Star Wars Dark Horse comics disscussion and comments

[Bishop76]

Yeah, Invasion was unceremoniously cancelled a couple months back along with Knight Errant and Lost Tribe of the Sith (actually cancelled before its first issue hit, IIRC). Some folk aren't big fans of Dark Times, but I too enjoy it despite it's really questionable, impossible to follow release schedule.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

Could you show me the link that says that Invasion is definetly finished?

 

[Bishop76]

http://blog.newsarama.com/2012/08/23/star-wars-celebration-vi-dark-horse-comics-looks-ahead-to-2013/

It's the first question asked in the Q&A. They never announced it's cancellation, just let it fade away. They believe it reached a satisfying end point apparently.

Translation: Not profitable.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

We may go back and revisit those characters, but it will probably lie still for a couple of years.

Tom Taylor said no Invasion in 2013, but if Colin Wilson will be aviable again...

 

[Bishop76]

I think it's a very very long shot that they ever return to that series. It didn't sell well.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

Where can i look at the sales numbers?

 

[Bishop76]

You can't any more because they haven't sold this book in almost a year at this point. If you can hunt down old copies of Previews at your comic shop, you can see where it sat in the sales rankings, but you'll probably have a hard time hunting down a Previews issue that old.

Also, just common sense will tell you that it didn't sell well if they didn't want to finish the story. Their line that the story came to a satisfactory conclusion is bull. It wasn't worth them to print more for what their return would be. They'd rather move on to more successful projects like Agent of the Empire, Legacy, and Dawn of the Jedi.

 

[DarKush]

^
Surprised that Dawn of the Jedi is selling well, but happy for it. I've been holding back from that series in part because I've scaled back buying comics but also I wasn't sure about it's viability.

As for Invasion, I knew that was going to be a tough sell. With the NJO being so 'far' in the past, how many NJO fans are out there that would support that book? I also thought DH didn't help themselves with the book's main character.

As for Lost Tribe, I thought that was a miniseries? I didn't know there were plans to keep it ongoing. I also thought that had limited appeal. I wasn't sure how much interest there was out there for the Lost Tribe of Sith to begin with.

Though I was thinking the same thing about the Dawn of the Jedi, despite the level of talent behind the book.

 

[Bishop76]

^
Surprised that Dawn of the Jedi is selling well, but happy for it. I've been holding back from that series in part because I've scaled back buying comics but also I wasn't sure about it's viability.

As for Invasion, I knew that was going to be a tough sell. With the NJO being so 'far' in the past, how many NJO fans are out there that would support that book? I also thought DH didn't help themselves with the book's main character.

I think that's a part of the problem for sure and I think a lot of people were scared off by the tie-in to the NJO for fear that they'd need to know the WHOLE history of the NJO to be able to get into Invasion. I supported it because it was an okay story but honestly, it wasn't THAT great.

As for Lost Tribe, I thought that was a miniseries? I didn't know there were plans to keep it ongoing. I also thought that had limited appeal. I wasn't sure how much interest there was out there for the Lost Tribe of Sith to begin with.

Though I was thinking the same thing about the Dawn of the Jedi, despite the level of talent behind the book.

Interest in the Lost Tribe is pretty limited but I was digging it. I think the intent was to keep it going longer than the 5 issue arc that just ended but they pulled the plug on it pretty much instantly. I just don't think there was any support there and they didn't do themselves any favors by putting weak artists on the book.

As for Dawn of the Jedi, I think it's getting by on the names behind it. People know and like that team and it's a pretty decent story so far. We'll see if it lasts.

 

[DarKush]

^
I agree with you. I would see where some general Star Wars fans uninitiated to the NJO might be skittish about reading Invasion if they didn't know what was going on. Perhaps if the Invasion book had done a #0 issue that introduced the series and the major events up to the point where the story was. Also having a dramatis personae with the major NJO characters (pertaining to the Invasion story) at least might have helped too.

