Author George Mann will take a unique look at the Star Wars universe through his book, Myths & Fables, which will be released on August 6th. The stories and characters of Star Wars are told through the perspective of fairy tales or legends that have been passed down through generations. Readers can imagine themselves growing up on a secluded planet and hearing these stories from their grandparents, curious about what adventures await in the galaxy.
The book will contain fantastic art done by Grant Griffin. Griffin states:
Like the fairytales of old, each story in Myths and Fables is paired with an illustration. My job as the illustrator was to try and depict how an in-world artist might interpret space tales that have been passed down across the galaxy, and like a game of telephone, by the time the stories reach the artist, they are pure myth and fantasy.”
The challenge for me was making known characters and alien species recognizable yet distinct from the original characters we all grew up with on the big screen. One of my favorite examples of this was creating the ‘Bogey Man’ version of Darth Vader. I loved the idea of families across the galaxy telling their kids, ‘You better keep your room clean or Vader will get you.’ It took a couple of tries to find the right balance of being on-model, yet surreal and nightmarish. The trick was keeping that iconic Vader silhouette and giving it the right amount of Tim Burtonesque twist.”
The biggest struggle we had with this illustration was settling on a look for the Jedi. The art directors wanted a heroic/angelic feel to the character. For inspiration, I dug into Ralph Macquarie’s original concept art for Luke Skywalker, meshed with a Wyeth fairy-tale knight.”
One of the perks of being an illustrator is getting to peek behind the curtain before things go public. As we needed something iconic to make this piece read ‘Star Wars‘, I got to access some of the early construction for Galaxy’s Edge. With park photos for inspiration, I was able to paint up the background inspired by the Black Spire — and nothing says Star Wars like a planet with double moons!”
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