9 Great Stormtrooper Illustrations by Carmine Infantino

“I did quite a series on Star Wars. It was tough work learning all the equipment and characters.”

–Carmine Infantino speaking about his work on Star Wars in The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino*

The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino* is a wonderful look back at Infantino’s career in comics, but unfortunately the section on his work for Marvel’s Star Wars comics in the seventies and eighties is only a few paragraphs and a handful of images.

I’ve written before about how Carmine Infantino is my favorite Star Wars artist ever (posted in 2010), and today I’d like to direct your attention to nine of Infantino’s fabulous Stormtrooper illustrations from his work on Marvel’s comic series.

The best place to find Infantino’s Star Wars work is in one of the various collections that have been released over the years (Doomworld* and Dark Encounters* are two easy to find collections) and if you’ve never read those early Marvel Star Wars comics then get to it today! The stories and art are fun and from a time when Star Wars was far more innocent and fantastic than it is today. These are pure space opera tales that feel like they’re from a simpler time.

• Issue 18 – The cover to this issue stands out as one of the images I always think of when someone mentions Carmine Infantino. The Stormtroopers in the foreground dominate the image, but it’s the sight of Luke being carried by C-3PO that I can’t shake from my mind. I guess this would have been the “bulked up” 3PO that Kenner should have created in 1995 to go alongside their beefier Luke action figure.

• Issue 19 – Infantino’s Star Wars artwork was never about film accuracy as we see in this panel. The twisted and simply wrong design of the central Stormtrooper’s helmet is one of those drawings I always remember whenever I think about just how tough the Stormtrooper design is for someone to illustrate. That design’s all curves and oddness!

• Issue 23 – Set onboard the space station “The Wheel” (which actually makes an appearance in the Beyond The Rim* book), this scene does a great job of showing us Stormtroopers and just how very evil they are. What do we call prejudice against droids? Droidist?

• Issue 25 – I selected this panel from issue 25 for one reason: We never get enough images of Stormtroopers and TIE Fighters together! And that bizarre droid working on the TIE Fighter is a design I’d like to see someone snag and illustrate from every angle imaginable. Is that a single-wheel the droid is balancing on?

• Issue 30 – Another classic Infantino Star Wars cover! The Stormtroopers chasing Leia are cool enough, but it’s the Stormtrooper waiting around the cover that really steals the scene and promises danger. This is also one of those great illustrations where it looks like Infantino was drawing more inspiration from the Kenner Stormtrooper toy than he was any film reference. Look at that helmet!

• Issue 30 – Another image from issue 30, this time a panel in which four Stormtroopers attack. The sound effects are fun and all, but for me the real treat is again the Kenner influence on the Stormtrooper design. Those helmets even look like they’re fixed in place and the Stormtroopers are unable to turn their heads!

• Issue 31 – Infantino drawing a Dewback and Sandtroopers!!! This comic (as well as issue 32) are two I remember best from childhood. I went through these two comics page by page when I was seven years old, and every time that I look back at these today I’m a kid again and filled with nothing but excitement. Best part of the image? How the Dewback has spotted R2-D2, C-3PO, and Luke Skywalker as the Stormtroopers continue their “I don’t see nothin'” routine. Even Dewbacks are more observant than Stormtroopers!

• Issue 31 – From inside the comic we get more Dewback artwork! The scanner device that one of the Stormtroopers is carrying looks to me like a perfect accessory someone can create if they ever want to get into the third-party Star Wars toy scene. And I think I’ll just pretend that the Dewback in this image isn’t as weird as it looks.

• Issue 32 – Another scene with Stormtroopers and a Dewback? Infantino must have known how very much kids loved dinosaurs, because why else would he have given us so many fun drawings of a creature that appears for a few seconds in the original film? Unless . . . hey, were Kenner and Lucasfilm working closely enough together that they called Marvel and said “we have a Dewback toy so add Dewbacks to the book” or am I just a paranoid crazy person?

Memorable and Wonderful

I stand by my decision that Infantino remains the greatest Star Wars artist and these nine Stormtrooper illustrations back that decision. His work was never the most film-accurate of Star Wars artwork, but it always had an energy and excitement that (and there’s no way this is nostalgia talking, really!) remains as strong today as it did back when the art was new.

Fantastic art and now I’m left wondering if there are any great references covering Infantino’s time with Star Wars. Anyone have any book or website suggestions for me?