In June 1991 Timothy Zahn published the first book of what would become the Thrawn Trilogy, Heir To The Empire. It wasn’t the first of the Expanded Universe but it did kick start the gigantic wave that still rolls on to this very day. Just months later in December 1991 came Dark Empire from Dark Horse Comics. Since then they have gone on to publish several series, introduce hundreds of characters, adapt all six movies and several books, including The Thrawn Trilogy and even get the reprint license from Marvel’s original Star Wars run of 110 comics.

In 2005, with the release of the final movie, Revenge Of The Sith, Dark Horse published the Comics Companion as a way of getting the public up to speed. It’s a gorgeous oversized, 12 x 9, softcover and it covers every Dark Horse comic right to ROTS. It’s broken up into the Five Eras, but the Table Of Contents is compressive so you’ll have no trouble flipping to the comics you need info on. Also included are entries for the Star Wars Manga Adaptations (which are wonderful and a must own) and the Marvel Comics, as they were collected in the 6 Trade Paperbacks (and now the soon to be 5 Omnibuses). The only problem I have is that Dark Horse treats the Marvel line as an after thought and doesn’t weave that continuity into their own, even though representatives from Dark Horse has stated to me personally that Lucasfilm oversee all comics, books and etc. to make sure no overlap occurs and everything stays, for lack of a better term, kosher. There is also beautiful full color artwork of all types, some of which I doubt you have ever seen. Windham and Wallace also provide a short introduction and a well deserved dedication to Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson.

And now more then ever, this may become an important book for your Star Wars shelf. Why? Because at Comic Con 2011, Dark Horse announced that Star Wars is going digital. As of this post, there are just over 50 comics available and more coming every week. Yes even the Marvel Comics will be coming to an iPad or Android device near you. So give this book a shot, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Star Wars: The Comics Companion
Text by Ryder Windham and Daniel Wallace
144 pages, $19.99, Dark Horse Comics

Recommended reading:
Star Wars: Luke Skywalker, Last Hope For The Galaxy – From Tatooine To Dark Empire HC

It was no surprise that Digital Comics was the talk of San Diego last month at Comic Con 2010. The majors like DC, Marvel and IDW and smaller publishing houses like Top Shelf and Boom! Studios all made
announcements. The business of Digital was also discussed on several panels, and booths hosted by distribution companies like ComiXology, Graphic.ly, PanelFly, iVerse (Comics+) and Long Box Digital were all busy showing off the latest apps. Today on the podcast, I talk about this new comic book reprint form and get you caught up with the latest news.

As some of you know I started a Digital Comics blog called DGTL Comics not too long ago. Unfortunately I have not had the time to devote to it. I even wanted to do a weekly podcast, but other activities have hindered me to really do much of anything. However there is some good news to come out of this. First, the DGTL Comics Twitter feed will still be going strong, so be sure to follow that for easy links. Second, I’m going to start guest blogging at Digital Comics Review very soon and perhaps I’ll be posting a podcast with industry leaders and passionate fans. Lastly, I’ll be adding a Digital Comics news feature to the Collected Comics Library Podcast on a regular basis. Three great ways to keep up to date with Digital.

Getting back to what I know best – there is some printed Collected Edition news including an update on the delayed Captain Marvel Monster Society of Evil, historian Rick Marschall and Rosebud Archives have teamed up with Fantagraphics for a new line of books and DC Comics restructures the Earth One GN line before it even gets started, all this and the New Releases of the Week.

Chris

Links of Note:

Marvel Comics Trade Paperback Timeline
Rosebud Archives
When Words Collide Comics – Don’t Cry: The iPadization Of The Medium by Timothy Callahan, Staff Writer CBR
Val’s Digital Comics Page
The Uncertain Future of the Printed Word
The Quarter Bin
Syn

Collected Comics Library iPod App
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@dgtlcomics
Digital Comics Review

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On Tuesday a 3rd grader brought a fully loaded semi-automatic handgun to my son’s school. At recess he showed it off on the playground and other kids promptly told the teachers. The boy ran inside and hid the gun in a pencil box in his desk. He was caught very quickly, tragedy was averted and no one got hurt. Incidentally my 10-year-old son, Patrick, was near by on the basketball court when all this went down. Today on the show I talk about this very scary situation, what is being done and what I am doing as a parent. This topic doesn’t really have to do anything with comics, but it in the past 24 hours it has made me realize that perhaps there is too much violence in my household. This includes video games, movies and my comic book collection – specifically my near complete run of everything Punisher. I don’t have the answers nor do I want to come across like I’m preaching. It’s just that it hit very close to home yesterday and I need to get some things off my chest including what positive steps I can do on my part.

