Star Wars age 9 Comic Book

c.1978 | age 10? I love this page. It blows me away! There’s much to enjoy in it—even fancy creative lettering

Art Notes

1. In 1978 probably, I drew Han’s mute face (top-left) in green biro—but nothing more.
2. Later, around 1979?—I did the rest of the page in blue biro.
3. Much later, around 1982 or 83? I added Han’s speech balloon in black marker. Perhaps I realised that a key, memorable line of dialogue had been omitted! “Let’s blow this thing (etc.).”
4. At some point, the inside of Han’s mouth was coloured in red biro, but nothing else! Funny choices! A ‘bit of this, bit of that.’

And that folks, is the joy of totally autonomous creative control: you do whatever you like, whenever you like! As the fancy takes you.

“GARROOO!” I’m imagining a ‘screech, skidding sound. I removed the black marker via incredible hi-tech science stuff.

Garrooo!

Solo is back! And Chewie of course. Look at him go! He’s all frenzied twisting action, working that steering wheel of his, driving around the bends on the race-track. “Beep-Beep!”

“Chewie – this is no time for video games!”
“GARROOO!”

I made a first attempt at Han’s conk, and then opted for a bigger one instead. And the good ol’ green biro is back. I quite like it actually. Probably because makes it look even older.

Scarred!

Check out poor Mark Hamill’s added-in car crash scars.

If you’re reading this Mark, I hope I’m not making you feel all self-conscious. At the time I was simply attempting to add a bit of authenticity. Yes, that’s right, you had your accident after the film was shot. But! —don’t forget: George adapted SWa9 into a movie before I even did the comic. So you see, it’s a funny old back-to-front universe.

Time travel. Wormholes or something. QED.

You know, I wonder now if Mark really did have these scars at all (left). Lately, I wonder if they were just sort of laughter-lines on his cheeks!

But you know, I don’t even know if Mark had these scars at all (above, left-side). Lately, I wonder if they were just sort of… creases. I had a couple of posters of him on my walls, from my sister’s girls’ magazines, and I read about the accident and about the plastic surgery and probably just assumed that those creases of his cheeks (from smiling and laughing so much!) were actually scars.

. . .

Writing: Hit the Dirt… Eh?

Ooh, fancy typography. Soft, and ghostly… joiny-uppy-writing

Typography/lettering doesn’t have much to do with the content of writing, but it interests me that even at the age of 10 or so, I could see that my new school-acquired ability of ‘joined-up-writing’ might have the right ‘feel’ for Ben Kenobi’s kind, soft, words from beyond the grave. They also have a calmness about them to match the meditative state which Luke is briefly slipping into.

The spelling could have been better though!

“Trust your felings Luke”
“Youre eyes can decive you Luke”

Why does Solo tell Chewie to hit the dirt? I suppose it’s just another of those cliches from comics like Warlord, and war films isn’t it? A bit like «“I repeat!” and “Bite the bullet” and “Too close for comfort!”

“Eat Lead Tojo!” Blimey – I had this when I only 6! Warlord

It’s embarrassing this, and I amaze even myself at the trivial stuff that I still recall from childhood: Mum, dad and I were watching some film or other when I was a kid. And there was a bloke who was about to be shot or killed or what have you—or maybe he was just dying after being shot.

I exclaimed, “He’s gonna bite the bullet.”
Dad said, “Er, bite the bullet is what you might (literally) do when someone is performing a painful procedure on you—you know, like sawing off your wounded leg without an anesthetic.”
“Oh…” (I feel silly now)

Maybe “Hit the Dirt” in this instance was supposed to mean – ‘hit the trench?’ Equally he could have said: “We’ve got you surrounded – you don’t stand a chance – there’s no turning back – eat lead FRITZ!”

Only 4 pages left to the end *sniff*

. . .