Gabriel has been largely inconsolable since he heard about this new Star Wars television series. I told him because I thought it would make him happy, but he's so accustomed to the current Star Wars dosage schedule that he has no mechanism with which to grapple this bounty. I think he's mostly afraid that the realities of television will creep in at the edges of that revered context.

The "property" still resonates with me, but the period where it was sacrosanct has been over for a while. The depredations it has faced at the hands of its rightful owner have been so pronounced that I can't imagine what greater horrors Gabriel imagines await the televised iteration. George Lucas didn't just announce one series, though - he announced two. There is another.

You are, of course, intimately familiar with the Clone Wars series they air on the Cartoon Network. Indeed, it would not surprise me if you had gone to far as to obtain the first season of the program collected on convenient Digital Versatile Disc. The Lucas speech I referred to before calls that series a kind of "pilot," and promises a 3D animated series built from episodes of thirty minute duration.

When they began to yoke the period between Episode II and Episode III to haul great sleds of merchandise to retail, I exhibited a wry smirk. They had discovered a way to make money from the not movie they hadn't made. Now, the corridor that runs the gap of those films is where I have the greatest emotional investment. I'm aware that PC Gamer gave Republic Commando a 62%, but I think it's because they don't know which numbers correlate to what amounts. I am prepared to say that I await further communiques from Delta Squad, in whatever way seems best to the Lucasfilm Empire. The filthy parts of the Star Wars universe, the implied things - spice runs, smuggler networks, crime families - have always been my delight. Republic Commando suggests a possible way forward in this vein: the gritty war flick.

Picture it executed as a pulp serial, "filmed" in close, and intimate. I don't know if you recall the program Tour Of Duty, but if you need a model there it is. I believe that a science-fiction story executed in this fashion would be irresistible even to a mainstream audience. It's not that those people don't like sci-fi, it's that sci-fi as it manifests itself in television programs is people talking about grand shit in the future equivalent of a cafe. I don't know if it's television budgets or what, but I'd imagine that people sitting at a space table is pretty cheap. There is a lot of room for an action-oriented war serial with characters who aren't immortal and more occasional intrusions of the supernatural elements of the Star Wars universe.

(CW)TB out.

take it out on me

When I was grabbing the Serenity trailer yesterday, I noticed another snip up there as I continually refreshed the page - a preview for something called "Night Watch," an upcoing Russian series which bills itself as an epic horror trilogy.

And what should I see at Evil Avatar today but a series of screens for a PC Tactical RPG from Nival (<3) which appears to be based on the same license. I hope this is lurking in some dark corner at E3.

(CW)TB

The disparity between our working areas could not be more pronounced. Observe how Gabriel gets it done:

Now, behold the sort of area that inspires any given newspost around here:

I have also provided annotated versions if you are interested, both for Gabriel's area and for my own.

(CW)TB

You might have seen that slice of Merch on my "desk" over on the right side of my photo above - that was hand-made by Cathy Keeble and given to us at SakuraCon. I have a number of one-of-a-kind items of this sort that should be given a greater degree of exposure on the site, I'd imagine. That is the new policy.

(CW)TB

I'm not dead, just busy. I'm working on some new advertisements for the page. We also just wrapped up a one page comic for Empire Earth II that you should see soon. Then I've got to crack out the cover for our next book. After we settled our legal bullshit we were free to sign with a new publisher and that publisher is, drum roll please...Dark Horse! That's right, Dark Horse will be making books and toys for us. How fucking awesome is that? Expect more announcements as we get closer to the San Diego comic con.

I've been playing lots of Psychonauts and I think it's fantastic. It feels good to play a game that makes you laugh for a change.

Also I just moved into a new place last week and I still have no internets at home. It makes me ill.

-Gabe out

New images from the PSP version of Hot Shots hit a couple days ago, and I had to place a cotton ball under my tongue just to absorb the excess saliva. I'm still quite enamored of the hardware, taking advantage of it daily for purposes which are wholly my own. After Hot Shots though, there's not a lot I'm interested in personally until middle of summer or so - and then again in October, when you hardly have a moment to think between releases.

(CW)TB