waiting around for holographic TV, that’s pretty much what you’re getting here, too.  You can even get up and walk around without the 3D image going away.  The only thing you can’t do is walk completely around a floating object, which is what a true holographic TV experience should be.  But this is the next best thing.  We watched two acclaimed, classic Star Trek episodes, the original series episode “The Naked Time” and the NextGen series episode “Darmok” using a 3D television, a Blu-ray/DVD player and, for “The Naked Time” a remastered DVD version, and for “Darmok,” a remastered Blu-ray version.  We then applied the 3D television’s upconvert and easily adjusted the various 3D settings, such as “Standard” or “Cinema” or “Extreme,” tint, and brightness/backlighting, to create the best picture possible for the room lighting.

The quickest way to see the difference in quality is by turning off the 2D/3D upconvert on your television after watching a few minutes with it on.  The difference is obvious in an instant and quite significant way.  Take “The Naked Time”–the classic original series primary colors and ample amounts of solid colors emphasize the contrast between background, midground, and foreground ranges.  Even Sulu’s sword when he enters swashbuckling mode seems to stretch out of the TV screen.  The frozen bodies in the opening scene float toward the viewer in a different plane from Spock as he approaches from behind.  The folds of his orange hazard suit form their own landscape in a way you’ve never noticed before.  The scenes of the planet below as the Enterprise spins in orbit around it create a sense of awe as if we’re really on a ship high above and far away from a celestial orb.  And that planet is in 3D as we see it through a viewscreen that also sits back from our TV screen and the two crewmen who sit out in front of Kirk’s captain chair.  Even the crew’s patches and shimmering wrist insignia have their own clear depth and clarity.

One of the best ways to be brought into an immersive 3D experience that we learned from watching Predator in 3D was how outdoor scenes really highlight the medium, with so many natural segments of depth, including the ground, the brush, the trees, the sky, and the clouds.  When Captain Picard and Captain Dathon try to understand each other on the surface of El Adrel IV in “Darmok,” the viewer is marooned on the planet with them.  Blades of grass in the foreground create this quick contrast to Dathon sitting at his fire several feet in the background of the scene.  When Riker, Worf and Data are discussing their solution to remove Picard from the planet’s surface, the decision of the director in staging the actors’ placement takes on a more useful purpose now, as we see–and almost can feel–the difference in space between each actor.

So how does it all work?

We all look at two-dimensional pictures every day, including watching TV, and yet something tells our brains there is perspective and depth to what we see.  These depth clues in the brain can see dimension using elements like color, motion, blur, and focus.  The computer within the latest televisions can take these clues and create a greyscale map of objects and their relative distances between them.  The view of a pair of three-dimensional stereo cameras can then be translated to data and adapted to the 2D mapping as if they are creating a scene in 3D, but again, using the 2D data.  Remember the simplicity of Viewmaster reels?  The technology is not all that different for the modern TV.  The glasses–either inexpensive static versions (as we used) or higher end battery-powered glasses timed to sync with the TV–work with the screen image by ensuring each eye sees what it needs to, so that in your brain your eyes are working together to sense that the TV is providing the same perspective as if you were standing on the production set.  You can literally see more from the screen than you could see before, with greater clarity.

For those wishing they could watch their favorite series for the very first time all over again… you can.  Still waiting for Lucasfilm for Star Wars in 3D?  You don’t need to.  We’ll be checking out the original series Blu-rays soon in 2D/3D upconversion, too.

Along with highlighting the best to watch in upconversions, we’ll also be continuing our reviews of the best available on Blu-ray 3D.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

This week we get our introduction to animated Star Wars Disney-style with the premiere of the new series Star Wars Rebels.  Set your DVRs for this Friday, October 3, for the one-hour premiere, Star Wars: Spark of Rebellion on the Disney Channel. The first series episode begins October 13 on DisneyXD.  The series features characters we previewed here at borg.com in our review of the first new universe Star Wars novel, A New Dawn.

Taking place between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, a group of rebels takes on the Empire.  The series features the voices of Freddie Prinze Jr., Taylor Gray, Tiya Sircar, and Steve Blum.

Those with access can get an early look at Star Wars: Spark of Rebellion on September 26 at WATCHDisneyXD.com and on the WATCH DisneyXD app.

