Really beyond the Hyperspace Stories maxiseries, Dark Horse’s comics output has largely been about The High Republic Adventures and its various spin-offs and one-shots, and while there was plenty of news and previews galore of the various storylines (like Alyssa Wong is writing an upcoming one-shot) at this year’s NYCC panel, new, non-THRA content was focused on as well, including a Poe Dameron miniseries! Head below for first looks and all the details!
Hosted by Lucasfilm Publishing Creative Director Michael Siglain, the Dark Horse panel featured Daniel Jose Older, Harvey Tolibao, Rachel Stott, Alyssa Wong, and a surprise appearance by Ethan Sacks to announce his new series. Thanks to live-tweeter ArezouAmin again for the minute to minute coverage, while here’s the link to the now update official site coverage.
NON-HIGH REPUBLIC COMICS
One of the biggest bits of new news of the night was the reveal of Ethan Sacks’ (Bounty Hunters) upcoming Poe Dameron miniseries! Set before The Force Awakens, it’ll find the hot-shot pilot on a super secret mission, alongside his trusty sidekick, BB-8! Poe’s previous comic series, an on-going from Marvel that was written by Charles Soule, ran far longer than it originally intended thanks to fans supporting it, though it also focused on the character’s exploits prior to the film, as did Star Wars Resistance to some degree. Where and how will this all fit in? I’m eager to learn more about it and love seeing the sequel trilogy get some attention again in the comics, though I’d have wished this was set maybe between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker or even post-sequel trilogy, but I’ll take more Poe where we can get it! No release date or the artist was announced, but we’ll get more info soon!
Outside of the Poe comic, the panel reminded us about Dark Horse’s original graphic novels spinning out of their Hyperspace Stories series, which will center on nine different characters from various writers and artists, by revealing a first preview and new covers. Originally announced in October 2023, with the first issue expected to hit shelves in April 2024, Hyperspace Stories: Qui-Gon (George Mann writing, with art by Andrea Mutti and Gigi Baldassini) is now expected for a March 2025 release and seeing the first preview above really does give me hope it won’t be delayed anymore. They included covers for General Grievous, written by Michael Moreci, and Justina Ireland’s Mace Windu entry as well, all done by Michael Cho.
Lastly, they brought up the recently announced The Bad Batch: Ghost Agents miniseries, written by Moreci, again, with the tease we’ll learn about the guest villain soon…
THE HIGH REPUBLIC COMICS
Nothing quite like a giant connecting variant series for the final issues of The High Republic Adventures – Phase III, drawn of course by the always mesmerizing Harvey Tolibao, to really help sink in how near the end is for the series and era as a whole. Issues #14-17 needed such epic scale not only because the series totally deserves it from its brilliant run through each Phase, but because it’s all been building to the big Battle of Eriadu storyline. The event is so big, there are two tie-ins: first, newly announced at the panel is The Battle of Eriadu One-shot by Alyssa Wong, which judging by the cover, will star Driggit Parse and Jedi youngling Gavi, both stars of Wong and Older’s Escape from Valo, and cover the cost of revenge and letting go…. don’t think we’ll be mentally ready for that one!; and at the Lucasfilm Publishing Panel, the upcoming Star Wars Insider shorts by Lydia Kang will take place during the battle as well! But it won’t be all battles in THRA…
…as there’s a Wedding Spectacular to enjoy!! As you can see above, another Tolibao masterpiece, with basically any and all characters who have appeared in the main THRA series together and looking dressed to the nines for Lula Talisola and Zeen Mrala’s nuptials! Sian Holt and Emerick Caphtor looking like they are on a date, Dexter Jettster showing four armed suits can be quite impressive, and many more wonderful characters together and looking fancy. The issue is currently scheduled for a December 18 release and I’m so hyped for this slow burn story to reach this wonderful conclusion before the big Battle of Eriadu takes over.
They brought a lot of previews for upcoming issues of Dispatches from the Occlusion Zone, a four-issue miniseries with different writer/artist teams focuses on different characters, a big thing in Phase III to give everyone a chance to shine before this all wraps up. Issue #1 came out in early October and was a solid start and these previews make it look like it’ll only get better from here. Above is the preview for issue #2, slates for release November 27, written by Alyssa Wong with art by Valeria “Lux” Favoccia, and will focus on Driggit Parse, who finds one of the EX droids Jedi Master Elzar Mann sends into the Stormwall, former Jedi Ruu, a character Wong created in Tales of Light and Life, and of course Crash Ongwa and her team. And while they didn’t upload high quality images from the panel, Older’s third issue of the series also got interiors revealed, which is art done by Lucas Marangon (who has been teasing art on his Instagram account) and it’s currently releasing on December 18. It’ll star Emerick Cahptor and Nihil scientist Niv Drendow Apruk in a buddy-cop adventure!
But we did get the HQ images of Dispatches from the Occlusion Zone #4, Cavan Scott’s issue with art by Vincenzo Riccardi, set to release January 22, 2025. It stars Ty Yorrick and Drewen, her new apprentice, in a story set after the events of her miniseries, Saber for Hire, which just came to an amazing end earlier in October. Somehow, Ty will be forced to work with Lourna Dee of all people and those two grumps (Saber for Hire artist Stott was on hand to talk about enjoying drawing the grumpy Ty) together should provide quite the story!
Lastly, they teased additional stories for the upcoming January 22, 2025 release: The High Republic Adventures Annual 2025. At the Lucasfilm Publishing Panel, we learned about Charles & Rosemary Soule’s story about their younglings from Jedi Brave in Every Way, while Zoraida Cordova’s story is about Churo the Hutt on a quest. At the Dark Horse panel, we got a glimpse at more stories, though they only provided HQ looks at the one above: Justina Ireland’s Vernestra Rwoh story, which is a flashback to before Phase I, as we get a story with her and Stellan Gios!! Alyssa Wong and Liana Kangas are covering one about, you should be able to guess it by now, Driggit Parse, but she’s teaming up with a teenager to take down the Nihil?! And Cavan Scott, with Nick Brokenshire on art, will have a Baron Boolan story, which is fitting on so many fronts.
That wraps it up for this year’s Dark Horse panel! I really liked how we got some non-The High Republic Adventures news, as while I love the series and all its connected stories, it’ll be over soon and Dark Horse needed to start teasing what else it could bring to the series.
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Bluesky, Twitter @MynockManor, and Instagram @mynockmanor.