How does one go about redefining—and redesigning—something so ingrained in our shared consciousness as Star Wars? Stick too close to what has been established in the films and your efforts may be perceived as derivative or bland. Stray too far from established designs and you risk losing the flavor altogether. So how do you make the exotic more exotic?
First, you go back to the basics—you pull from the initial, unused designs from the original designers who worked on The Star Wars. Delving into Lucasfilm’s vast archives, we were able to find many hints as to what George Lucas had envisioned before subsequent versions of the script required newer or different designs to be produced. But events were moving quickly during the roll up to production of that first film, and there are many, many characters, vehicles, and locations in The Star Wars that were never designed back in the mid-Seventies.
So, the next step is to assemble your own group of talented designers—all of them steeped in the milieu of Star Wars—and assign them different aspects of this alternative galaxy. That’s what we did. Assembled here is a small sampling of the literally hundreds of designs produced for the series. But even with an entire team of designers at our disposal, the majority of the work fell to interior artist Mike Mayhew. Out of necessity to meet our schedule, Mike had to begin drawing the first issue before any of the other designers had put pencil to paper, and along the way we discovered dozens of devices and locations that had never been depicted. All told, realizing this series was a massive effort, but then, Mike and the team were only designing an entire galaxy…
That’s the question posed in this exclusive behind the scenes look at this fascinating series as writer J.W. Rinzler and Dark Horse’s Randy Stradley take an insiders look into the process of bringing the early drafts pf Star Wars to life.
We get an insight into the many and various reimaginings of familiar characters, brought to life via the artistry of Mike Mayhew. Alternate versions of Darth Vader, the two droids, Han Solo (especially different in his case) even the Death Star itself, all influenced heavily by the early McQuarrie images of course, but where he didn’t design or draw certain locations or characters, crafted from the clues hidden within Lucas’s early draft.
Dark Horse have a history of great handbooks. Back in the day they gave us both Rogue Squadron and Crimson Empire ones, but they haven’t often provided a look into the creative process quite like this. I’d certainly be more than happy to see more releases like this as new titles arrive in 2014.
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