Since the trailer for STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS premiered last Friday, there’s been a few cool STAR WARS things hitting the web through the weekend, and we’re gonna round some up for ya. Let’s start with the art.
Click to enlarge
I’ve been fortunate enough to know both Phil Noto and Tony Harris for many years now, almost as long as they’ve worked in the comic book industry. Both of them have been frequent guests at the Dallas Comic Con events, and both are among my favorite artists out there. In 2003 I had Phil to do a special STAR WARS cover for the Dallas Comic Con program book, which came out beautifully. Since then Noto has done a variety of work related to popular pop culture franchises, including BUFFY and G.I. JOE. He’s even done some STAR WARS pieces as private commissions, including the Mark Hamill as “older Luke Skywalker” piece you can see to the right, which was done at the beginning of the EPISODE VII hype. That piece was pretty neat, especially because it showed just how cool an aged Luke could look, but it was just a taste of what Phil could do. Thanks to his Facebook, you can now check out his “fan” art (more like “pro art”) for THE FORCE AWAKENS, which looks pretty awesome. I believe Phil did this in a day, starting in black and white and finished in color some hours later. This almost looks like it could be an official Lucasfilm promotional piece for the new film:
Then we have a piece by Tony Harris, who is no stranger to STAR WARS. Tony has done covers for Dark Horse SW and Indiana Jones comics, and decided to do a collage of original Lucasfilm trilogy characters as they’d look today. I’m loving this too. He’s captured Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher wonderfully, and while I think the inclusion of Billy Dee Williams is nothing more than wishful thinking, it’s still fun to see. Harris re-posted this on his Facebook page last week:
Click image to see it full-size.
Next up we have some fun STAR WARS videos to share. Machinima posted this first one last week, and it’s pretty damn incredible. What would it be like if Batman fought with Darth Vader? This fan film is so good, it makes you wish it was real and official. They got everything right, the effects, the costumes, the sound work, even the only appropriate ending. It’s quite simply one of the coolest non-official films I’ve ever seen:
Here’s a fun STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS trailer edit/gag by our buddy and Alamo Drafthouse DFW programmer James Wallace:
Here’s a fun fan edit that imagine the George Lucas version of the trailer, aka Special Edition treatment:
And if you haven’t caught it, here’s a Snooperking’s fun edit of the STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS trailer as if it were done in Legos:
Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff. 
