First Look At New Darth Maul Comic

Coming your way in late July, “Darth Maul: Death Sentence” #1 seems to take place after the Clone Wars season finale:

By now the galaxy has learned the terrible truth: Sith Lord Darth Maul still lives. Worse, he has joined forces with his brother Savage Opress!

The Jedi are searching for them and, after Maul and Opress cut a murderous swath through the Outer Rim, so is an army of mercenaries hired by a wealthy mine owner.

Darth Maul has a price on his head, and for him there is only one way to deal with such a problem: go directly to the source!

I don’t think the odds are too good for those mercenaries. H/T Rebelscum.com

R.I.P. Moebius

Jean “Moebius” Giraud, the French sf comics artist whose work served as an inspiration to Ridley Scott, George Lucas, and James Cameron among others, died today in Paris. Lucas used Giraud’s work in particular as inspiration for the look and feel of the prequels. Giraud’s contribution to “Star Wars Art: Visions” was interestingly enough inspired by TPM:

Darth Maul Returns To Comics

It’s a Maul kind of day, isn’t it? Anyway, Dark Horse just announced a new Darth Maul comic miniseries by Tom Taylor. Here’s the announcement from Randy Stradley. No word on when the first issue’s out.

Qui-Gon To Star In New Comics Series

This has been quite a year so far for Quiggy fans and it’s only January! Today, Dark Horse announced a new comics series starring Qui-Gon called “Star Wars: The Dark Side.” Fans of the Jedi Apprentice books by Dave Wolverton and Jude Watson rejoice…this also features our old buddy Xanatos:

http://splashpage.mtv.com/2011/01/27/star-wars-jedi-the-dark-side-comic-preview-scott-allie

Blood Ties #1 Out Today

“Blood Ties” is a new Dark Horse title that will focus on the familial relationships in Star Wars, and the first one covered is that of Jango Fett and his clone/”son,” Boba Fett.

I picked up the issue today and it’s the best Star Wars comic I’ve read in a long time. It features very good writing and beautiful artwork. This part of the story features Jango and young Boba right before the events of AOTC; Jango is already working for Count Dooku. Swing by your comics shop and pick it up!

Jango Fett Returns!

In comics, that is. He and Boba Fett star in their very own miniseries from Dark Horse, “Blood Ties: A Tale of Jango and Boba Fett.”

From Dark Horse’s August ’10 solicitations:

STAR WARS: BLOOD TIES—A TALE OF JANGO AND BOBA FETT #1 (of 4)
Tom Taylor (W) and Chris Scalf (A/Cover)
On sale Aug 25
FC, 40 pages
$3.50
Miniseries

Here begins a multigenerational tale of honor and redemption, starring two of the heaviest hitters in the Star Wars galaxy—the father-and-clone team of Jango and Boba Fett!

Shortly before the start of the Clone Wars, Count Dooku sends Jango Fett on a mission that will affect the course of Boba Fett’s life some twenty years later. But for now, neither of them knows what the future holds in store, and besides, they have their schedule filled dodging monsters and fighting bad guys!

Jango Fett and Boba Fett together!
Fully painted art by Purge artist Chris Scalf!

Sweet! I can’t wait to check it out!

Clone Wars Monthly To End With Issue #12

Dark Horse head honcho Randy Stradley posted yesterday on DH’s Star Wars forum that its Clone Wars comics series will end with issue #12. He says the comic title couldn’t find an audience, given that the show’s primary audience skews younger than the average comics buyer. The small digests though will continue; apparently those sell really well.

The title obviously wasn’t edgy enough for adult comics fans while I can’t remember the last time I actually saw children in a comic book store. Plus, the title often had long hiatuses between issues and that’s no way to garner readers. The quality from issue to issue has been a little uneven.

Goshdurn it

Dark Horse’s Randy Stradley has announced that the Prequel Infinities series is merely a product of crossed-wires and won’t be happening.

Prequel Infinities

Apparently the new Insider mentions that Dark Horse will publish an Infinities series covering the prequel era:

And from the announcement for # 115 (January 26), Insider # 114 mentions a Dark Horse Infinities take on the prequels!!! Could this mean a new miniseries? “The Star Wars Saga as you’ve never seen it before, as Dark Horse comics adapts the prequels and takes a different route with Star Wars Infinities!”

Infinities already covered the first set of SW films some years ago, giving us a Sith apprentice Leia, a Luke who dies on Dagobah, and an all-white surviving Vader at the end of ROTJ.

Hat tip tragiclove.

Clone Wars Manga

It’s not exactly all-new stuff but if you enjoy collecting Japanese SW adaptations, check these out. As with most Japanese products, it’s not going to be at your local comics shop unless you live in Tokyo. However, I did buy some SW manga that was never published or imported into the U.S. from Amazon.co.uk a year or so ago.