Now in 2010 it's sort of "Old News"......
but when the 6th STAR WARS movie finally came out
on May 19, 2005 it was a
!!!**BIG DEAL**!!!
I saw the 1st film in 1977 at a private screening in San Francisco the day before it came out -- so for me (and millions of other fans) it took 28 YEARS for the series to be completed!!!!!!!
I grew up drawing science fiction in the 1960s and I always enjoyed the STAR WARS movies (I saw the 1st one back when I was 27 in San Francisco the day before it opened in a private "invitation only" showing for the press and various book stores, and then I saw all the other STAR WARS movies on their various opening days) -- and in honor of this milestone of the series being completed, I have done a "STAR WARS Commentary" issue of my CHRISTIAN SF comic! . . .
The STAR WARS Celebration III 4-day fan convention took place in Indianapolis 3 weeks before the new movie came out, and around 30,000 people attended the convention -- here is my half-page ad that ran on page 77 of the convention program book:
B.I.B.L.E. =
"Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth"!
The purpose of my CHRISTIAN SF comics
is to let people know that
the Bible is the ultimate STAR WARS story!
It's my firm opinion that "science fiction" can help people understand the cosmic aspect of the Bible -- so while STAR WARS doesn't promote Christianity, it DOES contains several admirable moral teachings and a solid message for people not to turn to the "dark side" -- and there most definitely IS such a thing out there as "the Force" that flows throughout God's amazing universe! It just works slightly different for us in the real world than it does for people in the STAR WARS stories . . .
CHRISTIAN SF #1
Stock is limited of CHRISTIAN SF #1 ... Order today before it's sold out!!
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Right after I became a Christian back in 1984 I drew 20 pages of the Bible done in the illustrated style of STAR WARS, and I self-published this back when the 5th STAR WARS movie came out back in May 2002:
$4.95 each postage paid, copies limited! Order today!
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The Story Behind the Cover of CHRISTIAN SF #2:
Below is "The Family of God" painting by one of my favorite painters/illustrators, Nathan Greene -- this painting was the inspiration for my cover of Jesus surrounded by all the aliens from the unfallen worlds that He may have created on various worlds in "galaxies far, far away"! The figure of Jesus and the little girl in His arms is pretty much the same, but then the others got morphed into aliens!
To get a poster or postcard print of this painting, go to http://www.hartclassics.com/
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Drew Struzan and the 2002 SATURN AWARDS
Drew Struzan has done several of the STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES movie posters and book covers -- he is an incredibily talented artist and I have admired his work for a long time. A friend of mine named Kurt Reichenbach is a friend of Drew's and has been laying out the program book for the Hollywood SATURN AWARDS for the past 6-7 years, and in 2002 Kurt arranged for Drew to receive his very first award for his movie poster work -- and it just so happened that Kurt also hired me to draw the cover of that year's SATURN AWARDS program book!
That was the year that Stan Lee received an award for the 1st SPIDERMAN movie (which is why Kurt wanted the "superhero-ripping-his-shirt-open" cover), but more importantly Drew Struzan received The Life Career Award for his movie posters! And I was rather amazed that I got the chance to draw the cover of that year's program book -- hey, I'm just sitting out here in the boonies of Tennessee, who would ever figure that I would get to draw a cover of a major Hollywood film awards program book??
To "return the favor," Drew Struzan did the cover of Kurt's jazz music CD:
NOTE: This art piece was scheduled to be included in Drew's 2004 OEUVRE art book, but someone at the last moment decided not to include it (and for some unknown reason they opted instead to have 23 blank pages in the book) -- but that's my friend Kurt! Kurt's older brother Bill also plays on the CD, he is a professional trumpet player who has been out in Hollywood a lot longer than Kurt, and he played on Michael Jackson's THRILLER album and wrote the early 1980's HBO theme music!
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The Comic Buyers Guide
I worked for Bud Plant's chain of comic book shops back there in the 1970s, and here's what our old San Jose shop looked like (Brent Anderson and I painted the figures on the front of the store, Brent did some work to help Al Williamson with the daily STAR WARS comic strip back in the 1980s):
That was me back in the early 1970s with a display of my artwork underneath an 8 foot model of the Enterprise in front of our STAR TREK portion of our store (this was before STAR WARS came out).
