Here’s a Star Wars original cover that really stands on its own.
With modern comics, so much texture and atmosphere can be added digitally during production that the original art can sometimes end up looking pretty stripped down compared with the published cover.
Not here.
Aaron Kuder really finished this piece. The grey wash, splatter effects, lighting, and overall mood are already sitting on the board. The color certainly adds another dimension, but the original already feels complete, which makes the OA a knockout in person.
I don’t collect a ton of modern comic art, but every now and then something just clicks and breaks through my usual collecting habits.
And of course—I’ve always had a soft spot for Darth Vader.
Preliminary Art, Breaking Ground: Imperial Base, Moon of Endor Litho, Star Wars Celebration IV, 2012
If you’ve spent any serious time around Star Wars art over the last four decades, chances are you’ve spent time in the world of my buddy Dave Dorman.
For many fans, Dorman isn’t just a Star Wars artist—he’s one of the Star Wars painters.
From his stunning covers for Dark Horse Comics in the 1990s, to book covers, trading cards, posters, fine art, and official Lucasfilm commissions, Dave has helped define what Star Wars looks like for an entire generation.
And original Dorman Star Wars paintings aren’t exactly easy to come by. A fellow by the name of George Lucas acquired quite a few of them over the years… and the other collectors fortunate enough to own the others don’t tend to let them go.
The piece I’m sharing here isn’t the finished print fans saw in 2012.
It’s pretty obviously the preliminary—the original concept painting Dave created for his 2012 Star Wars Celebration VI limited edition print, Breaking Ground: Imperial Base, Moon of Endor.
And like many great prelims, you can almost see the ideas forming in real time—loose energy, compositional decisions, storytelling beats… all still wonderfully alive on the board.
When Dave first unveiled the finished piece on his blog back in 2012, fans naturally had questions—some about the Imperial Guards, some about the modified AT-STs, and yes… plenty about the Ewoks.
Fortunately, Dave answered them himself, and his comments offer a glimpse into how this scene came together:
Q: Dave, what was the original concept behindBreaking Ground?
Dave Dorman: I wanted to incorporate elements I enjoy—AT-STs, Ewoks, and especially the Biker Scouts, who I think of as the hot-rodders of the Imperial forces—in a scene that’s never actually been shown, but nonetheless plays out in my own theater of the mind.
Q: One of the first things people notice is Darth Vader flanked by Imperial Guards. Why?
Dave Dorman: First off, it was a compositional decision. I needed to draw your eye to Vader, and the bold red of the Imperial Guards against the cooler earth tones of the rest of the piece ensures he commands your attention. If he were simply standing among Stormtroopers, you might not notice him as readily.
Secondly, Vader is overseeing the Emperor’s construction of the second Death Star, so the Imperial Guards are there to ensure—and report back—that nothing is amiss on the Moon of Endor.
Q: The AT-STs here aren’t exactly standard issue…
Dave Dorman: The Moon of Endor is a forested planet, so naturally deforestation would be part of constructing an Imperial base camp.
In my mind’s eye, the AT-STs made perfect sense as laborers because of their strength and adaptability. After all, the “AT” stands for “All Terrain,” so I replaced their heavy gun arrays with claws.
Q: And yes… those are Ewoks.
Dave Dorman: Over the years, I’d had literally hundreds of fans ask me to paint Ewoks, so this piece was my tip of the hat to them.
Obviously the Ewoks would resist the Empire’s intrusion, so in this scene they’re creating chaos… and getting arrested.
It took me a minute to get used to Carmine Infantino making the jump from DC Comics to Marvel Comics. He was such a DC institution.
And honestly, he wouldn’t have been my first choice for Star Wars—especially coming right on the heels of those first ten issues by Howard Chaykin. I probably would’ve gone with someone a little hipper, a little edgier.
But… I came around.