Coming in November is Disney’s full-length animated feature film, Big Hero 6.  Big Hero 6 follows the story of two Japanese brothers and a robot one creates that looks a bit like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

Big Hero 6 looks like it may have some humor in The Incredibles vein with the latest in computer imagery.  Here’s a new movie trailer for Big Hero 6:

Big Hero 6 hits theaters November 6, 2014.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

Whether a piece of art is appealing is in the eye of the beholder.  Everyone who gives a considered view to a piece of artwork is entitled to their own interpretation and commentary on it.  This month sees the release of a book that will allow the reader to take his or her own personal journey through the artwork that became the marketing posters for the Star Wars franchise.  Star Wars Art: Posters is the fifth and final hardcover installment in Abrams Books’ successful series pulling the best imagery from Lucasfilm.  It follows Star Wars Art: Visions, Star Wars Art: Concept, Star Wars Art: Illustration, and, to be reviewed soon here at borg.com, Star Wars Art: Comics.  With Star Wars Art: Posters, the best was saved for last.

Star Wars Art: Posters is a purely visual experience.  It includes only the slightest amount of text or interpretational information.  A one-page commentary is included, written by each of noted Star Wars poster artists Drew Struzan and Roger Kastel.  They each recount their own experience with creating Star Wars poster art, but do not give an overview of the rest of the galaxy of poster art.  Instead each piece of art is laid out roughly chronologically, stripped of the words and printed matter that would be needed for the completion of the final poster for distribution, but with a notation showing the artists’ name, date, significance, and medium.

Die hard fans of Star Wars will recognize many, if not most, of the included posters.  And you’ll find yourself embarking on your own nostalgic trip back nearly four decades.  Back to the first poster for the film from 1976: Howard Chaykin’s screaming imagery of Luke, Han, Leia and Ben, with lightsaber pointing downward, Tom Jung’s famous one-sheet–what most remember as the classic Star Wars poster, Tom Chantrell’s photo-real poster featuring Mark Hamill as Luke along with the rest of the main cast, and that famous circus-design poster by Charles White III and Drew Struzan.  My own trip back in time recalls the Del Nichols posters that were Coca-Cola giveaways, three of which are included in the book (and which covered the walls of my bedroom many years ago).

Years after the success of Star Wars, fans became familiar with the stylized concept posters created by Ralph McQuarrie.  Some of those can be found in this volume, dating way back to 1975.   His best may be his cover to the 1982 Jedi Master’s Quiz Book, featuring Yoda in Dagobah, found here, too.  The best of all Star Wars poster art?  It’s hard to beat Roger Kastel’s famous Gone With the Wind homage cover for The Empire Strikes Back.  It’s simply a perfect painting that sums up the adventure and excitement of Star Wars to many fans.  The rest of the Star Wars universe belongs to Drew Struzan, with his triptych of the first trilogy, and then the prequel trilogy, as well as the other odd images he created over the years.

One of the most fun posters would be the Yoda-centric image by David McMacken for Attack of the Clones featuring the legend “Size Matters Not (except on an IMAX screen”).  When I think of The Return of the Jedi, Kazuhiko Sano’s “B” poster image comes instantly to mind.

But Star Wars Art: Posters doesn’t stop at movie posters. An Adam Hughes piece illustrates the love the artist has for Return of the Jedi, with Leia as Jabba’s slave in an Arabesque design, created as a convention exclusive.  Mondo posters and other retro fan posters, and posters for the animated series, all may help fans form a better understanding of why Star Wars is so popular, and why we can hardly wait to see Struzan’s new posters for the third and final Star Wars movie trilogy.

A good addition for your science fiction and fantasy library, Star Wars Art: Posters will be a must-have for fans of the other four volumes in the series.  The cover price of this hefty, over-sized edition for Star Wars Art: Posters is $40.00.  Get your copy now at a discounted price here at Amazon.com.

Review by C.J. Bunce

Governor Tarkin possessed the power to direct Darth Vader to stop choking a man, to command the first Death Star and to use it to destroy Princess Leia’s home world. Yet for all that, he gets very little screen time.  Who was this character?  A new novel asks that question and provides an interesting insight into the life of a man revered by his peers, his planet, and ultimately the Empire for his intellect, cunning and decisiveness.  It’s a Machiavellian account of a man born far away from the city centers of Coruscant whose pursuit of power would be nearly unstoppable, and whose political skill would thrust him into a triumvirate of power shared with Darth Vader and the Emperor himself.

