TIE Fighter #1 hit comic shops this past Wednesday. Above are variant covers by Tommy Lee Edwards for the next three issues.
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
April 11-15, 2019, was the ninth American edition of Lucasfilm’s Star Wars Celebration, recurring major convention celebrating their works, creations, actors, fans, and merchandise, not always in that order. After jaunts around the U.S. coast and overseas, this year’s was in Chicago, gracing the Midwest with its products for the first time since 2005. My wife Anne and I attended Thursday through Saturday and fled Sunday morning…
Thursday had very nearly zero panels scheduled. The panels scheduled Friday and Saturday largely broke down into the following groups:
- Panels that might’ve been cool if the annoying lottery system hadn’t made them attendance-prohibitive
- Panels for fans by fans about fan stuff
- Panels about novels we haven’t read
- Writing advice
- The official Marvel Comics panel
Larger panels filled up quickly. Numerous panels, especially those devoted to Star Wars novelists, were often capped because too many people were interested. But as a comics fan, one who’s spending a fair amount per month to keep up with much of Marvel’s Star Wars output (not all of it), I felt compelled to make a greater effort to get a foot in the door. Getting in line 45 minutes before showtime did the trick.
Because every convention panel should begin with a family photo slideshow.
Our panelists were Matt Martin from the Lucasfilm Story Group, overlords of the New Canon; Tom Groneman, assistant editor on Marvel’s Star Wars line; writer Greg Pak, whose “Age of Rebellion” specials kicked off in April; and writer Ethan Sacks, in charge of the upcoming Galaxy’s Edge miniseries advertising the big Disney Theme Parks additions (a bit more about those in a future entry). Later in the hour they also welcomed cover painter John Tyler Christopher. Our moderator was Dr. Christy Blanch, an Indiana professor, writer, comic shop owner, and superfan whom we’ve seen and met at previous cons (here, there, everywhere, and then some). The quintet had fun sharing Marvel’s next several months’ worth of Star Wars comics and the great-looking art that’ll be supporting them.
All of the following previews have surely been available on the comics news site of your choice for nearly a week now. I realized years ago I’ll never be a professional comics journalist, but it was fun to play at an amateurish version of it for an hour, tweeting photos and announcements as they occurred to anyone who cared to notice my existence.
It helped that, in this packed house that was capped thirty minutes in, we found ourselves seated behind three rows of ADA-dedicated seats that were almost entirely empty and thereby afforded us an unobstructed view of the screen, albeit at a bit of a remove.
Coming soon to a comic shop near you, then:
The Galaxy’s Edge comic, serving to contextualize your next Disneyworld experience. Anne and I agree we should step foot in Disneyworld someday before we’re too old.
More Galaxy’s Edge covers by Tommy Lee Edwards, a phenomenal artist we met at Star Wars Celebration 2005 shortly after he’d illustrated The Question for DC Comics.
Boba Fett comics. Please clap.
JOHN BOYEGA: THE COMIC shall have all my moneys.
Interior art from Finn by Ramon Rosanas. I love me some artists who cheerfully add blacks and textures to their pages instead of dumping all the work on the colorist.
She may be dead, but in the hands of Leonard Kirk, Phasma shall live again. In the past, probably, but still.
Target Vader will bring back a forgotten character from Marvel’s original ’70s-’80s Star Wars apocrypha, a cyborg bounty hunter created by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson named Valance the Hunter.
I’d never heard of Valance before this panel, but a good friend helped bring me up to speed later. The day after we got home, I was decompressing after the long drive home and decided to sort through a stack of unwanted comics my sister-in-law had given to me a month ago. Amid a few 1978 issues of Battlestar Galactica and Fantastic Four, there was exactly one Star Wars comic — issue #16, the very first appearance of Valance the Hunter. It’s ludicrous coincidences like this that happily fuel my faith in an orderly universe.
And now I know with about 89% certainty where Rob Liefeld borrowed the idea for Cable.
Noto’s work will also grace another upcoming special with three short stories, including one starring Laura Dern’s Vice Admiral Holdo.
As previously noted here on MCC, Greg Pak will take over Marvel’s main Star Wars series with #68. Of the three Phil Noto covers we saw at the panel, #70 is my favorite.
If you look closely at that last photo, you can barely make out a line of cosplayers that Dr. Blanch invited to hang out on stage for a minute — anyone in the house dressed as Marvel characters. That added up to several Doctor Aphras, one Lieutenant Tolvan from Doctor Aphra, and one Marvel-old-school Jaxxon we later tracked down for a better look. No Valances yet, but I expect that head count to change at future cons.
To be continued! Other chapters in this very special maxiseries:
Prologue: Our Star Wars Celebration Chicago 2019 Pre-Show: Who We’ve Already Met
Part Zero: MCC Live-Tweet: Our First Star Wars Celebration Chicago 2019 Line
Part 1: Imperial Cosplay
Part 2: The Right Side of the Force Cosplay
Part 3: Scum and Villainy Cosplay
Part 4: Rising with Skywalkers
Part 5: The Stars in Our Galaxy
Part 6: The Droids We Weren’t Looking For
Part 8: Adventures in Official Merchandising
Part 9 of ???: [coming soon]