Star Wars age 9 Comic Book

From the colour illustrations in the novel

Ho hum, there are no laughs in this one; and this Luke meeting Leia scene is getting a bit drawn-out. He does utter the immortal—and corny “I’m here to rescue you” line, but I bet I never once thought of Knights in shining armour and Arthurian legend when I saw this as a kid. It was all Sci-Fi to me :p

Art Notes

I was trying to be a proper comic artist again, so there are no laughs. But!—Carrie Fisher’s beauty is finally done some sort of justice. No need to look away this time folks! Leia in panel 2 is probably from the Blowing up Alderann scene production still; those photos in the novelisation were a God-send back then.

By Howard Chaykin. It provided me with an actual likeness to copy from.

The bottom panel is copied directly from Howard Chaykin’s Marvel Comic adaptation artwork. I bet I was especially impressed with that one because it’s one of the few instances in his adaptation of an actual likeness to the actors. No Doubt it was from one of his bare handful of reference production stills given to him by Lucas’ team. Howard really had his work cut-out. She’s a bit toothier in my version. I suspect that the still he copied from might also have been from the Alderann scene, when Leia blurts “What?!?” at Governor Tarkin.

But wasn’t Carrie Fisher absolutely lovely? She says she was given the role on the condition that she “go off to a fat farm” and lose a few pounds! But… I’ve seen the screen tests… she didn’t look in the least bit chubby! Baby-faced perhaps—but never chubby.

Who knows?—maybe Lucas thought a little weight-loss around her face would make her look a little older—more senatorial?