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First major guest I met and bought a commission from was Howard Chaykin. He’s been illustrating comics since at least the Seventies, when I first saw his work. His biggest, most famous material everyone would recognize is\u00a0Star Wars<\/em> in 1977 with the legendary Roy Thomas writing. Howard and Roy got the nod well before the movie hit theaters about a year in advance. According to the book<\/a> I read about Marvel and Howard, the higher-ups at Marvel needed extra convincing to publish the comic. The book said only Roy thought the movie would be a hit. Howard added, Marvel was also reluctant to do licensed properties. On the upside, George Lucas insisted on Howard being the artists because Lucas like Howard’s earlier work.<\/span><\/p>\n So I asked Howard to draw my favorite character he and Roy added when first six issues covering the movie ended, Jaxxon, a green-rabbit humanoid alien who was a contemporary and ally of Han Solo. They teamed up in a\u00a0Seven Samurai<\/em> storyline after (I think) Han either lost his reward money or Jabba upped the debt. After they defeated the bad guys terrorizing a farming community, Jaxxon didn’t re-appear until a cyborg caught up with him, trying find the pilot who destroyed the\u00a0Death Star<\/em>. I don’t think Jaxxon ever returned in the expanded universe books or when Dark Horse took over the comics around 1993. There’s also rumors that Lucas hated the character.<\/span><\/p>\n Doesn’t matter anymore, Jaxxon is allegedly canon<\/a> as per the IDW comic\u00a0Star Wars Adventures<\/em>!<\/span><\/p>\n I think Howard did a phenomenal job drawing the character my 10-11 year-old self loved. (There wasn’t much\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0<\/em>stuff beyond the Marvel comic and the three Brian Daley novels then.) I thanked him graciously for making my childhood fun. One bright spot, Howard said he enjoyed drawing Jaxxon more than he planned. Meanwhile I also thanked him for his recent work on\u00a0The Ruff n’ Reddy Show, Hawkgirl\u00a0<\/em>and long ago,\u00a0Twilight<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n Now I hope that Hasbro makes an action figure. I’d buy it in a heartbeat!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" First major guest I met and bought a commission from was Howard Chaykin. He’s been illustrating comics since at least the Seventies, when I first saw his work. His biggest, most famous material everyone would recognize is\u00a0Star Wars in 1977 … Continue reading