Suvudu Universe

ReedPOP’s second annual BookCon got off to a great start here in New York City. Last year, the fan convention had sold out all 10,000 tickets in less than three months and brought more attention to its longtime book fair BookExpo America. This year, despite not selling out, the exhibition floor was less crowded and more organized, making for a pleasant overall experience.

Some of Lucasfilm’s officially licensed publishing partners were present throughout the exhibition floor, including Disney Publishing Worldwide, Quirk Books, and Chronicle Books. Marvel also had a presence in the panel portion of the event.

(Photo: DisneyReads)

The MARVEL Presents: Star Wars panel confirmed release dates and covers for its various comic book titles, and even though there weren’t any major announcements, a few previously unknown details surfaced from the presentation. The table of panelists included editor at Marvel Comics Jordan D. White, assistant editor Heather Antos, comic book writer Charles Soule (Star Wars: Lando), Marvel’s sales manager, and editor Mark Beazley.

Here’s a rundown of the panel:

- Star Wars #1 broke all sales records and its success helped launch a lineup of more successful comics.

- The hardcovers for the Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 will go on sale in June and September, respectively.

- Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Vol. I was retouched to look more like the movies. The book is currently on sale.

- Star Wars #6 will go on sale starting June 3, 2015, and it will be the end of the first arc. This will be John Cassaday’s final issue for now. Marvel has more plans for him in the future, but no announcements have been made yet. The Star Wars Vol. 1 trade paperback will be released in September.

- Star Wars #7 with interior art by Simone Bianchi will appear on shelves starting July 7, 2015, and issue #8 will introduce Stuart Immonen as the new series artist.

- Star Wars #9 introduces a brand new character. “I think a lot of people are going to be surprised about who that is right there,” White said before adding, “Pick up issue #6, you’ll find out who that is.”

- Darth Vader #6 goes on sale on June 3, 2015, while the trade paperback of issues #1-6 comes out in October.

- The second volume kicks off with issues #7 (July 1), #8 (July 15), and #9 (August 5).

- The Princess Leia comic is their first Star Wars mini-series.

- Issue #5 will be the last in the series and it will be available for purchase in June.

- The trade paperback collection of issues #1-5 will come out in October.

- Kanan: The Last Padawan #3 will be made available starting June 10, 2015. Issue #4 goes on sale July 22 and issue #5 comes out August 12.

- The Kanan: The Last Padawan trade paperback collects issues #1-5 will be released on November 13, 2015.

- They weren’t sure how well the book would do because Kanan was still a relatively new character when they worked on the first book. Thankfully, it also broke sales records.

- Star Wars: Lando is the second mini-series. Interior pages of issue #1 were shown during the panel, as seen above. Photos (1 and 2) were originally taken by Stitch Kingdom.

- Lando is set between Episodes IV and V. He’s already lost the Millennium Falcon and he’s not yet in Cloud City. He’s out in the universe, trying to make his way, so Soule took that character and put him in a new adventure. In this particular story, he wants to place a big bet and he plans to do that by stealing a ship. In order to accomplish that, he puts together a crew. His second-in-command is Lobot, who has more personality compared to what we’ve seen before in The Empire Strikes Back.

- Star Wars: Shattered Empire is part of the Journey to the Star Wars: The Force Awakens initiative. Written by Greg Rucka and illustrated by Marco Checchetto, issue #1 goes on sale September 2, 2015, and the trade paperback will be released on November 17, 2015.

Highlights from the Q&A portion:

- A third mini-series will follow Lando, focusing on another character, but they’re not ready to announce it yet.

- When asked about a Boba Fett comic book series, Jordan D. White said, “Not right now…there are reasons to not do a series just yet, but that is something we’re really excited to do and we’re really hoping to do it in the future.”

- Shattered Empire is a bi-weekly comic book series with two comics coming out in September and another two comics in November.

- No details were revealed about the C-3PO comic book series that was announced over at StarWars.com.

- A fan asked whether there’d be a comic book centered around Obi-Wan Kenobi. White said, “Maybe…nothing I can announce just yet, but we would be very interested in doing a series that would focus on Obi-Wan.”

Length: 1:00:42 (56 MB)
Note: The quality isn’t the best due to background activity.
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