Podcast - Brandon Bird on the art that influenced 'Star Wars' (S1/E7)

It takes a village of artists and designers to make a 'Star Wars'

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Artist Brandon Bird (Brandon Bird’s Astonishing World of Art) joins us to explain the many illustrators, painters, and cartoonists who influenced George Lucas in the creation of Star Wars! But first — Jim shares his insights on the penultimate episode of The Acolyte to appease the many fans who reached out in disappointment that we haven’t brought up the infamous “gaping dark side hole” in our bonus coverage.

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Episode Credits:

• Hosts: Tim Barnes, & Jim Fagan

• Guest: Brandon Bird

• Theme Song: Matt Maher

• Announcer: Carolina Ravassa

• Podcast Art:Joel Jackson

IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

• More about Brandon Bird

• Discussion Highlights

• SPECIAL FEATURES (PAID SUBSCRIBERS)

Brandon Bird: A Star Wars Story

Originally from Sacramento, Brandon Bird attended UC Santa Cruz from 1998 - 2002, where he learned to paint, and from 2004 - 2006 he was artist-in-residence at Cornell's Risley College. He currently live in Los Angeles — and in 2013, Chronicle Books released a collection of my work, The Astonishing World of Art:

I mean, Star Wars has existed... before I existed, like I was born into it. It's one of those things where like... My earliest memories are about like looking at Star Wars books, Star Wars comic books, looking at the back of a Star Wars figure. Like my older brother was in Star Wars before I existed. My older sister liked it. And then eventually my younger brother liked it. So we all have this like point of reference.

- Brandon Bird (Yub Nub, 2024)

Discussion Highlights:

Artists who inspired and collaborated with George Lucas in the creation of Star Wars:

Ralph McQuarrie

As Brandon points out early in the episode, though McQuarrie’s work was important to Star Wars — it’s possible that he gets too much credit.

For example, [Ralph McQuarrie] never designed a spaceship. And he's not even the first artist that was brought onto the project. Like there are a lot of people who contribute stuff that just don't get really mentioned.

- Brandon Bird (Yub Nub, 2024)

However, Ralph was key in getting the tone and feeling of the films across.

George Lucas on Ralph McQuarrie:

Beyond the movies, his artwork has inspired at least two generations of younger artists—all of whom learned through Ralph that movies are designed. Like me, they were thrilled by his keen eye and creative imagination, which always brought concepts to their most ideal plateau. In many ways, he was a generous father to a conceptual art revolution that was born of his artwork, and which seized the imaginations of thousands and propelled them into the film industry. In that way, we will all be benefiting from his oeuvre for generations to come. Beyond that, I will always remember him as a kind and patient, and wonderfully talented, friend and collaborator.

Colin Cantwell

So all the visualization of Star Wars started with the spaceships. And He first went to a guy named Colin Cantwell. And I think a filmmaker friend introduced him. Colin Cantwell, a lot of the guys who first, like Ralph McQuarrie, had worked on NASA.

- Brandon Bird (Yub Nub, 2024)

As the first Star Wars ship designer, Cantwell was tasked with making Lucas’ ship ideas seem real and exciting.

Here is his first design of the X-wing and Star Destroyer:

A bit more about Cantwell from Sierra Dall, Colin’s partner of 24 years:

Colin Cantwell considered the Star Wars ships to be not just metal objects, but actual characters in the movie, each  with its own personality.  How could anyone forget the massive Imperial Star Destroyer as it passed overhead or the buzz of the ominous Tie-Fighter ?

His ships still live on. Aside from possibly the light saber, I believe that Colin’s Star Wars Ships are the only entities that have survived (in some fashion) throughout every Star Wars film.  In addition to creating the ship concepts, he built the first Star Wars ship models including the iconic  X-Wing, Star Destroyer, Death Star, 1st Millennium Falcon  and others.

Sadly, Colin passed away in 2022.  I miss him dearly.

(Source: https://colincantwell.com/)

StarWars.com has an excellent piece on Cantwell’s design work as well!

John Berkey

Berkey was highly influential on George Lucas, but didn’t work with him much on the design end for the franchise. Looking at Berkey’s work, you can see how dynamic he made space travel/battle seem. And how the feelings he evoked impacted Lucas:

Berkey also painted beautiful Star Wars posters:

Frank Frazetta

Frazetta did some of the most iconic Buck Rogers art for Famous Funnies comics — which George Lucas likely became a fan of through his love of Flash Gordon.

Frazetta’s style further developed into a category of it’s own, featuring muscled barbarians, fantastical beasts and more.

Princess Leia's Jabba bikini really does come out of left field and is sort of this shocking departure from what the movies have been up until that point. But I'm looking at this, like, in 90% of Frank Frazetta's paintings are Princess Leia and a bikini type [characters].

- Jim Fagan (Yub Nub, 2024)

More from Frazetta on his influence on Lucas — Excerpt from the book, "Testament" (Fenner, 2001):

"When George Lucas came out to visit he told me that my Famous Funnies covers had been one of his inspirations for Star Wars," Frazetta relates, "which I thought was a pretty sweet thing to say." Fans were disappointed when they learned Frank had turned down Lucas' offer to paint the cover for a Star Wars novelization and mystified when his advertisements for the derivative "Battlestar Galactica" began to appear weekly in the TV Guide. "The simple answer," Frazetta explains, "is that I got to paint what I wanted and I retained my originals and my copyrights. I wouldn't have been able to keep either if I had taken the Star Wars job and I would not have had much creative freedom. That would have been a step backward for me."

The beauty of George Lucas’ design concepts:

Behold! Vague sketches of ships from George Lucas himself! These make it clear how necessary it was for him to collaborate with artists to truly bring his vision to life in the pitch and production process of Star Wars. But as these sketches display, he always seemed to have the general shape of the saga in his mind.

Here’s George Lucas’ November 1974 sketches of a TIE fighter, X-wing, and the Death Star, which are all quite close to the final designs. From The Making of #StarWars by J.W. Rinzler. - Phil Szostak via Twitter

And, as mentioned above, it’s incredible to see how artists like Colin Cantwell brought these shapes to vibrant life.

How Brandon Bird embraces fandom and comedy in his work:

Yeah, I'll do a little Star Wars painting. I think somebody described that kind of thing as like picking like an old standard…

- Brandon Bird (Yub Nub, 2024)

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