Lucasfilm put together a High Republic Panel at Portsmouth Comic Con in the U.K. over the weekend that was moderated by Michael Siglain, Creative Director for Publishing at Lucasfilm, and included authors Cavan Scott and George Mann as well as comic artists Nick Brokenshire (one of my personal favorites) and Rachael Stott.
First off, I want to give a huge shoutout to @fanthatracks for live tweeting the panel on X.
During that panel, they revealed a few variant covers but the biggest news was the announcement of a new comic 4-part mini-series from Dark Horse Comics called Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Dispatches from the Occlusion Zone.
And if you’re new to the High Republic the Occlusion Zone is a walled off part of the Galaxy that is controlled by a group called the Nihil. It’s *nearly* impossible to get in or out of this zone. Here’s an illustration of the Occlusion zone from a recent High Republic Adventures comic.
This mini-series will be a series of short stories from our favorite High Republic characters as they navigate the Nihil Occlusion Zone. The stories will be written by a combination of Daniel Jose Older (High Republic Adventures), Alyssa Wong (Doctor Aphra), and Cavan Scott (Marvel High Republic comics).
The cover for issue one (and hopefully more) is by Jake Bartok. Jake rules and I’m really happy to see him get the work for this.
To me, it sounds like this will be similar to the Star Wars Adventures: Tales from Vader’s Castle series that Cavan Scott did with IDW Comics between 2018-2021.
Side note: All of the Vader’s Castle comics are finally being collected in a single hardcover book called Star Wars: Vader’s Castle – Deluxe Library Edition this September. I like them quite a bit for all ages comics.
This announcement comes on the heels of Lucasfilm and Dark Horse Comics announcing a new Darth Ravi focused mini-series called Star Wars: The High Republic – Echoes of Fear that kicks off in August 2024.
Should be a lot of fun. Phase III has not hit for me like Phase I of the High Republic did but I am very interested to see how they tie everything together. There are a TON of stories in phase III and you’d expect to see the plots start converging sooner than later.
I think Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Dispatches from the Occlusion Zone will be a great place to tie up rogue storylines that don’t perfectly fit in the main comic book runs or novels.
For light and life my friends!
Grand Admiral Frik
