IDW returns to ‘Vader’s Castle’ for more spooky Star Wars

Cavan Scott and six artists put the spotlight on Star Wars villains this October.

IDW Publishing is heading back to the castle for more chilling Star Wars tales featuring some of the galaxy’s best villains.

Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader’s Castle is a five-part series that will run in October, featuring writer Cavan Scott and six different artists.

“I am over the moon to be returning to Vader’s Castle for another helping of Halloween horror from a galaxy, far, far away. And what better way to celebrate the scariest time of the year than by focusing on the villains of the Star Wars saga?” says Scott. “The response to our last visit to Mustafar was phenomenal, and I hope fans will join us once again, embracing the dark side in the company of Sith, warlords, and crazed Imperial scientists.”

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‘Marvel #1000’ gets Star Wars, Conan, variant covers and a second issue

Look for Marvel’s big anniversary special in August.

Since announcing Marvel #1000, their big 80th anniversary special project with 80 creative teams telling one 80-page story, Marvel has released some additional details about the project. It’ll include some unexpected appearances in its pages, and not unexpectedly, a bunch of variant covers.

Let’s dive in …

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‘Star Wars Adventures’ get creepy with ‘Tales from Vader’s Castle’

Fear leads to the dark side as a host of horror descends on the Star Wars universe.

IDW is heading to the even darker side with a new miniseries that combines Star Wars with “campfire ghost stories” — Star Wars Adventures: Tales from Vader’s Castle.

The five-part series will run for five weeks in October (of course!) and will feature stories by Cavan Scott, Derek Charm, Kelley Jones, Chris Fenoglio, Corin Howell, Robert Hack and Charles Paul Wilson III, and covers by Francesco Francavilla (again, I say, of course!)

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‘A Star Wars Comic’ explores ‘small moments’ from the epic saga

Jim Mello, Alex Ray and Tony Ray bring their interpretations of various Star Wars characters to the web once a month in six finely crafted pages.

I came across the site “A Star Wars Comic” in my Tumblr feed recently, and at first thought that Lucasfilm or Marvel had started up some sort of webcomic project — but as it turns out, it’s actually a fan-made site featuring various comics that spotlight “the small moments, characters, and themes of a galaxy, far far away.” And it’s very impressive.

The comics — there are 19 of them right now, plus an annual — cut across the Star Wars mythos, featuring main characters like Luke and Rey, as well as lesser-explored characters like Mon Mothma, Plo Koon and even “Gonk” the power droid. All the comics are done by Jim Mello, Alex Ray and Tony Ray. Each story (except the annual) is six pages, so they’re very quick, in and out, looks at these characters, and they’re posted once a month on the 25th.

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Inktober spotlight: Nelson Daniel feels the force

The ‘Clue’ artist celebrates Inktober by tackling Star Wars and other pop culture drawings.

October is Inktober, an art challenge where artists from all over the world create a different ink drawing every day of the month. While the official Inktober site provides a list of “prompts” to help inspire artists, many of them choose their own themes.

With many comic artists participating this year — you can find a lot of them on Twitter or Tumblr using the #inktober hashtag, and we’ve been posting a bunch on our own Tumblr — we thought we’d spotlight a few of the “can’t miss” ones we’ve seen so far.

Nelson Daniel is the artist of IDW’s Clue, and has also worked on titles like The Cape, Judge Dredd and Dungeons & Dragons. For Inktober, he started out with several Star Wars pieces, but has since turned to other areas of pop culture, with drawings of the Iron Giant, Gorillaz, Thundercats and The Fifth Element. Check out his Tumblr and Twitter feeds to see more.

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IDW to publish ‘Star Wars: Forces of Destiny’ weekly comic series

New series will feature work from Jody Houser, Devin Grayson, Elsa Charretier and more, on characters like Rey, Leia, Ahsoka and Hera.

Star Wars: Forces of Destiny, the animated web series and merchandise line featuring female heroes from the Star Wars universe, is taking aim at comics. IDW Publishing announced plans at New York Comic Con for a weekly comic book series featuring Leia, Rey, Padmé, Ahsoka and Hera, along with the newest stars from the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rose and Paige.

Working on the new series are Delilah S. Dawson, Elsa Charretier, Beth Revis, Jody Houser, Devin Grayson, Arianna Florean, Eva Widermann, Valentina Pinto, and Nicoletta Baldari.

“The Forces of Destiny initiative has won over fans with its inspiring tales about these iconic heroes,” said IDW Senior Editor Denton J. Tipton. “IDW Publishing couldn’t be more excited to be part of the celebration of these beloved characters.”

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Comics Lowdown: IDW adapts ‘The Force Awakens,’ Ringos slated for BCC

Plus: Jack Kirby and William Messner-Loebs to receive the Bill Finger Award, why millennials like webcomics and more.

IDW announced its all-ages Star Wars Adventures comic series a few months ago, but they sprang a surprise this week: In August, they will publish an 80-page graphic novel adaptation of the movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The graphic novel, which is also intended for younger readers, is part of Disney’s Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi publishing program, which is designed to gin up excitement for the eighth movie, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which will be out in December. The writer of the adaptation is Alessandro Ferrari, and the art is provided by “a group of Disney artists intended to bridge the gap between Star Wars and traditional Disney animation, making it more attractive for younger audiences.” You’d think people with that sort of ability would merit an actual name credit, but I guess not. This same anonymous group has done other Star Wars graphic novel adaptations that were published by Disney Lucasfilm Press, and in fact, Bleeding Cool notes that this graphic novel was announced in an article about them almost a year ago. That means the big news is really the publisher—it looks like IDW, will launch Star Wars Adventures in September, is becoming the chief publisher of Star Wars comics for young readers.

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Comics Lowdown: Camera creeps and Comic Con copyright

Plus: Paco Roca’s Ngozi Ukazu, Mike Norton, a ‘Star Wars Adventures’ update, and the Webcomics Web Archive

Con Creep: Calgary Police are investigating a Twitter account for uploading videos and photos of women and girls without consent, featuring certain body parts in a sexualized way, and even going as far as taking upskirt shots. A Calgary mother is furious that one of the victims is her 14-year old daughter that cosplayed as Harley Quinn at this year’s Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. The person responsible took these images only of cosplayers at the Expo, but of women on the streets and in malls as well. Staff Sgt. Cory Dayley of the Calgary Police Service cyber crimes unit said that the images would be classed as voyeurism under the Canadian criminal code. The Twitter account, @CanadaCreep, has been suspended. Late Wednesday afternoon, Calgary police announced they arrested a 42-year-old man on charges relating to voyeurism and publishing voyeuristic images. Police are asking anyone with additional information to contact the at 403-266-1234, case number 17243516.
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Comics Lowdown: Armed man arrested at Phoenix Comicon

Plus news and updates on The Dark Knight III: The Master Race., comiXology’s Valiant High, Marissa Moss, These Machines Are Winning and more.

Police in Phoenix, Arizona, arrested 31-year-old Matthew Sterling at Phoenix Comicon on Thursday after being alerted that he was posting photos of police officers from inside the convention center and talking about harming the police. He told police he was the Punisher and could tell which police officers were good and which were bad.

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IDW to publish ‘younger reader’ Star Wars comics

‘Star Wars Adventures’ launches this fall.

Coming out of the big Star Wars Celebration event that happened in Orlando last week, IDW Publishing has announced they’ve obtained the license to “create and publish new Star Wars comic books aimed at younger readers.” The first title is expected in the Fall, just in time for all the hype that’ll build for the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

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