HeroesCon 2023: Artists Discuss The Challenges Of Drawing ‘Star Wars’ Comics
by Tom Smithyman
While the third season of The Mandalorian wrapped up in April, the comic book based on the Disney+ show’s second season is only debuting this week. Artist Georges Jeanty thinks there has been such a pent-up demand for adaptations that fan won’t mind the wait.
Speaking during a panel on Star Wars comic books during last weekend’s HeroesCon, Jeanty reminded the crowd that comic book adaptations of Lucasfilm movies used to be a big deal. Both Raiders of the Lost Ark and Willow received their own adaptations, and Marvel published a long-running Star Wars series in the 1970s and 80s – before Disney purchased the publisher. While the internet did away with those reworkings, they are back today with titles like Star Wars: The Mandalorian.
“I think people do miss that in a sense,” Jeanty said.
But don’t expect a shot-for-shot retelling of the battle against Tatooine’s krayt dragon. Except for a few key scenes, the book’s creative team has been given leeway to change angles in order to show the familiar story from a new perspective. For Jeanty, that creative freedom lured him to the project.
That, and his love of the show. In his mind, The Mandalorian has proven that creators don’t need Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader to tell a quality story in the Star Wars universe.
Still though, it would have been easier for him if he didn’t have to draw Grogu. While the Yoda-like character is a fan favorite, drawing the youngling has proven to be a significant challenge. In fact, Jeanty said, it wasn’t until the final issue in this series that he felt comfortable depicting the child.
“It’s a simple character but there are a lot of intricacies,” he said.
The main character is almost always hidden with a mask, which makes drawing the Mandalorian himself considerably easier. In fact, Jeanty said he modeled his look for the character on the work of Steve McNiven, another panelist.
McNiven was the cover artist for The War of the Bounty Hunters limited series and drew in the interiors for the alpha issue. That series told the story of what happened to Boba Fett after he left Cloud City with Han Solo’s frozen body in The Empire Strikes Back.
While McNiven said he was initially excited to work with a character like Boba Fett, he started having angst after learning of a large fight scene in a packed arena.
“It panics any comic book artist,” he said.
He ended up loving the project, though, even to the point of inking the pages himself. That became a necessity when he changed Fett’s costume to disguise the anti-hero. He apparently did a good job as the new costume resulted in an action figure adaptation.
