c.1977

Tantive IV Pursued! (2)

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Special Edition!

I love the 'John White Presents' bit. I see now that I should have put this page up earlier in the sequence, so I'll rearrange things in a few days or so.

Art Notes

blakes 7 ship

Our dog Polly preferred Star Wars to Blake's 7 - it seems. Nicely chewed-up back in 1977.

The childishness of the drawings is charming. The early version art was obviously based on a single viewing of the film and nothing else. Lacking any visual references. I didn't even have the Marvel comic for this part of the film. I basically had to try to remember what the ships looked like: hence the peculiar appearance of the rebel craft. Microphonic! - like a Shure SM 58; or a backwards Blake's 7 ship (This one's for you Rod).

chaykin_hyperspace

Howard Chaykin's Hyperspace (Marvel Comic)

The hyperspace positive/negative banded effect is from Marvel. When Howard Chaykin depicted the Millennium Falcon in hyperspace, Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic team still hadn't tackled how the heck they'd depict it themselves. Chaykin had to get creative and obviously his early take on it was good enough for me. It's funny how quickly you get used to leaving the blackness of space as white isn't it?

Last year, someone on Flickr saw this image and said "The Imperial Empire - I love it!" I stopped and wondered what was so funny about it. When I was in school we called Tie Fighters T.I.E. fighters. My friend Niall - who you'll hear more about - suggested that it stood for "The Imperial Empire" or 'twin ion engine' - you could take your pick. Sounded plausible. Because I was only 9 or 10, I didn't realise that this was a bit like saying "Your High Highness" or "The Stinky Stink". And just as I got used to the whiteness of space - it also never occurred to me how silly "The Imperial Empire" is. When Mike McGinnis made his remark about its silliness 30+ years later he gave me a good laugh at myself!

vote for SW9!

The Tantive 4 pursued by the imperial devastator over tatooine - comic panel

Comments  

 
+1 # candace white 2010-06-02 20:24
Ah it's brilliant, so full of energy and enthusiasm!
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0 # John White 2010-06-02 21:16
The older stuff is my favourite!
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+1 # Blue Milk 2010-06-02 20:46
The Imperial Empire! I love it! And the logic explaining where that came from is great too. An alternative TIE acronym! I do like your High Highness. I will have Han Solo use that when he mocks Leia at the next opportunity in BMS. See, SWA9 really is inspirational!

Oh, and funny about the Liberator. I used to have that old Corgi diecast toy thing too. I still do somewhere. The paint started flaking off at some point so I did what any proactive child would do and used White-Out (whatever you call the equivalent in Ireland / UK) and painted over it. The result was a blotchy thick paint job that makes it look like the toy was badly sculpted. Sigh...
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0 # John White 2010-06-02 21:24
Ah, but the memories Rod, the memories! You know, I'm going to post some of my old Star Wars toys and debris soon - just to show what I did to them.

The true 'collectors' out there will grieve...
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0 # Blue Milk 2010-06-09 14:06
What are those those things on the end of each wing? Additional thrusters? Really big cannons? Just curious.
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0 # John White 2010-06-09 14:25
God only knows. Perhaps inspired by the under-wing canons on my Airfix Hawker Harrier Jump-jet? Look a bit like bombs but with loads of holes in them. Whatever they were, it looks as if the 'design' changed during execution.
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