In the third part of this five part series, Kristin Baver over at the official site sits down with the creative team behind the new Forces of Destiny comics from IDW.
Writer Devin Grayson and illustrator Eva Widermann, who teamed up on Star Wars Forces of Destiny: Hera, e-mailed from the Bay Area and Bavaria, respectively, to tell Kristin about the artistic importance of Commander Zhou’s perfect coif, the subtle art of resistance, and learning to listen to Spectre-2.
StarWars.com: What does Star Wars mean to you on a personal level? And how has the Forces of Destiny series changed or amplified that?
Devin Grayson: The original Star Wars trilogy lit up my childhood and informed almost every let’s-pretend game I played between 1977 and 1980, but I have to admit that I fell off a bit during the prequels era. More recently, my husband and 10-year-old have been really into the movies and TV series, so I sort of started paying attention again over their shoulders. And even though I assume Star Wars Rebels was created to get or keep kids invested in the Star Wars universe, I have to admit that Hera and Kanan’s relationship was what got me completely hooked again. I practically shoved [my husband] and my step-son off the couch to get a closer look. Next thing you know, I’m buying movie tickets and reading licensed novels and doing what my husband calls “deep dive character research,” because almost every time I get attached to fictional beings that way, I end up writing them down the line. And sure enough…!
Eva Widermann: Just like Devin, I grew up with Star Wars surrounding my childhood. I’ve always been more of a high fantasy/medieval fan rather than sci-fi, but I remember watching the re-digitized trilogy in the late ‘90s and I thought, hey, Star Wars is kinda high fantasy… just in a galaxy far away. I also really enjoyed the following movies, and mostly for the visuals — I couldn’t stop looking at the costumes and designs and the concepts. Dressing a Galaxy is still one of my favorite art books! Of course, being married to a Star Wars fan and eventually working on the Rebels comics and digging deeper into the Star Wars universe has intensified my fascination. I just look forward to showing the Hera comic to my son one day and hope he enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed drawing it.
Read the full interview here. Throughout January, Kristin will be back to sit down with the creative teams behind each of the five comics.
