Darth Vader is squeezing your heart with the force on the cover of Star Wars: Blood Ties – Boba Fett is Dead #3.

The time-lapse video of this cover being made by Chris Scalf can be viewed right here. It’s well worth a watch. Chris Scalf’s time-lapse videos are a kind of magic.

As brilliant as this cover is, I have to say the cover to issue #2 is my favorite. I can’t wait until people get a look at that one.

I received this in an email earlier this week from the organizer of the Stan Lee Excelsior Award.

“I am pleased to inform you that STAR WARS: BLOOD TIES has been nominated for the final shortlist of eight titles and, as such, will be winging its way into over 60 secondary school libraries across the UK!”

Forbidden Planet and Comic Book Resources started reporting it overnight and I thought this was a good note from CBR.

“Here’s what’s interesting about this shortlist: It reflects what tweens and teens are actually reading, as opposed to what the adult gatekeepers think they should be reading.”

I’ve also been invited to the Awards Ceremony in Sheffield next year. I don’t think I’ll be able to make that… but it’s very nice to be invited.

I think this is a fantastic initiative.

“The overall goal of this scheme is to encourage reading amongst teenagers. However, its secondary target is to raise the profile of graphic novels and manga amongst school librarians and teachers. This storytelling medium has been a largely underused resource within education for many years. The Stan Lee Excelsior Award attempts to highlight some of the amazing books that are out there - books that fully deserve to be in our school libraries alongside regular fiction!”

Using Graphic Novels to promote literacy is an absolute no-brainer. Providing subject matter that young people actually find engaging, obviously encourages reading. This was in my thoughts during the creation of The Deep: Here be Dragons and I’ve had a number of parents let me know that they’ve bought this book to encourage reading skills in their children.

Thank you to everyone involved in this Award. Star Wars: Blood Ties is a book that Chris Scalf and I are very proud of, and we’re both very happy to see it’s inclusion in such a worthwhile program.

Boba Fett and literacy. What a combination.

You can get Star Wars: Blood Ties through Amazon right here. And you can check out the Stan Lee Excelsior Award Nominees here – ‘Nuff said.

And here’s a picture of me and Stan from the Lucasfilm party in San Diego earlier this year.

Star Wars: Blood Ties – Boba Fett is Dead

Established Star Wars writer Tom Taylor is back with another stunning Blood Ties series to be released in April 2012.

“Boba Fett is dead. The most infamous hunter in the galaxy has been hunted. He’s lying, broken, on the desert floor. He’s more blaster-holes than man. It’s the ultimate ending. However, this is just the start of our story. With the fall of Fett broadcast across the galaxy, someone rises to avenge him. But who would care about the death of a man like Fett? Bounty hunters aren’t exactly known for their enduring, close friendships but even a man like Boba Fett has family… and now a Blood Tie demands blood.” -Tom Taylor

Yes, the artwork for ‘Star Wars: Blood Ties – Boba Fett is Dead’ has been unveiled as part of the media release. And here it is!

There was no art in the first announcement over at IGN overnight, which prompted me to do this.

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In other news, ‘The Deep: Here Be Dragons’ is sold out AGAIN on Amazon.  If you’re a fan of my Star Wars work, please do check out this book about the adventures of a multi-ethnic family of underwater explorers who live on a submarine. It’s available from the official website for $9.95, it has had rave reviews and I’m very proud of it. Cheers!

Check Out 'The Deep: Here Be Dragons'

Chris Scalf worked with me on Star Wars Blood Ties, and is the current cover artist on Star Wars: Invasion – bringing you insane covers like this.

Chris and I are working on a couple of things that are yet to be announced but one thing that HAS been announced is our upcoming creator-owned series, Voice of a Dragon.

Just posting an image would be an injustice when watching him create the work is a kind of magic. You can tell this by the amount of hits on his youtube channel. With Voice of a Dragon on its way, I figured this Fine Art Friday should be used to show why Chris Scalf is absolutely the man for a dragon story.

