Aaron Allston announced on his official site that he has written a new Clone Wars short story slated to be published in Star Wars Insider #73. The issue ships to subscribers on December 23rd, and reaches newsstands on January 13th of next year.

The story, titled League of Spies, features Joram Kithe, the hero from Allston's first Clone Wars story, The Pengalan Tradeoff.

"[League of Spies is] kind of a sequel to The Pengalan Tradeoff, but you don't need to have read that to read this," said Vic Wertz of Paizo Publishing on starwars.com's forums.

Got news or questions? E-mail us at Clonewars@starwarz.com. Discuss these stories at The Galactic Senate.

As many of you know, starwars.com pulled a fast one on us late yesterday evening by unveiling their new Clone Wars section - and it looks pretty spiffy, I might add. It includes a timeline, a databank, checklists for books and toys, a countdown screensaver, links to Cartoon Network's Clone Wars content, and a useful schedule for the CWAS. With the excitement over the CWAS being pretty high right now, there's loads of new info to be released in the near and distant future. Looks like we'll have an "official" vessel for the Clone Wars from now on...but, never fear - we'll continue to bring you the cool Clone Wars content from the fan's perspective here at the "unofficial" Clone Wars site.

As part of the new Clone Wars section at starwars.com, a timeline was added. Of course we had to check it out and we saw some new stuff in there. BOBA FETT #5: A NEW THREAT will be penned by Elizabeth Hand and is scheduled for a Janurary 4, 2003 release. Click HERE to read a brief synopsis of the story.

We reported last week that REPUBLIC #58, the final chapter in the BATTLE OF JABIIM saga, was pushed back to November 12th. Well, the new timeline at starwars.com suggest that the issue has been pushed back another week to November 19th. By our calulations, this makes the comic TWO months late. Oh, well. I'm sure Brian Ching and Haden Blackman are going to knock our socks off with this finale, so I'm not worried.

Finally, Vic Wertz, editor for Paizo Publishing, informed us that Paizo and LucasBooks has received a manuscript for a short story to hopefully be published in Star Wars Insider #73. He says that this story is set during the Clone Wars, but could not give further information since the manuscript is still unapproved...

Got news or questions? E-mail us at Clonewars@starwarz.com. Discuss these stories at The Galactic Senate.

I don't know where to begin. Last week there was a slew of CLONE WARS ANIMATED SERIES news popping up EVERYWHERE. I'll try to summarize all of these items for you. Kudos to TFN for jumping on most of these stories first.

Toon Zone has pretty much established itself as THE source for CWAS news and updates. They've posted lots of items over the past few weeks leading up to the show's premiere. Here's a rundown:

- Interview with producer Genndy Tartakovsky (with images)
- Review of the first 5 shows
- Clone Wars Character Bios and Sketches
- Clone Wars Schedule Announced

TFN and other fan sites have posted several promo-trailers for the CWAS. Hit the links below to download them:

- Clone Wars Cartoon Promo (Toonami UK)
- Clone Wars Cartoon Promo (Brazil)
- Second US Clone Wars Cartoon Promo

Finally, today marks the unveiling of PLANETARY FORCES, the new online game based on the CWAS. Check out the action over at cartoonnetwork.com by clicking HERE.

Got news or questions? E-mail us at Clonewars@starwarz.com. Discuss these stories at The Galactic Senate.

Entertainment Weekly recently published an article on the upcoming CLONE WARS ANIMATED SERIES. Here's a clip:

"We were given two new villains [the duel-lightsaber-weilding Asajj Ventress and the armored bounty hunter Durge] they wanted to see featured," art director Paul Rudish recalls of Lucas' directives.

The article also mentioned that we'll see a lightsaber(s) get built, and the Jedi's Force powers will be expanded upon, and it has a little pic of a duel between Anakin and Ventress. The show will also feature authentic STAR WARS sound effects and music.

Pick up last week's EW issue to read the article in its entirety. Thanks to "Jedi Jake" for the heads up! :P

Toon Zone has posted 8 new promotional images from the CWAS. Check them out - HERE.