There’s something about Infantino’s take on Star Wars that just works for me. The quirks, the slightly offbeat energy… it all starts to click once you settle into it. Even the occasionally odd likenesses* became part of the charm. I figured if they were good enough for Lucasfilm, they were good enough for me.
This page is from his very first Star Wars issue (Terry Austin on inks), and about a year ago I somehow found myself in a bidding war over it. No grand strategy—just pure emotion, adrenaline, and collector impulse.
Still… it’s a very cool page, and I’m glad I ended up with it.
*That said… Chewbacca looks absolutely ridiculous here. I mean, come on, this wasn’t issue #1. Had Carmine even seen the film? Or at least flipped through a magazine?
And based on the published colors, Janice Cohen—normally terrific—may have needed a screening or two herself.
If you know me at all, you already know this mash-up of Star Wars and The Far Side—by the very talented Liniers—was basically destined to end up with me.
Liniers (real name Ricardo Siri) is an Argentine cartoonist best known for the daily strip Macanudo. His work is smart, weird, whimsical, occasionally philosophical—and often laugh-out-loud funny. It has that rare quality of feeling both completely absurd and oddly insightful at the same time. If you’re a fan of Patrick McDonnell and Mutts, you’ll feel right at home… just with a slightly more surreal, international twist.
When people say a piece of art “speaks to you,” this is exactly what they mean.
It’s a good thing I happened to see it right when it went up for sale at San Diego Comic-Con last year, because I’m pretty sure someone else with similarly… let’s call them “oddball”… sensibilities would’ve grabbed it fast.
Fantagraphics has been reprinting Liniers’ work here in the U.S.—three volumes so far—and they’re absolutely worth owning. King Features Syndicate distributes the strip to newspapers, though those, sadly, are getting scarcer by the year.
Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to eventually seeing this one turn up in print in a future collection.
Here is a very dynamic page from a very dynamic art duo (sorry, couldn’t resist) of Ron Frenz and Tom Plamer. Following the terrific run by Walter Simonson and a few fill-in issues from Gene Day, Frenz took over as regular penciller; Palmer stayed on as inker, once again providing a smooth consistency to the art.
As for the story? Don’t let the cover blurb fool you. The quest For Han Solo most definitely did not end here; he wasn’t able to return to Marvel’s Star Wars series until a few months after the release of Return of The Jedi. (Issue #81, to be precise.) And again, Marvel’s creative team did a heckuva job with the little information they had ahead of ROTJ.
Hey Disney — if you had simply adapted and updated material from the Thrawn Trilogy (“Heir to The Empire.”) by Timothy Zahn, and the Dark Empire Trilogy (Tom Vetch) you would have had a sequel film series that people would still be talking about — favorably.
The Star Wars expanded universe was on fire in the early 90s, and these Dark Empire comics are among the standouts. Pretty much every painted page by Cam Kennedy is a masterpiece, and I’m glad to finally add one to my collection. Luke, Lando and the now ultra-essential Mon Mothma are featured here, along with that ridiculously cool war machine.
That was the Star Wars experience we deserved — then and now.
Ah, to have been a fly on the wall at a Marvel Comics- Lucasfilm meeting, about 9 months or so before the release of Empire Strikes Back in 1980:
Lucas: “So, guys, let us tell you— the next film is going to end quite dramatically: Han Solo will be in suspended animation, in the ship of a bounty hunter, on his way to the clutches of Jabba The Hutt. Chewie, and a new character, Lando, will appear to be going after them, and Luke, clearly not a Jedi yet, will remain with Leia and the droids in the rebel fleet.
Marvel: “Great, what happens next?”
Lucas: “That’s it, that’s the end of the film. It’s a cliffhanger.”
Marvel: “And we don’t know what transpires until the next film?” Lucas: “Correct.”
Marvel: “For three years?
Lucas: “Also correct.”
Marvel: “Ok. That’s about 36 issues. You’ll give us the broad strokes of how the next film opens so we can create scenarios and plots with the remaining characters accordingly?”