Thank you to every single person picking up my books.

My next upcoming Graphic Novel is – The Deep: Here be Dragons on August 4 – If you like my Star Wars books, you’ll love this… and if you don’t like my Star Wars books, you’ll still love this.  Tell everyone. Buy this book. Diamond order code JUN11 1131.

Yes, the trade paperback of Star Wars: Blood Ties is out this week.  It’s not often that I go out of my way to read my own work but I am kind of excited to see this one in its collected glory.  I’m still very happy with this story (which is a rare thing) and I hope I get a chance very soon to add to the Blood Ties series along with the genius that is Chris Scalf.  Go get this. Lend it to your friends.

Star Wars: Blood Ties—A Tale of Jango and Boba Fett

“Taylor seems poised to add some real depth to this enigmatic bounty hunter without sacrificing his cooler qualities. Whether in revisiting Jango’s death from Boba’s point of view or showcasing his bounty hunting methods, Taylor offers a lot for Fett fans to enjoy in this series.” - IGN

“Writer Tom Taylor has roped us into the story from the beginning, and his illumination of the forces at play in these characters’ lives is not only intriguing; it seems to touch on a universal familial truth. There is an almost scientific way to see that Blood Ties is a successful story: In it, Taylor has taken to illuminating aspects of one this fictional universe’s most mysterious characters. In the end, however, the mystery of the character has been only multiplied. It would be overly dramatic for me to say that Blood Ties is the Citizen Kane of Star Wars comics. However, I can’t deny that I found myself comparing the two works in my head as I read this final issue.” – THE SCI-FI BLOCK

“Writer Tom Taylor has roped us into the story from the beginning, and his illumination of the forces at play in these characters’ lives is not only intriguing; it seems to touch on a universal familial truth. There is an almost scientific way to see that Blood Ties is a successful story: In it, Taylor has taken to illuminating aspects of one this fictional universe’s most mysterious characters. In the end, however, the mystery of the character has been only multiplied. It would be overly dramatic for me to say that Blood Ties is the Citizen Kane of Star Wars comics. However, I can’t deny that I found myself comparing the two works in my head as I read this final issue.” – THE SCI-FI BLOCK

“At times, this comic book had a couple of laugh out loud moments making the story stay away from the typical deadly serious Boba Fett story. But fear not, there are plenty of Boba being a badass moments if that’s what you are looking for in this comic… it tells a story that entertained me and got me interested in characters I previously had little interest in before. It doesn’t hurt to have some witty dialogue and some terrific artwork. I guess you could also say I am a sucker for endings with a twist. It’s tough to come across a good original trilogy comic book story but this one is even better than good. I definitely recommend this comic and series. 4.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles” – COMIC LIST

The ‘End of Year Comic Awards‘ over at NFAMOUS.NET have given ‘Best Miniseries’ to Star Wars: Blood Ties, which was also nominated for ‘Best Limited Series or One Shot’ over at COMICBOOKED.COM “…this piece is truly perfect. Perfect in art, perfect in literature, and perfect in Star Wars. Also, Boba Fett takes down a rancor.” – COMICBOOKED.COM

‘The best Damn Comics of 2010′ over at the ‘The Daily Cross Hatch’ also saw The Example get some love.

A huge year of writing comics has come to an end and I decided to do a bit of a review… then I changed my mind and just made a collage – a visual representation of how much sleep I missed last year.

Yep, all of these books came out in 2010 – that’s two for every month.

A huge thanks to all of the people I was lucky enough to work with in 2010

Thanks to all of the artists – Colin Wilson, Chris Scalf, Al Barrionuevo, Mike S Miller, Skye Ogden, Daxiong, Brian Koschak, James Brouwer, Wes Dzioba, Mike Heisler and Em Smith.

