Star Wars Hype

Star Wars is a huge topic of discussion lately.  Disney’s D23 convention has really sparked conversation with the news of a Star Wars Land in their parks and an army of new Star Wars products.  The Force Awakens is showing up everywhere.  We’ll be talking about what this means for Fantasy Flight’s X-Wing game tomorrow, but that isn’t the only place that is getting a big shakeup.  This week end also showed the first two Disney Infinity Figures for the Force Awakens playset. 

The thing I find the most interesting is how quickly people have come to re-embrace Star Wars.  There will always be and have always been that people that love the franchise, but the prequels did a lot of damage.  The hype around these new trailers matches the buzz that was going around during the Phantom Menace.  People are excited about Star Wars again and that’s a pretty wonderful thing.  I can still remember taking the day off to see Phantom Menace.  I was stationed in a small enough city that I didn’t have to camp out or anything, but I did arrive to the theater like two hours early.  Everyone was so excited in the theater when that opening crawl came up. 

I suppose time heals all wounds.  I like to think that the Clone Wars and Rebel cartoons helped.  Including the original cast makes it feel like the new films will be good.  I mean it’s not like Harrison Ford would sign up for a bad movie in a beloved franchise….  In addition to that, there is a generation who grew up with the prequels as their first Star Wars movies.  I’ve met people who count those as their favorites.  That seems crazy to me but I suppose like with James Bond, the first one you see is probably going to make the biggest impact on you.  And to be honest, while there is a lot I don't like; there is something about each of the prequels that I enjoy.  

I won’t lie, I’m hyped about Star Wars.  The first time I saw the X-Wings skimming over the ground in the trailer I knew they had my ticket money.  When I saw that the droid BB was an actual physical creation and not just some cgi thrown into a scene I fell in love.  Then I saw a spoiler picture of an X-Wing that wasn’t in the trailer.  That picture cemented it for me; I need to see that thing in action.  I don’t want to post spoilers here, but damn that thing is so pretty.  I want to lick it and claim it as my own.  Anyway, there will be a lot of Star Wars talk coming up in the upcoming months and I’m really looking forward to it.

Today’s images were provided by Carlos Cabaleiro and are all currently available up on the ebay’s.  Check them all out by clicking HERE.

Introducing Carlos Cabaleiro

This is one of the things I’ve been working on for awhile but with all the site hiccups it didn’t start until now.  I don’t art well.  I’ll skip all the self-deprecating jokes and just acknowledge that as a fact.  I do happen to know Carlos Cabaleiro who can art.  Now because I like to do things like pay my bills, feed my family, and other things like that I can’t hire someone full time to art for me.  Trust me, I sometimes day dream of that.  I’d be all like, “You!  Draw me Modok jumping rope!”  And then someone would ask if it was single or double Dutch.  Of course that should have been obvious by the way I asked the question so I’d have to yell and throw things at people’s heads.  Someone would cry, I'd apologize even though everyone involved knew I didn't mean it.  But eventually after my request I’d have art of Modok jumping rope.  Holy shit that went off the rails.

So anyway.  Once a week in addition to the day’s topic it will include art by Carlos.  At the bottom of that article will link to a ebay auction for the piece of art in question.  That way if you like the art we used that day, you can own it.  I get art.  You get art.  Carlos gets monies.  I think it works out well for everyone but I wanted to be completely transparent with what was happening and why.  As an example of things to come the image above can be found on ebay by clicking HERE.  We'll try to keep the images tied into what is going on that week.  If everyone is excited about Avengers, that's probably what picture is going up. 

Carlos is the artist for a creator owned comic A BULLET FOR YOU with writer R. Thomas Favino and the penciller/inker for CLOUDWRANGLER COMICS' MAJOR HOLMES and CAPTAIN WATSON.  Carlos is regular contributor for the top trading card companies: Topps (Star Wars), Upper Deck (Marvel) and Cryptozoic Entertainment (DC). His artwork has been featured on sets for Rittenhouse Archives, Breygent Marketing, and Pastime Cards.  He also has a website, www.carloscabaleiro.com.