Lucas: “Er, we don’t have all the details yet, but we will figure it out.”
All credit to Louise Simonson, Archie Goodwin, Walter Simonson, David Michelinie and an hefty all-star group of talent for somehow making the challenge work.
And, of course, extracredit to Tom palmer, who, as always, made it visually come together, regardless of who penciled the book: Simonson, Ron Frenz, Gene Day, Kerry Gammill, et al.
Oh, and they recycled an unused Carmine Infantino John Carter of Mars story during this period as well.
This fun Star Wars cover from Adam Hughes brings a giant smile to my face.
It reminds of the pre-digital age of photos, when we all used film cameras (with some notable exceptions thanks to Polaroid). We took the roll of film into a processor (Fotomat* anyone?) and never knew what we would find in return.
Didn’t quite frame all the subjects the way we planned? Oops, too bad. I had a few of those photos. Probably more than a few.
The focal point of Adam’s composition, of course, is to highlight the Millennium Falcon, something more obvious in the original art. The detail in the ship is just great, as is the clever cropping. (Much of the Falcon’s detail is obscured in the published color version.)
If it weren’t for the tiny ship in background flight, by the way, It looks like Han and Chewie visited Star Wars Galaxy’s edge at Disneyland and couldn’t quite get the selfie right. I think I may have one of those pictures myself.
Happy Star Wars month — more to come, of course. And of course, Happy 45th, Empire Strikes Back, as well.
*Odd fact of the day: Fotomat processing centers peaked in scope in 1980, with 4,000 locations, at about the release time of ESB.
Fun covers all around: The Hughes variant and the “main” cover, courtesy of Phil Noto.
Peak Mike Kaluta. From a version of project that I didn’t recall at all.
This is one of two endpapers from the illustrated Metropolis (Limited Edition Hardcover). I believe all of Mike’s other beautiful art created for this project appears in both the softcover and hardcover edition, but not the endpapers. So, since I only had the softcover, I had never seen them.
This spectacular art came to market for the first time in years (if not for the first time ever) as a set of the two at SDCC this past summer. I didn’t want to blow my whole budget on both of them, and fortunately, neither did Hans Kosenkranius (Tri-State) so we did a smart thing — we split them. If we both hadn’t ended up in the right place at the right time, it’s likely that neither one of us would have ended up with them.
Both are equally gorgeous so it’s a win-win. Oversized art (nearly 2ft x 3ft!), and, like I said, peak Kaluta.
Fun fact: The film version of Metropolis debuted 98 years ago last week. It’s still ahead of its time.
The Metropolis film poster, and the cover to the Kaluta illustrated edition. Apparently, the original novel is actually a planned treatment for the film.
If the Metropolis robot (“Maria”) looks familiar, it could be because George Lucas and conceptual designer Ralph McQuarrie were inspired to create a certain protocol droid based on her design.
Here’s a terrific 1979 Star Wars splash page from Carmine Infantino; like a few other stories from the same era, it was originally exclusive to the Star Wars UK weekly.
I’ve never seen a definitive answer on this, but I suspect writer Archie Goodwin wrote several stories as “placeholders” until Lucasfilm gave Marvel some indication on the storyline/ direction of Empire Strikes Back. No one at Marvel could have been possibly known when that would be. So, Archie and Carmine kept going with “isolated” storylines, until they were brought into the loop.
(The ESB embargo date must have changed a few times too. Marvel advertises the adaptation at the end of #37 for the very next issue — which ends up as a filler story — because Empire doesn’t start till #39.)
Lovely brushwork from Pablo Marcos nicely compliments and enhances Carmine’s “loose” pencil work. (As Carmine aged, his styled became looser and looser. Check his 80s return to DC’s original Flash series a few years later.)
Another quirk about this story. It ultimately appeared in color (from Marie Severin) in a Marvel US paperback collection of “new” Star Wars stories. Cropping on the panels is inconsistent because the pages had to fit the odd format. (See below.)
