My new STAR LORDS book is
**AVAILABLE NOW**!!!
Copies are available on Amazon & eBay!
The Story of it all….
I grew up drawing science fiction in the 1960’s and I always enjoyed the STAR WARS movies — I saw the 1st STAR WARS movie in San Francisco the day before it opened in a private “invitation only” showing for the press and various book stores in 1977 (I was 27 then), and I saw all the other STAR WARS movies on their various opening days.
After doing my “serious” Bible study books, for the fun of it I decided to do a self-published comic called CHRISTIAN SCIENCE FICTION — the 1st issue had commentary about various SciFi movies and started a couple SciFi tales — and when the 6th and “final” STAR WARS movie was to come out, I did my “STAR WARS Commentary” issue in CHRISTIAN SF #2 . . . There were 2 editions: a small portion of the print run showed Darth Vader’s helmet on the cover, the main part of the print run had Vader’s helmet covered up . . .
I have a few copies for sale “while they last”: $5 each for SF #1 — $5 for SF #2 the “non-Darth Vader” edition (his helmet is covered) — the limited-edition of the cover with the helmet is $25.
* * *
STAR WARS Celebration III Convention
The 4-day fan convention took place in Indianapolis 3 weeks before the 6th 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:
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 . . .
* * *
The Story of my STAR LORDS book...
When I became a Christian in December 1984, I was shown a series of comics called The Star Lords Saga that was published in 1983 — there were 4 issues that had been published — it was conceived by Roland Hegstad, the editor of LIBERTY magazine. It was an ambitious project to tell the story of the BIBLE as a “Star Wars” comic story — the only problem was that the art was not high-quality, so the books did not sell well… and the plan to finish the 8-book series never happened, the publisher cancelled the series.
When I saw these books I *KNEW* that I needed to re-do this series!
Back in 1985 I drew 21 pages and a cover — below is a pic of me holding the title page:
When I showed my 22 pages to Roland Hegstad in 1985, the creator and author of this project, he told me, “I wish I knew about you earlier, you would’ve been the artist to do this project!” Unfortunately, since the first book series failed, we couldn’t find a publisher to print my 2nd version….
When STAR WARS II (the 5th movie) came out, I self-published my 22 STAR LORDS pages — and I re-printed it again when the STAR WARS III came out, just so I’d have some copies to share with friends….
($10 each, limited availability — contact me if you’re interested in this rare collector’s item! All copies autographed…)
When 2015 got here and we knew that a 7th STAR WARS movie was coming, I contacted various publishers again — one of them showed an interest and suggested that I make my book 32-pages and that I add color to my black and white art — SO I DID IT — and now my 32-page full color STAR LORDS CONTROVERSY: BOOK ONE was published in 2015!
<WHEW> — 30 years in the making!!!
* * *
My pages were originally intended to be printed in b&w:
Then I “colorized” them….
It’s seemed “logical” to draw Prince Lucifer in my STAR LORDS book ala STAR TREK’s Mr. Spock — after all, the criticism back in the 1960’s was that Spock looked too much like Satan!
* * *
Page 2 in b&w:
Page 2 in color:
Page 9 in b&w:
Page 9 in color:
* * *
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/
* * *
My connection with Drew Struzan
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 many 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!
///////////////
The Comic Buyers Guide
PAST HISTORY: Back in 1972 George Lucas was living in Marin County writing his first draft of an idea he had for a thing called STAR WARS, and George enjoyed and collected comics — and in 1972 I was over across the Bay from Marin County in Berkeley and I drew the science fiction cover of the 12th issue of the COMIC BUYERS GUIDE! Hmmmmm . . . I wonder if George remembers seeing it?
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 1975 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 in 1977…)
///////////////
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 he did for it! Here I am with those storyboards in 1985 (the same time I was drawing my 22 STAR LORDS pages):
* * *
Star Wars and KELLOGGS
Remember the 2006 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 1800’s, 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!
////////////
Indiana Jones & Ron Wyatt
The Ark of the Covenant
In the “movies” Indiana Jones found the Ark of the Covenant…
In real life a man named Ron Wyatt says he found the *real* Ark of the Covenant!
In 1993 Ron asked me to draw the Ark of the Covenant…
Be sure to read the other pages on this website that pertain to Ron Wyatt’s discoveries!
* * *
A 2005 “UPDATE”:
Jay Leno showed a “Star Wars/STAR LORDS-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 150+ years the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been doing its best to inform people about this cosmic conflict! It’s a true “Star Wars” — complete with “flaming swords” — 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!
//////////////
My favorite STAR WARS collectible
Here’s my oldest and favorite STAR WARS collectible that I’ve owned since 1980 when THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK came out — a tin case that I have used all these years to store my crow quill drawing pen tips!
A cover sketch idea done in 2004 . . .
STAR WARS has been a fun film series — contact me if you want to get any of the comics mentioned on this webpage!
(C) 2010-2023 by Jim Pinkoski
n