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Another Amazing Coincidence
Here's the amazing coincidence part of the story: In 1985 when I still lived in California I applied for a staff artist job at KETCHUM ADVERTISING in San Francisco, and I worked there for about four months -- while I was there I was totally surprised to meet the fellow who came up with the concept idea for that now famous robot lady ad campaign! And he showed me the original storyboards that were done for it! Here I am with those storyboards in 1985:
And so here it is, 20+ years later in the year 2007 and I'm reading in the STAR WARS publications about this first example of really great computer animation being the inspiration for the "Betty droids"! I wonder how many of the guys who worked on STAR WARS ever got to see the original storyboards for the ad -- I'll bet that NONE OF THEM ever saw the storyboards! But I did!!
Star Wars and KELLOGGS
Have you seen all the boxes of Kellogg's products with STAR WARS "laser spoons" and other things in them?
Do you know the story of how the corn flake was created? Dr. John Harvey Kellogg ran the world-famous Seventh-day Adventist health sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan in the 1800s, and he created the corn flake as a health food to replace the eating of pork and sausage for breakfast! Dr. Kellogg's brother formed the Kellogg's cereal company and marketed this new thing called the "corn flake" and so nowadays we have Kellogg's Corn Flakes with Darth Vader on the boxes and Kellogg's Frosted Flakes with STAR WARS laser spoons in the boxes! As you will notice when you read over the rest of my website, I became a Seventh-day Adventist in 1984 and I am truly amazed at some of the accomplishments that have been made by the Adventists around the world! Nearly 100 years before hippies made the "health food craze" a popular thing, the Adventists were teaching vegetarianism and how a healthy diet was important! And they created the corn flake!
Do you know the story of how the corn flake was created? Dr. John Harvey Kellogg ran the world-famous Seventh-day Adventist health sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan in the 1800s, and he created the corn flake as a health food to replace the eating of pork and sausage for breakfast! Dr. Kellogg's brother formed the Kellogg's cereal company and marketed this new thing called the "corn flake" and so nowadays we have Kellogg's Corn Flakes with Darth Vader on the boxes and Kellogg's Frosted Flakes with STAR WARS laser spoons in the boxes! As you will notice when you read over the rest of my website, I became a Seventh-day Adventist in 1984 and I am truly amazed at some of the accomplishments that have been made by the Adventists around the world! Nearly 100 years before hippies made the "health food craze" a popular thing, the Adventists were teaching vegetarianism and how a healthy diet was important! And they created the corn flake!
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Indiana Jones & Ron Wyatt &
the Ark of the Covenant
Please be sure to read over the rest of my website -- I have been involved with several interesting things over the years! In 1987 I did cartoons for the late Dr. Carl Sagan when I lived in the D.C. area, and I worked with the late Ron Wyatt for 10 years and his biblical archaeological discoveries have been aired on 20/20 and Dateline and CNN and in Newsweek, etc.! And maybe, just maybe, Ron has also found the real Ark of the Covenant -- and back in 1993 Ron asked me to do this drawing of what Ron says the Ark really looks like! (See pic below, and read my AofC webpage!) I've really been living a bit of a REAL LIFE "Indiana Jones" experience here, folks!!!
2005 UPDATE: Jay Leno shows a "Star Wars-style" cover (by another artist, not me) on the SIGNS OF THE TIMES magazine on the Headlines portion of his show on April 18, 2005!
This issue of SIGNS OF THE TIMES was published in Sept. 2004 -- the Bible talks about a "war in heaven" between Satan and Christ, and for 140+ years the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been doing its best to inform people about this cosmic conflict! It's a true "Star Wars" -- and did you know that the Bible was the first place that a "flaming sword" was mentioned? It's true! Genesis 3:24 told of angels and a flaming sword that was used to keep Adam and Eve from being able to return to the Garden of Eden! The 1st light saber!
James Earl Jones
All the STAR WARS fans love to hear James Earl Jones doing the voice of Darth Vader, and he was a perfect choice for the role back there in 1977! But James Earl Jones did another role in a 1977 TV mini series called JESUS OF NAZARETH where he played one of the 3 wise men that came to see the baby Jesus!
"Boring"? The Bible is NOT boring!
The Bible is the ultimate "Star Wars" story!!!!!!!
The above quote by George Lucas was in a recent issue of CHARISMA magazine -- and as for trying to witness to a secular world, "The Force" is an admirable thing to learn! Everyone needs to get interested in searching for God in their lives! My personal search lead me to the Bible, and I hope that everyone will see that it is their best option for finding the Truth about God!
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My favorite STAR WARS collectible
A cover sketch idea . . .
STAR WARS has been a fun film series -- contact me if you want to get any of the comics mentioned on this webpage!
(C) 2010 by Jim Pinkoski