In its first releases of canon-designated novel tie-ins for the Star Wars franchise after the recently announced move away from the past 20 years of expanded universe stories (now referred to as the sidelined “Legends” stories), LucasBooks has honed in on two sides of the rise of rebellion against the Empire.  Taking place in the years following the events of the Star Wars prequels but before the original Star Wars films, John Jackson Miller’s Star Wars: A New Dawn, reviewed previously here at borg.com, recalls the plans of a band of rebels to sabotage Imperial efforts to acquire resources needed for its great space fleet.  Next week, LucasBooks presents a view from the other side of the battle when it releases James Luceno’s Tarkin, a deep dive into the inner sanctum of the Emperor following the fall of the Jedi, and the political rise of the Death Star commander who we would meet as Peter Cushing’s Governor Tarkin in A New Hope.

The character of Moff Wilhuff Tarkin is not incredibly complex–he stayed true to a course early in life established by his ancestors on the planet Eriadu, which gave him the benefits of military academy-style training yet provided by a band of men not unlike Scottish highlanders.  He is a man who was not born of privilege.  Yet good mentoring forged a soldier who would attain predictable societal ranks and achieve much more.

Luceno’s Tarkin is not written as a villain per se, although he unflinchingly applies ruthless means in pursuit of single-minded goals.  In another world his character might have been a hero, but for his cold adherence to law, order, and control to pursue societal goals–collateral damage be damned.  How can you reconcile a drive of purpose and achievement that is also so morally questionable?  Going beyond his short scenes as a black-and-white destroyer of worlds in A New Hope, Tarkin’s background is fleshed out here and a classic villain emerges, a hero in his own mind.

Highlights of the novel delve into Tarkin’s history and relationship with Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, a look at Palpatine’s galactic puppetmaster skills–his strengths and weaknesses with the Force, and the role of Tarkin’s own personal starship, the Carrion Spike, in his rise to political power.

Tarkin adheres to the film versions of Governor Tarkin–those few key scenes in A New Hope and a brief cameo in Revenge of the Sith–and surprisingly pulls much from the Star Wars expanded universe “Legends” stories and his role in them.  Those who feared the expanded universe would be completely disregarded will be pleasantly surprised if Tarkin is any indication of the future of Star Wars tie-in novels.  Luceno’s familiarity with the material–he previously wrote the Star Wars novel Darth Plageuis and several others–comes through and helps plant the reader firmly in the world of Star Wars.

For those not retaining an encyclopedic memory of every alien species that appeared in the background sweep of the original Mos Eisley cantina scene or was added in the prequels, it would be helpful to have some sort of visual guide–or the Internet–handy as you read along.  You may recall what a Rodian (think Greedo) or Mon Calamari (Admiral Ackbar) look like, but unless you’re up on the Clone Wars animated series or a just a Star Wars junkie, you may need refreshers on the nature and look of Zygerrians, Gotal, Koorivar, Chagrians, or Twi’leks.

Older fans loved it when they heard classic genre actor Peter Cushing would be in this new film called Star Wars back in the early 1970s.  His small part would become the role Cushing would be known for across the globe.  His chilling, skeletal appearance will always stick with fans of the franchise, and although his character would not carry the mystique and fan following of the even-less seen Boba Fett, he’ll always be remembered for his certainty of purpose at the end of the first Death Star.

At 258 pages Star Wars: Tarkin is a quick, fun read, and a good choice by LucasBooks for the first familiar character from the original Star Wars to get his own novel following the restart of the expanded universe.  Star Wars: Tarkin will be released November 4, 2014, at bookstores everywhere.  Pre-order it now at a discount price here at Amazon.com.

So what evil lies behind that door?

Can you remember the first comic book that ever landed in your hands?  More than a decade ago I first met one of my comic book creator heroes, Howard Chaykin.  Chaykin created the very first Star Wars movie poster, a stylized, action-filled cover in his unique style:

Chaykin was visiting town at a local Con and luckily for me most of the visitors at the show were in line for the newest young comic artist, and didn’t realize all Mr. Chaykin had done in his long career in comics and television, so I got plenty of time to chat with him, and have him autograph my first comic book: Star Wars, Issue #8, featuring a story called “Eight for Aduba-3,” influenced by The Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai story.  I’ve bragged up Chaykin before here at borg.com.  He’s one of the most interesting guys in the comics business.

