I believe there actually is a Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina-style short story collection based around the denizens of Maz’s bar on the way. I don’t feel strongly one way or the other about it.
That actually makes perfect sense to me. I don’t mind the idea, but I’m skeptical about the writing.
Some of the already existing backstories to those characters seem kinda weird and silly.
(The Crimson Corsair is a pretty cool name though, has a bit of an early Marvel SW comics feel to it.)Also, are the “Tales…” stories still canon?
EDIT:
I assume that you were talking about this?; http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tales_From_a_Galaxy_Far,_Far_Away_Volume_I:_Aliens
That’s the one. Pretty sure it’s the Journey to The Force Awakens stories collected with a few new ones. I didn’t actually read the ones that have already been released, but I looked at some synopses and was interested enough that I’ll probably look at the collection when it’s out. Probably won’t spend money on it, but it may be worth the trip to the library.
Also, nothing before September 2014’s A New Dawn is canon except the films, the Clone Wars cartoon, and a 4-issue Darth Maul comic that was based on unproduced TCW scripts.