UPDATED: Dark Empire Hardcover is indeed in stores now!
So continuing the lack of “new printed” material this week, all we have is last Friday’s Blood of the Empire #11, and yesterday’s release of The Clone Wars webcomic that coincides with Season 3 of the hit television show. And that sneaky Dark Empire Trilogy Hardcover.
Now, you might see it rumored that the Dark Empire hardcover is out this week, but that’s because it’s on the shipping list. (It’s hard to follow, we know.) If you follow Dark Horse Comics, they show it being released on the 22rd of this month, while Amazon still shows it being released on the 28th. Either way, it managed to make its way to my local comic store today. It can get difficult following comic releases when many sites don’t keep up to date with the release/shipping dates, and differing dates are given by different sellers. In the past we’ve seen many releases that should have came out on a date, and yet they didn’t. This is not the first time either, that a comic has arrived before it was scheduled. The Hardcover contains Dark Empire I and Dark Empire II, as well as Empire’ End, and the Dark Empire Handbook. So enjoy it when things like this happen, and rush out and get your copy before someone else beats you to it.
And if you can’t get the funds for the Dark Empire Hardcover, or already have the series, take advantage of this lull and take the EUCast pledge to catch up on your Free Webcomics, both The Old Republic and The Clone Wars! Who can beat free after all?
Don’t have your copy yet? Click the link below.
Blood of the Empire #11 (free webcomic)
Clone Wars: The Valsedian Operation #1 (free webcomic)
Mark Hurliman is a writer and news reporter for EUCantina. He joined the website in 2010, around the same time that he became a host of our official podcast, EUCast. Mark's status as a "defender of the EU" has made him a popular guest on various Star Wars podcasts. He lives in Oregon with his wife and two children.
Mark's favorite Star Wars novel is Star by Star, but he has had the pleasure of reading nearly every existing Star Wars novel or comic. 
Yet, according to Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc release listing for this week (the source which all comic fans use as they distribute not only DHC material but also Marvel, DC, IDW, etc to comic book stores across the US), Dark Empire Trilogy hardcover was shipped this week for sale on 15th September.
Yeah it’s so hard to nail down one date when everyone’s list date is different from the rest. The junior Clone Wars novels are like that the most aside from comics that is.
I know how hard it can be to keep track of release dates, as well as US release dates, I also have to keep track of UK ones as well, and when using retailers such as Amazon (US & UK), B&N and BaM it’s not made any easier for us when publishers’ dates can sometimes conflict with retailers, eg RH and DHC.
But while retailers’ dates may not be accurate all the time, the one thing with Diamond is that they are a distributor, not a retailer, so their shipping list tends to be accurate (usually 99.9% accurate).