Star Wars, I have learned, is a pretty small world. Questions have been asked about my inspirations for the recent Star Wars prints I did for Acme Archives, so I thought it might be a good opportunity to show you guys what goes on in my head (I know it’s crowded in there — please ignore the clowns and circus music). It’s not always clear where inspiration comes from, and when you deal with something finite and popular like the Star Wars universe, there are a lot of common elements shared by the illustrators so some overlap is bound to happen. Any similarities to other Star Wars art are absolutely unintended, particularly in light of Lucasfilm’s rigorous screening and approval process, and I hope it becomes clear where I got my ideas from and how and why I combined them.

I’m pretty new to the Star Wars art scene, so I haven’t been to any of the Celebration conventions (though I was invited to attend this year), and had only heard about them after my friend, Mark Chiarello, painted a brilliant recruiting poster as an exclusive Celebration print (see images below). I find the whole idea of an Imperial recruiting poster to be pretty funny, considering how many anonymous Stormtroopers are casually killed off in the movies. The only way they could recruit is by presenting a very romanticized image of the Empire and service. The US Navy’s longtime recruiting slogan was “Join the Navy and See The World,” which sounds like a pretty good offer. I had seen a recruiting poster for the British Royal Navy which I quite liked for its unintended humor (hey kids, imperialism!) and the style, which was not unlike French Art Deco travel posters. I’m also a huge fan of fashion illustrator Rene Gruau and his use of big, bold shapes pushed me towards using close-ups of the Stormtroopers. After all, their helmets are the best part of the uniform and the most distinguishing characteristic. I also admire the great Royal Air Force posters for their flat graphic design, which also influenced my “big head” design choice. So I adapted the Navy slogan to fit the Star Wars universe, and used the different types of troopers to illustrate the variety of locales they’d be “visiting” (i.e., getting their asses shot in), and continued the traditional Deco use of flat color. I’d already done a grouping of Imperial types in my “Enlist Today” poster, and really liked the idea of just focusing on the different kinds of stormtroopers. Lining up the troopers was the best way to show the different variations, as well as harken to Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda work. It’s a subtle nod, but fascism=evil and I did want to present a darker side to this sunny view of Imperial service. Knowing that Star Wars propaganda and travel posters had been done before, I made the effort to google “Star Wars recruiting poster”. Nothing similar came up so I proceeded with my design.

As one of the franchise’s most popular characters, a Boba Fett image had to be in my set of prints. The concept was to show Boba Fett as an action star, to pitch a movie that cast him as a hero trying to bring his bounty to Jabba the Hutt while fending off his fellow hunters. I’m a huge, unapologetic fan of Robert McGinnis and his iconic James Bond movie posters. There are so many classics, but the ones that really seemed appropriate for my piece were Thunderball, Casino Royale, and Diamonds Are Forever (of course). The recurring images of a dashing, gun-toting hero surrounded by beautiful exotic women seemed fun and appropriate. Oola, the green slave girl, is the obvious choice, as she is the most attractive (sorry) and distinctive,  and she gets the most screen time. Plus, she’s a slave girl, so it’s not a stretch to think of her grabbing on to Boba Fett, begging him to free her from Jabba’s palace. The Casino Royale image also provided some ideas about her pose as well, though the tradition of “girl at the feet of hero” was certainly present from Star Wars‘ beginnings in the movie poster by Tim Hildebrandt. Initially I’d gone with a white background in my piece, similar to the Diamonds Are Forever poster, but moved to yellow as a symbol of Jabba’s physical and psychological presence. Also, it kinda reminded me of the Attack of the 50ft Woman poster, too. I had drawn Fett pointing the gun at the viewer, a la the classic Bond gun barrel shot, but opted in the end to raise the gun to make it more recognizable. In the end, I think it’s a fun piece that quite blatantly acknowledges its origins.

Ultimately, we Star Wars illustrators are all fans playing with Lucasfilm’s toys, trying to explore and combine elements in an effort to regain the magic of what we all felt watching the original films. It’s a fun game to play, but perhaps because we don’t own these trade-marked characters we might sometimes feel too much ownership over ideas that all have their basis in a shared pop-culture environment. If anything, maybe it’s a call to create new worlds and stories of our own.