“Eight for Aduba-3″ came out when Marvel Comics first had the license to create the Star Wars movie adaptation, drawn by Chaykin and written by Chaykin and the great Roy Thomas, after a quick look at materials from the film and conversation with George Lucas.  They were tapped to take the characters from the new phenomenon in a new direction following the events in Episode IV: A New Hope.  “Eight for Aduba-3″ included more than one tough recruited mercenary, much like its source material, but the big standout was Jaxxon, a giant, angry green rabbit-man.

The Marvel Comics series ran to 107 issues, three annuals, and a four-issue adaptation of Return of the Jedi.  Then Dark Horse Comics later took over and gave us 20 years of great stories.  As we reported here back in July during Comic-Con, Marvel Comics announced that January 2015 will see the first of Marvel taking over the Star Wars comic book line from Dark Horse with three initial series.  Fellow Elite Comics regular Jason Aaron will write and John Cassaday will serve as artist on the new series taking place just after A New Hope, where the original 1978 Marvel Comics line began and the current main Dark Horse title takes place.

Today Marvel Comics made public a variant cover for Aaron and Cassaday’s new series–Star Wars, Issue #1, featuring none other than Jaxxon himself.

We couldn’t be happier with the result.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your tastes), we won’t likely see much more of Jaxxon in the ongoing monthly–the cover is more of an homage to Marvel’s first foray into the expanded Star Wars universe.  Drawn by John Tyler Christopher, this “Party Variant” will only be available at Star Wars launch parties in January.  We also couldn’t be happier the future of Star Wars canon will be in the hands of our pal Jason Aaron, one of Marvel’s best story writers.

Look for a Star Wars Marvel launch party near you in January 2015 with more details coming soon.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

This time the rides actually work.

Released today, watch the first trailer for Jurassic World.

If you’re looking for the new Star Wars preview, it’s not out yet–expect it this weekend on the Web–but this fan version is nicely done:

It will be interesting seeing how close it is to the real thing, as select theaters premiere an 88-second version this weekend.  Here are those theaters:

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Why go see it in theaters in front of one of the lackluster holiday offerings this season when you can watch it for free at home?  It’s the teaser trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.  And it’s a short 88 seconds, with much of the teaser spent on slow pans and the logo roll.

It’s what we’ve been waiting for.   A look at Star Wars in the hands of Disney and J.J. Abrams.

Wait no further.  Here’s the official first trailer for Episode VII, after the break:

So what do you think?  Is it more or less exciting than the fan produced trailer we posted here at borg.com earlier this week?

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

Sci-fi movie trivia question:  Which Star Wars actor played Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back and was a main character in Star Trek 2009 and Star Trek Into Darkness?  More on that later.

We have taken a close look at some of the best behind the scenes books on costumes and props from major movie franchises here at borg.com.  The best have included the latest in Weta’s tour inside the making of the Middle-earth in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles: Cloaks & Daggers, reviewed here, and the dense examination of the Star Wars prequel costumes documented in the landmark work Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars, reviewed here.  After nearly 40 years we finally have a behind the scenes look at the making of the costumes from the original three Star Wars films with Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy, just released from Chronicle Books.  This is also the first time many of these costumes have been displayed and photographed, since the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum featured dozens of costumes in its Star Wars: The Magic of Myth exhibit in 1997.

Author Brandon Alinger, my friend and fellow costume and prop aficionado, is chief operating officer of The Prop Store (formerly The Prop Store of London) and an expert who has handled original Star Wars pieces over the years.  Alinger interviewed costume designers and production staff from the original series to pull together this first ever analysis of the stories and people who earned Star Wars an Academy Award for Best Costuming, the only science fiction film to receive such an honor.  Original costumes from the Skywalker Ranch Archives were displayed on mannequins and photographed for the book by Joseph MacDonald of The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco–many for the first time since production.

The most striking revelation in the book is the rarity of each costume and the fact that some of these film artifacts may not survive many more years.  “Some of the costumes or costume components in the Archives are quite fragile and for this reason they could not be dressed onto mannequins to shoot,” Alinger recently said in an online discussion.  “The costumes are treated as artifacts and conservation concerns are top priority for the Archives team.”  Admiral Ackbar’s mask from Return of the Jedi is just one of these items.

