My Favorite Star Wars Artist?

It’s probably a bit of a surprise, but after recently reading the Doomworld* and Dark Encounters** Star Wars collections I’ve gotta say that my favorite Star Wars artist of all time is Carmine Infantino (website).

I remember reading these comics back in the late seventies/early eighties. Living in Turkey there was no way to get the comics on any sort of reliable schedule (being young didn’t help any), but whenever I could get one I would read it until it decomposed in my hands. And during that time Infantino’s art influenced my view of the Star Wars universe more than anything else . . . even more than the action figures I played with on a daily basis.

I remember spending hours drawing Star Wars scenes, and my reference was always a blend of the action figures and Infantino’s work. The long-haired Luke, the squater and bulkier R2, and the unusual shapes of the starships all affected my own rough drawings. And reading these stories again took me back to that age . . . an age when Star Wars wasn’t ruined by too many horrible decisions and decades of bad novels, questionable comics, and so many variations and adaptations that the extraordinary turned into the routine.

So while his work may not be the flashiest or most accurate Star Wars art we’ve ever seen, I’ve gotta say that Carmine Infantino’s work stands out today as my favorite Star Wars art of all time. I’d love to get my hands on a few original pages, but I suspect those are tough to come by and very expensive.

I’ll just have to be happy with the collections.

Check the Star Wars wiki for a complete list of Infantino’s Star Wars comic work.

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