1978 |age 9/10 Han has to make the leap through the blast doors! Hey, do you think he should have been called ‘Hands Solo’? Or, ‘Hands So-big’? You might miss it, but that’s Chewie’s lower leg just vanishing though the opening before Han.

Art Notes: Revisionism

Our George Lucas ain’t the only one who «tweaks Star Wars! Here’s a weird one. It looks like an early 1978 page, but tarted-up later.

The red blast scribbles might have been original, but I have a funny feeling they were added later. The whole page was originally done in that light greeny-black ballpoint that «we’ve seen before, but I can’t tell if it was originally a black ink that faded over nearly 4 decades, or if it originally was green.

stormtrooper star wars comic page detail

Ooh… fancy-shmancy under-eye drop-shadow!

I’d guess that a year or two later, black marker was added to the trooper’s helmet and Solo’s head to bring them up to better quality.

Then, maybe even later again, a bit of penciled colour was added. Crayon-A-Scope blue, brown, red and yellow. My mate, Niall F had coloured the black and white pages of my my Star Wars annual No#1 (Marvel cheapskates) and far from being pissed-off, I was very very impressed! As a result, feeling inspired, I think I might have got myself a small pack of Caran Dache or Crayola coloured pencils, with saved up pocket money—and had a go!

han solo star wars comic page detail

Han got tweaked. I wonder what he looked like before?

Why I wasn’t constantly pestering mum and dad for art materials I’ll never know. I’m sure they’d have bought them if I’d asked. With requests for toys, it was usually a case of, “Maybe for your birthday or Christmas” but with art supplies, I’m sure they would have got them for me anytime. To be honest though, I was a bit too contented to use biros and not colour anything. Which is a shame. I just loved loved loved drawing!

Anyway, it looks like I tweaked and fiddled about with Star Wars before you did Georgie-Boy!

share-banner