The AnimWatch Blog

Well, it’s almost been 30 years since the original Star Wars came out. I suppose the readers of this BLOG can be effectively broken into three camps:Some, like my former Art Director, will only shrug, and perhaps yawn. No Star Wars fan, he. Some, who were not born when the movie came out, will perhaps wonder if I am speaking of one of the Prequels released this century. (I am not). The rest of you, who were old enough to remember when the movie came out, will think, “Dear God. Can it already have been 30 years?”

Yup, you old fart. It’s been 30 years.

So much of what made me want to draw, made me want to make movies, made me want to write, was in that original movie. No matter how schlocky and melodramatic the film may seem to you now, it was magical. Sure I was only 11 when I first saw it, but it really hooked me, as it did an entire generation.

And where I was concerned, the film actually had a lot to overcome. First, I didn’t like sci fi as a kid. Found it dreadfully boring. Second, it had the word WAR in it, and I didn’t want to see a bunch of soldiers running around shooting at each other. (I also found war movies boring.)

But mostly, even as an 11 year old, I had a cynical voice in the back of my mind asking whether Star Wars was just a piece of government sponsored propoganda designed to show young kids that War was Cool. (Yes, I was a strange little kid, but remember that the Vietnam War had just ended poorly, a conflict my older brother and his friends narrowly escaped. It was a scary time and I had no desire to be a soldier.)

But the colors, the effects, the spaceships, the music, and the characters all added up to something special that I don’t think has been duplicated. Like I said, it was magical, and by the time the smoke of the first battle had cleared, I didn’t care about whether it was sci-fi or not, about whether it was war or not. My jaw was on the floor and I wanted to know what happened next.

There was a book that came out not long after Star Wars became a phenomenon. I saw it on the bus on the way to school when I was 12. That’s the cover in the header of this article, and of course it uses the art from the Hildebrandt brothers’ great Star Wars movie poster. Believe me, for years, everything I drew looked like that poster. (A shame the title blocks out all but “BRANDT” from their name…)

Anyway, the kid next to me on the bus let me look through it on the way to school, and I saw something that would wind up having a huge impact on me, perhaps even leading to my current career.

More on that tomorrow.