I agree too that the Lost Tribe audience interest was limited. I did enjoy the series though. I wouldn't mind seeing more Lost Tribe comics.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

You can't any more because they haven't sold this book in almost a year at this point. If you can hunt down old copies of Previews at your comic shop, you can see where it sat in the sales rankings, but you'll probably have a hard time hunting down a Previews issue that old.

Also, just common sense will tell you that it didn't sell well if they didn't want to finish the story. Their line that the story came to a satisfactory conclusion is bull. It wasn't worth them to print more for what their return would be. They'd rather move on to more successful projects like Agent of the Empire, Legacy, and Dawn of the Jedi.

If Dark Times can come back from dead all the times...

 

[Bishop76]

The difference is that Dark Times is never cancelled. It has long hiatuses but they always have another arc lined up. Next one is early 2013. There is no arc lined up for Invasion. It's obviously your own choice if you want to hold out hope, but I wouldn't put any money on it coming back if I were you.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

What was the longest hiatus Dark Times had?

Let's not forget Tom Taylor did plenty of other SW during the breaks.

 

[PsychoPere]

Corinna Beckho and Gabriel Hardman were recently interviewed by CBR about the new Legacy series.

A couple of interesting excerpts...

Hardman: As far as her actual lineage goes and exactly how she's related to Han and Leia is something that is a little bit of a mystery and we're not going to be paying off anytime soon. A lot of the "Legacy" era has been about these larger-than-life Emperors and royalty -- we're taking this down to much more of a ground level. Ania Solo is somebody that is not a part of that world, and she doesn't have a personal connection to it. She may have even turned her back on it.

Bechko: She's living in a backwater, Outer Rim system. She runs a junkyard and she doesn't have that many prospects, and that's where we start things. Our story takes off there.


Hardman: [...] we do see what's happening on the highest levels of trying to organize a government or an Empire -- a triumvirate actually -- and we do follow through with the strands that John and Jan had set up and it's definitely all still part of the world but we're focusing in very small at the beginning on this tiny, little backwater system, which is sort of a microcosm of what's going on and we can expand out from there.

See the link for some details on the incident that sets off Ania's adventures, the identities of the other two characters on the cover, a little Cade Skywalker talk, and one interior page preview.


I was plenty intrigued by the series based on the announcement alone, but this interview now has me looking forward to it's debut in 2013 even more.

 

[Turtletrekker]

You forgot the link.

I like that we will probably be seeing Cade after the first arc.

 

[PsychoPere]

I'm not even surprised I did. Thanks for posting it!

 

[JoeZhang]

One of the things that many people wondered after Disney bought Lucasfilm was how long will this relationship continue? Especially since the Mouse owns Marvel, the largest comics publisher in the world. Well, it appears we now have the answer. The Suits in the know have determined that no new contracts will be given to Dark Horse after the current ones expire. So all new projects after 2013 will be handled internally by Marvel.
It’s not known yet if titles will be worked into the regular line up, or will Marvel create a special branch of the company that deals with Star Wars. It’ll take a couple of years for the old deals to work there course, but the stories that Dark Horse have coming down the pipeline will be the last. And you can expect anything new from Marvel dealing with Star Wars to arrive around 2015.

http://comicsbeat.com/report-star-wars-comics-going-to-marvel-in-2015/

 

[C.E. Evans]

I wish there was some official word other than all these rumors.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

What was the largest self contained universe/world that Marvel did a poor job managing?

I hope they will be more carefull with SW considering how huge the franchise is. It makes a good business sense to have a famous franchise if digital comics will be the future.

 

[C.E. Evans]

The Marvel of today is a totally different beast from the one that last had the Star Wars license. Being such a bottom line company now, I can't seem them doing anywhere near as much with Star Wars as Dark Horse currently does. And they really haven't done much with the Disney properties they previously acquired.

It might acutally be better for Lucasfilms to keep Star Wars comics with a company that will produce more books, not less. May make more money off the license that way, IMO.