Star Wars age 9 Comic Book

Art Notes

That’s bloody thick line-work! It seems that someone got a new black marker. This looks like it was done in 1982 or so, when I was around 13 or 14. The action and drawing is definitely more advanced.

By Howard Chaykin – 1977 (Marvel)

Though for your purposes, as readers who are seeking amusement: it fails. Not in the least bit funny. Except…  that Luke has been training blind, with the blast-shield of his helmet down; so he gets shot in the leg by the floating remote; and only then does it dawn on him that with the blast-shield down, he can’t see! Well, d’uh?

The black marker though, has loosened me up a bit. Instead of scratching away with a biro, the marker encourages a looser line with more variation in weight. And that’s something that you can do with a good felt-tip pen by varying the pressure to make thick and thin strokes. I wasn’t up to using a sable brush or a dip pen, but it was a move in the right direction.

‘Boinnng!’ H. Chaykin, again

I wonder what tempted me to draw felt-tip marker, when there would have been lots of biros around the house?  I hope it was an interest in experimentation—or that I’d been inspired by closer observation of the comics that I bought. It certainly wasn’t encouraged at school, because I’d had no art classes since I was 9, when we came to Ireland. And I didn’t get private tuition until I was around 16 or 17.

The middle right panel, I quite like. “FORP!” But… that’s ripped-off from Howard Chaykin’s work on the Marvel comic adaptation. The remote really seems to bounce off Luke’s tensed lightsaber doesn’t it?

Film Notes

Ok, so all the useless ones eventually chop off the heads of the good ones therefore ensuring the survival of the… useless ones. Right, so how is that supposed to work exactly?

I am absolutely with Harry Plinkett when he mentions how stupid and unoriginal this scene in the Prequel trilogy  is. Once again, something from the original SW film is reused. But this time, in the best Prequel Trilogy tradition, it’s completely overdone: over-used. More is more—right?

Wrong.

This shot above is from one of the PT films. (Don’t ask me which one. I’ve seen them with my son more times than I can count and I still can’t remember)

The floating remotes even look like the one on Solo’s ship! George said he wanted all the movies to “rhyme, like poetry”. Fair enough, good idea. But he even has all the Jedi wearing peasant-farmer clothing from Tatooine. Is Tatooine the centre of the universe or something? Not «according to Luke it isn’t!