Lit Third Essential Guide to Characters (formerly "Who would you want to see . . . ?")

What, you didn't see the preview art?

 

Should have just stuck to the 2012 release date.

 

There's lots of characters that I was looking forward to learning about.

Hopefully they'll let Dan Wallace finish things up on his blog, and if not, hopefully NEGTC will stay in print.

 

You think your blog is safe?
It is an illusion.
A comforting lie, told to protect you.
Enjoy these final moments of peace.

 

I wonder if we'll ever see a new essential guide.

 

Agreed. With the caveat that I know zero about the behind-the-scenes so this is just me ranting:

Since these are never 100% up to date--publishing lead times being what they are--the temptation is always to wait until after the Next Big Project so it can be included. But there's always another Next Big Project, so they end up getting pushed back and pushed back and maybe abandoned. Which is frustrating. Seems better to put out what they had, call it a day, and then start work on the Episode VII-IX edition as a separate entity.

I like to think some of it will resurface on the SW.com blog or something, just so it wasn't a total waste of development money and time, but that's more wishful thinking than anything.

 

This would have been so fitting as the final essential guide considering that the first essential guide was to characters.

 

Is there any real question that the ludicrous delays were entirely due to Wheatley?

To which I'll add an unpopular opinion: I don't think he's the Greatest Artist Ever like everyone else here seems to, and his inability to get anything done even remotely on time is pretty unprofessional and it would have gotten Dark Times canceled if it wasn't the DH editor's pet project.

 

He is a pretty great artist but I agree it doesn't make sense that the world stops turning for him.

 

I doubt they would Sithcan an entire book because of art delays. They'd add a second artist, or simply replace him.

 

I don't think they cancelled the book because of the art delays, the art delays kept pushing the book back enough that it didn't come out until after the Episode 7 announcement and by that point was already scheduled to come out after the movie, which means that it not only wouldn't include any movie characters but a lot of its content would probably be for a continuity that no longer existed.

 

Gotcha. But 50-100 character illustrations can't be much more volume than an issue or two of Dark Times, surely? So that may have been a factor, but I still suspect the delays were more the result of (as Dan already discovered with the Atlas and the Complete Encyclopedia) an all-encompassing project like this taking a lot longer than you initially expect, especially when stuff keeps coming out while you're writing it.

 

Yeah, whatever happens to this thing, I'm not remotely prepared to blame Wheatley.

 

Oh I'm totally blaming that guy. I already blame him for my late homework assignments.

"Why was the report late? Well, Wheatley didn't finish the diagrams yet..."

 

Ooooooh. I should totally use that for my Latin translations.

 

Why though? I don't get it.

Release the one that's almost ready now, and then two or three years later release another one with information from the new movies and TV series and comics and novels. You make more money that way.

I just don't get it.

 

Because the characters covered in this won't be the same ones seen on movie screens.

 

Obviously, since the film apparently hasn't got a shooting script yet. That's why there is going to be a book with the new characters further down the line. I still see no reason not to publish this book before the film is released. They'd get to sell an extra book on SW characters, a book money has already been spent on.

 

Okay, I will put it this way then. The EU is dead and Lucasfilm/Disney don't want the confusion of this book being on the shelves. It's harsh but it is the reality we now face.

 

I wonder if all the other books will go out of print too.

 

Nothing will go out of print as long as it can make a profit.

 

This book presumably could have made a profit. Unless the EGs are love letters to the fans subsidized by the novels.

 

Yeah well, the point is it may never go to print. I understand the allure of apocalypticism, but it can go too far. Whatever the case may be about the future of SW tie-ins, they won't stop printing stuff that sells. Splinter of the bloody Mind's Eye is still in print, for god's sakes, and for a long, long time, so shall be all Star Wars books.

 

Aren't all of Dark Horse's books going out of print at the end of the year?