All this including the New Releases of the Week.

Chris

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DGTL Comics
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Please visit my site sponsors: In-Stock Trades and Forbidden Planet International (UK)

• 2008 Harvey Awards. I’ll be going over the Winners in this week’s podcast.
• Marvel Comics Editor in Chief Joe Quesada, on a few BIG books we can expect in 2009: Inferno style Omnibus, Classic X-Men, and even a Captain Britain Omnibus. He also goes on to say that there will be more Golden Age and Atlas Age Captain America Masterworks.
• Jennifer M. Contino, The Pulse, interviews, Mark Schultz on Prince Valiant. Word has it that Fantagraphics will be rereleasing the Hardcovers at some point, so this is a good primer.
• Evie Nagy, Publishers Weekly, on Queen & Country by Greg Rucka. Where is Definitive Edition Volume 3?
• Here’s a nice spoiler filled breakdown of all the comics presented in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Heroes Volume 1
• Review: Timothy Callahan, CBR, on Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home HC (Marvel)
• Review: Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter, on The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye (Image)
• Review:: Matches, The Iceberg Lounge, on Total Sell Out GN by Brian Michael Bendis and various
• Review: TPB Reviewer, on Fallen Son: The Death Of Captain America (Marvel)
• Review: Collected Editions Blog, on Teen Titans: Titans of Tomorrow (DC Comics)

Leave Plain = Things I don’t have
Make Bold = Things I do have
Italics = I have some but probably not enough (optional)
Underline = I don’t agree I need this (optional)

1. Something From The ACME Novelty Library
2. A Complete Run Of Arcade
3. Any Number Of Mini-Comics
4. At Least One Pogo Book From The 1950s
5. A Barnaby Collection
6. Binky Brown and the Holy Virgin Mary
7. As Many Issues of RAW as You Can Place Your Hands On
8. A Little Stack of Archie Comics
9. A Suite of Modern Literary Graphic Novels
10. Several Tintin Albums
11. A Smattering Of Treasury Editions Or Similarly Oversized Books
12. Several Significant Runs of Alternative Comic Book Series
13. A Few Early Comic Strip Collections To Your Taste
14. Several “Indy Comics” From Their Heyday
15. At Least One Comic Book From When You First Started Reading Comic Books
16. At Least One Comic That Failed to Finish The Way It Planned To
17. Some Osamu Tezuka
18. The Entire Run Of At Least One Manga Series
19. One Or Two 1970s Doonesbury Collections
20. At Least One Saul Steinberg Hardcover
21. One Run of A Comic Strip That You Yourself Have Clipped
22. A Selection of Comics That Interest You That You Can’t Explain To Anyone Else
23. At Least One Woodcut Novel
24. As Much Peanuts As You Can Stand
25. Maus
26. A Significant Sample of R. Crumb’s Sketchbooks
27. The original edition of Sick, Sick, Sick.
28. The Smithsonian Collection Of Newspaper Comics
29. Several copies of MAD
30. A stack of Jack Kirby 1970s Comic Books
31. More than a few Stan Lee/Jack Kirby 1960s Marvel Comic Books
32. A You’re-Too-High-To-Tell Amount of Underground Comix
33. Some Calvin and Hobbes
34. Some Love and Rockets
35. The Marvel Benefit Issue Of Coober Skeber
36. A Few Comics Not In Your Native Tongue
37. A Nice Stack of Jack Chick Comics
38. A Stack of Comics You Can Hand To Anybody’s Kid
39. At Least A Few Alan Moore Comics
40. A Comic You Made Yourself
41. A Few Comics About Comics
42. A Run Of Yummy Fur
43. Some Frank Miller Comics
44. Several Lee/Ditko/Romita Amazing Spider-Man Comic Books
45. A Few Great Comics Short Stories
46. A Tijuana Bible
47. Some Weirdo
48. An Array Of Comics In Various Non-Superhero Genres
49. An Editorial Cartoonist’s Collection or Two
50. A Few Collections From New Yorker Cartoonists

Not too bad, eh? But it looks like I need some work and some more cash. Thanks, Tom!