Luke Skywalker – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Carmine Infantino & Gene Day — Leia & Luke, Buried Alive!

May 12, 2022 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Star Wars Weekly #109 (UK), March 1980

Here’s a classic era Star Wars page featuring pencils from Carmine Infantino with inks from Gene Day.

It’s from a Star Wars story written by fan-favorite Chris Claremont, which ended up without a logical place in the timeline, as Marvel couldn’t fully predict when Lucasfilm would permit story insight and scheduling approval related to events of Empire Strikes Back.

Infantino drew many of the Star wars stories that appeared in between New Hope and ESB, and many after as well, but this odd continuity duck” didn’t make into the U.S. comics.

Instead, it ends up in Marvels Star Wars Weekly, a combination of “new” and reprint material.

The weekly format featured shorter stories, more serialized, making them even closer in spirit to Lucas’ favorite SF, the classic Flash Gordon serials. Perfect for titles like “Molten Doom!” and “Buried Alive!”

And, except for a slot in an oddball licensed Marvel book collection, the story remained un-reprinted for more than 30 years, until Dark Horse included it in one of its Omnibus collections. (And now, it’s been reprinted twice by Marvel, so it’s a bit easier to find.)

John Cassaday — May The 4th Be With You

May 4, 2022 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Star Wars #2, April 2015

Well, it’s May, that time of year when thoughts turn to… Star Wars.

Here we have a great page by superstar artist John Cassaday, depicting the very first time Luke and Darth Vader confront each other in the “new”(current) Star Wars continuity.

This story takes place shortly after the (first) Death Star is blown to bits in “A New Hope.” Luke does not know that Vader is his pop, and Vader does not realize that Luke is the rebel that was responsible for said Death Star going “boom.”

Heh. Much to learn, they both have.

It’s the 45^th anniversary of Star Wars this month, and perhaps more significantly, the release of yet some more backstory revision with the launch of the new Obi-Wan Television series later this month.

That’s really more of an observation than a knock, but I really hope the show is narratively clever. Because no one (honestly, no one) thought that Obi-Wan would have logically fought Vader yet again. One of them should have been not just toasted, but complete toast.

But of course, let’s see how this all plays out.

In the meantime, we’ve got a full slate of Star Wars posts for the rest of the month.

May The 4th be with you.

Mike Deodato / Andrew Pepoy — Family Feud

December 8, 2019 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Pencil Commission, Undated (Inks, 2019)

Continuing our countdown to Star Wars:The Rise of Skywalker, opening December 20, and concluding, apparently, the Skywalker saga.

I discovered this dynamic undated commission by Mike Deodato a few months ago. Something about it — the composition, Luke’s face, the overall “loose” style — reminded me of Carmine Infantino’s enjoyable run on the original Marvel series 40 years ago.

When I acquired the piece at NYCC, it was pencils only, and although it looked great, my gut told me to get it inked. (Sadly, my guts often have opinion.)

Fortunately, my pal Andrew Pepoy, the talented inker, happened to be nearby. Turns out, he always wanted to ink the late Infantino, and well, maybe this is the next best thing…

He nailed it — keeping the looseness intact, while adding polish and more depth to make it pop. (Look at Luke’s Lightsaber against Vader’s cape for instance.) This is especially impressive because the pencils were created on an odd thin paper stock, nothing like the more typical Bristol board artists employ. Definitely not an easy task.

Carmine’s run comes during the period leading up to to Empire Strikes Back, and I’m sure Lucasfilm was giving Marvel and writer Archie Goodwin fits, keeping them from, well, just about any story element that would spoil the film. Which is… well…. just about everything. Nerveless, they manage to have a few confrontations between Luke and Vader. Even if, of course, nothing is what it seems.

As for this Deodato piece? Mike’s modern Star Wars (see below) art looks nothing like this commission — someday I hope to get the backstory on the art. Until then… stay tuned.