Contributing to the book with Alinger are Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back costume designer John Mollo and Return of the Jedi costume designers Aggie Rodgers and Nilo Rodis-Jamero.  The book also includes invaluable detail from past interviews with Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, and Stuart Freeborn, along with contributions from dozens of other costume and art department staff from the films.

Movie production staff and movie costume collectors are well aware that the typical movie shoot requires multiple copies of each cast member’s costume.  For example, it was common for the Star Trek and Lord of the Rings productions to create seven or more of each main cast member’s uniform, allowing for problems on set and dry cleaning.  The point is you never want to stop a multi-million dollar shoot so someone can re-stitch the only costume you have created for your film.  Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy reveals that was not the case for many of the Star Wars costumes.  This means the Skywalker Ranch Archives possesses the one and only costume made for the trilogy for many items.  This also explains why the private collecting community has only seen a handful of authentic original trilogy costumes hit the market over the years, like the odd distressed Stormtrooper helmet, Ewok fur, C-3PO hand and foot, and damaged cantina alien mask.

The book reveals that only two of Luke’s famous Tatooine farmboy outfits were created (for a budget of only $750!).  Only two Chewbacca suits were made for Star Wars, twenty-four Stormtroopers were made for Star Wars and refurbished for The Empire Strikes Back, and only one Princess Leia as bounty hunter Boushh costume was created.  The helmets from the AT-AT Drivers in The Empire Strikes Back not only looked like the two black-armored TIE-Fighter pilots in Star Wars, they were the very same helmets–but repainted.  They no longer exist in the AT-AT Driver form as they were later repainted back to black for Return of the Jedi.  

The whereabouts of many of the costumes or their accessories unfortunately are not known as they were rented for production and then returned to Bermans & Nathans costumiers in London or they went out on publicity tours over the years and are no longer in the Skywalker Ranch Archives.

Pull-out sections in Star Wars Costumes highlight the costumes of Darth Vader and Boba Fett, as well as Princess Leia’s slave dancer outfit from Return of the Jedi.  Great comparison shots highlight the differences between the costumes and helmets of Darth Vader, Stormtroopers, and Boba Fett across the three films.  Want to know the evolution of Oscar Isaac’s X-wing pilot uniform in Star Wars: The Force Awakens?  This book trailer will give you a glimpse of the visuals you will see in the book:

And back to our trivia question.  Four-foot, four-inch Kenyan actor Deep Roy donned a Yoda costume in The Empire Strikes Back for Yoda’s only walking scene–a scene where Frank Oz’s muppet wouldn’t do and a live actor was needed.  Roy later would play Keenser–Scotty’s alien sidekick–in several scenes in Star Trek 2009 and Star Trek Into Darkness.  Roy also appeared in the Doctor Who franchise, the only actor to appear in all three franchises until Simon Pegg appeared in Clone Wars.

Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy is a must-have for Star Wars fans.  It’s available now here from Amazon.com.  If you want to dig even further into Star Wars costumes, check out Star Wars: The Magic of Myth here and Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars here.

It hasn’t been released yet, and it is already the #1 best selling comic of 2015.  Forecasted with advance sale numbers at more than one million copies already, Marvel Comics is re-entering the world of Star Wars comics like it’s 1977 all over again.  Written by our friend Jason Aaron with artwork by John Cassaday and colorist Laura Martin, the story continues the adventures of Luke Skywalker after the end of the original Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope. 

Marvel Comics is pulling out all the stops with the variety of cover variants readers can choose from.  Most comic book stores will get one of a half dozen basic covers, but those who dig around on the Web will find plenty more available.  More than 30 basic full-color covers will be released in January 2015, plus black and white versions and sketch variants of many of those covers.  And that’s not all, several collectible comic book websites will be releasing signature editions signed by everyone up to Stan Lee, and sketch covers by several artists including Dynamite Comics’ Chris Caniano.  And you can get a logo-only cover to take to your next Con and commission an artist of your choice to sketch you a character.

Frank Cho has only released a sneak peak at his final cover for Star Wars Issue #1.

Alex Ross, John Cassaday, Mike Mayhew, Frank Cho, David Petersen, Jenny Frison, Stephanie Han, Amanda Connor, Alex Maleev… everyone but Dave Dorman seems to have been pulled into this project.  Click on each image to see the artist and whether the book is only available at a special store.  A few variant images have not yet been released.