To my wonderful editors – Randy Stradley, Jim Chadwick, Wolfgang Bylsma, Freddye Lins, Kristy Quinn, Gary Edwards, Shannon Eric Denton and Ben Abernathy.

To the ridiculous wealth of cover artists – Jo Chen, Dave Gibbons, Kevin Nowlan, Philip Tan, Pete Woods,  Howard Porter, Chris Sprouse, Tim Seeley, Sean McNally and Jeremy Raapack.

And of course, an enormous thank you to every single person who read my books in 2010.  THANK YOU!

This year is already looking enormous, with a pile of work due for publication and some hints of more big gigs in the pipeline – 2011 preview post coming soon…

Star Wars: Blood Ties seems to be a bit of a critical success and issue #1 sold almost as many copies the month after it came out as it did in the first month, which is a very good sign. The story continues here.  More is revealed about Connor Freeman, and Boba Fett gets to show off his wonderful toys.

Meanwhile, so much of Star Wars: Invasion has been leading up to this single issue.  There have been some wild theories from fans about the secrets of this series.  Some of those ‘ridiculous’ theories may be proven true in this issue (sorry, some of those ridiculous theories will remain ridiculous).  This is the issue that should have more people talking than ever before…

STAR WARS: BLOOD TIES—A TALE OF JANGO AND BOBA FETT #3 (of 4)
Tom Taylor (W) and Chris Scalf (A/Cover)
On sale Oct 27
FC, 40 pages
$3.50
Miniseries
Boba Fett has discovered that his father left a legacy to someone Boba has never heard of. He manages to track down the man, but if he is to learn the reasons behind Jango’s posthumous generosity, Boba Fett must first save the man from an army of bounty hunters who want the guy’s head!
Jango Fett and Boba Fett together!

STAR WARS: INVASION—RESCUES #5 (of 6)
Tom Taylor (W), Colin Wilson (A), Wes Dzioba (C), and Jo Chen (Cover)
On sale Oct 27
FC, 40 pages
$2.99
Miniseries
Kaye Galfridian has taken command of a New Republic army, but her first mission has forced her to fight against some of the very refugees she has come to rescue! Mutated by Yuuzhan Vong bioengineering, the refugees have become monstrous killing machines who can only be “saved” by death.
Meanwhile, on their homeworld of Artorias, Kaye’s brother Finn must deal with death on another level, unaware that he has become the enemy’s objective in a new front in the Yuuzhan Vong invasion!
• Set within the time frame of the New Jedi Order novels from Del Rey!
The price of Victory . . .

This is getting quite crazy.  Newsarama’s amazing praise of The Example last week (where they said “this book should be used in writing classes everywhere, and should be the primary example (no pun intended) for aspiring comic writers to reference when trying to learn how to write dramatic and compelling dialogue.”) on top of all the good reviews for Star Wars: Blood Ties #1, including CBR’S 4.5 star review, has been topped.

The Example has received even more praise from various sources and Star Wars: Blood Ties #2 has picked up that extra half-a-star in a 5 star review at CBR, as well as some nice words from IGN and others.

THE EXAMPLE

“Brief Cases, late trains, and small talk add up to what is probably the best comic of the year!“ “Taylor and Wilson collaborate to create one of the most tension filled comics I have ever read.” - THE OUTHOUSE.COM

“as effing good as the accolades suggest.” – BROKEN FRONTIER

STAR WARS: BLOOD TIES #2

“It’s a natural flow of story, reflecting upon how the past has fueled the present. The two tales come crashing together at the end of this issue, setting up an exciting story for the remainder of this series. 5 stars” - CBR

“Taylor seems poised to add some real depth to this enigmatic bounty hunter without sacrificing his cooler qualities. Whether in revisiting Jango’s death from Boba’s point of view or showcasing his bounty hunting methods, Taylor offers a lot for Fett fans to enjoy in this series.” - IGN

“This comic is awesome. Go out and buy it.” - THE SCI-FI BLOC