8 Spectacular Starships by Carmine Infantino Found in Marvel’s Star Wars Comics

“. . . this was more difficult, because you’ve got these characters that had to be on model to some extent. Those two robots, the ships, and stuff like that, this was difficult at the beginning, and then I swung into my own look.”

–Carmine Infantino speaking about his work on Star Wars in Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur*

Last week we took a look at Carmine Infantino’s great Stormtrooper art from Marvel’s original run of Star Wars (posted here). This week, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of his original starship designs from the series. As with the various TIE Transport designs (posted here), the starships shown here only came into existence because the Star Wars universe was new and open when these were created. I suspect it’s a hell of a lot tougher for an artist to insert an original starship design into Star Wars work these days. Too bad, because the age when this level of creativity was allowed helped to add depth to the setting.

• Issue 18, Commander Strom’s Cruiser – First up is this Star Destroyer-like craft. While the early Marvel issues had several “Imperial Battle Cruisers” that were off-model Star Destroyer designs, this one stands out because of the blunted nose and structure descending from the underside of the ship. There’s a Star Destroyer-like feel to the ship’s design, but in looking at this, we can say that it is not a standard Star Destroyer and is instead something new.
  

• Issue 24, Pre-Empire Pleasure Cruiser – This ship comes out of a tale of Obi-Wan’s past and is presented in the story as a giant for the wealthy of the galaxy. The ship is lightly armed, and we never get a great look at it. The images do, however, make it appear to be similar in design to Commander Strom’s Cruiser from issue 18 (see above). Never waste a good starship design?
  

• Issues 25 & 27, Luke Skywalker’s Scout Craft – This starship design gets enough use in Marvel’s series that Star Wars Wikia even gives the ship an entry. It’s similar in appearance to the Corellian Corvette starship seen in Episode IV, but with enough variations in design — not to mention size — to make it clearly a ship all its own.

• Issue 28, Jabba’s Voidraker – We’ll just ignore Marvel’s character design for Jabba the Hutt and instead focus on Jabba’s Voidraker, shown above. This light freighter appears in only a handful of panels in the issue, and as you can see from the topmost image, it would be easy to at first mistake this for an off-model Millennium Falcon illustration. I think this was intended as another saucer-shaped starship, but we never get a look from the right angle to verify my suspicion.

• Issue 30, Unnamed Freighter – Here’s a starship that’s completely a Carmine Infantino design. The radar dish and Y-Wing-like wings are the only bits that are semi-related to starships in the movie. The rest of the design is . . . well, it’s hard to really say what influenced the ship’s design. This is one of those instances where the space opera stories of the past bled nicely into Marvel’s early Star Wars comics.

• Issue 45, Rogue Blockade Runner – Another ship influenced by the Corellian Corvette, what makes this stand apart as something new are the wide extensions on the side of the ship and that over-sized radar dish/cannon assembly on top of the ship. This has a Star Wars-like feel to the design while still being its own thing.

• UK Issue 94, Imperial Prison Ship – From the British Star Wars comics (collected in Star Wars Omnibus: Wild Space Volume 1*) comes what may be favorite of all of the starship designs shown here. Another starship inspired by the Star Destroyer, this Imperial Prison Ship has a great forward mandible design — almost like blurring a Star Destroyer with the Millennium Falcon — and generally looks like it would fit perfectly in the Empire’s fleet. I’d love to see someone bring this ship back and do something with it today.

• UK Issues 107 & 108, Staraker Strike Craft – Luke and Leia steal this starship from the Empire, and as the story unfolds we quickly learn that it’s an experimental ship with powerful shields, weapons, and engines. Unfortunately, Luke crashlands the Staraker after being shot by a weapon that Luke compares to the Death Star’s planet-destroying cannon. Those experimental shields were really, really good considering an earlier blast from the same weapon wiped out a Star Destroyer.

Carmine Infantino Was a Master

These are only some of the starships Infantino illustrated when he worked on Marvel’s Star Wars comics, and as you can see he was incredible at his job and gave the Star Wars universe more depth than if he had stuck just to the films. Infantino’s Star Wars artwork has been packaged and sold several times (Doomworld* and Dark Encounters* are two instances of the work reprinted) and every Star Wars fan should own these tales.

Unfortunately, Infantino’s contribution to Star Wars wasn’t compensated quite well enough. In Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur* he says:

“Hey, you know Dark Horse reprinted those stories and didn’t give me any reprint money. When I complained, they sent a check for $200. A measly $200! I sent the check back with a note that said, ‘Here. I think you need this more than I do.’ I felt disrespected.”

Reading that makes me quite sad. Infantino was a master storyteller and artist, and reading that my favorite Star Wars comic artist was treated in that way makes me wish there was something we all could have done for the artist before his death.

Truly remarkable artwork and I’m happy to have these old stories with us still today.