The Official Site recently posted a breif synopsis for the upcoming Clone Wars novel, JEDI TRIAL. Scheduled for a November 2004 release, this hardcover is written by David Sherman and Dan Cragg. Click here to read all about it.

The Official Site also updated with info on REPUBLIC #61. It will be a more political story featuring Bail Organa and former Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum. This comic, by the Haden Blackman/Brian Ching duo, is scheduled for a January 21 release.

Included in the above update was cover art and a release date for CLONE WARS VOL. 3: THE LAST STAND ON JABIIM. Its scheduled for a February 25 ship date.

Also, for those interested, STAR WARS TALES VOL. 4 TPB will be released on January 21 as well. It features the Clone Wars stories (in TALES #14) TIDES OF TERROR and THE LESSON.

Dark Horse Comic's scheduling woes continue. Upon browsing the online listing of upcoming comics, pretty much all of DH's books have been pushed back. Here's a rundown of the new release dates for the Clone Wars comics:

• REPUBLIC #58 - November 12
• CLONE WARS VOL. 2 - November 26 (see note below)
• REPUBLIC #59 - November 26
• JEDI: DOOKU - November 26 (see note below)
• REPUBLIC #60 - December 10

As noted above, CLONE WARS VOL. 2: VICTORIES AND SACRIFICES has been pushed back to November 26th. I suspect the reason for this is the nifty new cover with Obi-Wan donning a lightsaber. It mirrors the cover for CLONE WARS VOL. 1 better than the original cover for VOL. 2 did (basically a rehash of REPUBLIC #52.)

Dark Horse has yet again pushed back the release date for JEDI: DOOKU. It was originally scheduled for a October 29th release, then as recently as last week, it was pushed back to November 12th, and now it is pushed even further back to November 26th. Jan Duursema did mentioned on TFN's boards that she had 7 pages left to pencil for the issue as of October 12th. With the quality of the previous JEDI issues, there really isn't much to complain about. :)

Finally, Randy Stradley posted on the Dark Horse message boards that the comic adaptation for the CWAS has been postponed. However, he did say that they plan to release a 5th JEDI comic (hopefully) in February 2004. Possible Jedi to be featured are Yoda, Kit Fisto, or Barriss Offee (who was originally planned to be featured in the 5th JEDI comic). The only thing is, JEDI #5 is not going to be done by the Ostrander/Duursema team that did the first 4 wonderful issues...

Got news or questions? E-mail us at Clonewars@starwarz.com. Discuss these stories at The Galactic Senate.

TUCWS recently spoke with Steven Barnes, the author of THE CESTUS DECEPTION. He gave us a few details and we dug up some additional info on the HoloNet:

• Obi-Wan Kenobi, Kit Fisto, and Asajj Ventress are main characters.
• The book is mainly from an ARC trooper's point of view.
• The story is thus: Baktoid Armors was hit hard after the battle of Naboo with regulations and had to cut back on factories, impacting their economy (see the HNN article, "Baktoid Closes Down Five More Plants" for background info). They responded by building a new type of Force-sensitive bio droid. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Kit Fisto, and a unit of ARC troopers are sent to investigate.

In other news, we also spoke with Aaron Allston recently. He mentioned that he might that have a new Clone Wars story published by March 2004.

Got news or questions? E-mail us at Clonewars@starwarz.com. Discuss these stories at The Galactic Senate.

Starwars.com posted the ever so elusive .pdf file for the three Clone Wars short stories that were given away at cons this past summer are being packaged with Clone Wars vehicles from Hasbro.

• STORM FLEET WARNINGS is by Jude Watson
• DUEL is by Timothy Zahn
• EQUIPMENT is by Matthew Stover

Download the short story collection HERE.

Also, cartoonnetwork.com has updated their Clone Wars site. You can check out four new images from the Clone Wars Animated Series, a countdown ticker to the show's premiere, as well as a free screen saver available for download. Click HERE to get in on the action.

Got news or questions? E-mail us at Clonewars@starwarz.com. Discuss these stories at The Galactic Senate.