So check out even more great covers to Marvel’s Star Wars, Issue #1, after the break:

Look for Star Wars, Issue #1 in comic book stores everywhere next month!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

With the official change over really coming to fruition in January of the return of the Star Wars comic book license to Marvel Comics after its successful run at Dark Horse Comics–and several months before the full magnitude of what it will mean to have Star Wars under the Disney empire–already word is out about re-releases of the original trilogy.

Forget about Greedo shooting first, the ghost of a young Anakin Skywalker at the end of Return of the Jedi, a skinny Jabba at Mos Eisley, and strange circular bursts emitting from destroyed Death Stars.  Forget about a cringe-worthy singsong “Celebrate the Love” over “Lapti Nek.”  It took Disney to give fans what they have wanted all along: the one and only original Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, with no special edition edits, on Blu-ray.  That’s right, all three films are undergoing conversions to Blu-ray for a to-be-announced release date in 2015.

The original destruction of the second Death Star.

So you’ll again get to upgrade your home version of the trilogy, the one that already replaced you VHS, Beta, Laser Disc, DVD, and countless digital upgrade and boxed set releases–one more time.  That is, until they release the 3D version.  No word yet on that upgrade.

Destruction of second Death Star, after the special edition update.

Along with the films, the original Star Wars: A New Hope comic book adaptation created by legendary writer Roy Thomas and illustrated by our favorite comic book artist, Howard Chaykin, will get a facelift of sorts.  Colorist Chris Sotomayor is going to update the four-color standard 1970s style used by Marvel to a more modern color set.  Like the special edition update for the movies, this will give us a new take on the classic book.  Well-known artists Marie Severin, Steve Leialoha and Glynis Wein provided the original color work now being replaced.

Here’s a comparison of the new vs. the old:

Check back for release dates here at borg.com throughout 2015.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

The decade after Return of the Jedi premiered in theaters in 1983 was a dark period for fans of the Force.  The only place to get a glimpse of a possible future for the Star Wars universe was in Marvel Comics, but that fizzled out in 1986.  In that same year Mike Richardson’s Dark Horse began publishing comics and five years later, in 1991, Dark Horse published the exciting Dark Empire series, its first Star Wars title under its license with Lucasfilm.  The next year Timothy Zahn launched the first book in a trilogy, Heir to the Empire, and between Zahn’s books and subsequent novels and Dark Horse’s various titles, fans could at last revisit their favorite characters and places, in the same way fans of Star Trek had been able to enjoy that franchise for decades.

With Lucas selling Star Wars to Disney, Disney has already taken over the Star Wars novels, resulting in some fun reads in the past year (see our advance reviews here and here).  Beginning in January a new Star Wars series begins, back at Marvel Comics, throwing out the continuity developed over 23 years at Dark Horse.  Fans should have no fear, as writers and artists from the Dark Horse years are already creating the architecture of the Empire and Rebellion for Marvel.  What is uncertain is the fate of the hundreds of comic books in the Dark Horse catalog, since Dark Horse may not sell any of those after this Thursday, January 1, 2015.  Marvel Comics will likely re-publish the bestsellers under its new “Legends” brand, but it’s not known whether more obscure titles will be offered for years if ever again.

So Dark Horse is going out in style, and as always, looking out for its readers, offering 50% off single-issue digital comics on its website, plus a “Farewell Star Wars Bundle,” all of Dark Horse’s digital Star Wars issues for $300.  At first blush this appears to be 568 issues of comic books, but if you delve deeper you’ll see it also includes the full run of Marvel’s Star Wars issues #1-107, plus a few dozen issues in each of 12 other included “Omnibus” editions.  You’d pay $1,000 easily for those in single issues of Marvel’s Star Wars run today.  So basically you’re getting hundreds of comic books, many with cover prices at more than $3.50, for less than 50 cents each.  But there’s more reasons this bundle is a real deal.

The bundle includes Dark Empire and its sequel series, comic book adaptations of all six movies, this year’s Star Wars: Rebel Heist, and the New York Times bestselling series The Star Wars.  It also includes all the recent Star Wars monthly issues, the parallel universe trilogy Star Wars Infinities, and the awesome Star Wars: Agent of the Empire.  These alone are worth the investment, plus you get countless other series shown at the Dark Horse website here.  You can also order your bundle or buy individual digital copies for download here.

So act fast–the deal expires January 1.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com