Dustin Weaver is an artist for Dark Horse and is a regular artist for the current comic series Knights Of The Old Republic and has also done work for other Star Wars comics including Legacy and Rebellion, also two current comic series. He was gracious enough to site down with EUC interviewer Andrew and answer a few questions about his job as a Star Wars artist.

EU Cantina (EUC): Mr.Weaver, welcome to EUC! It’s a pleasure to have you.

Dustin Weaver (DW): Thanks. It’s a pleasure to be here.

EUC: For those who don’t know, you are an artist for Dark Horse Comics.
You’ve worked on Knights as well as a few other issues, such as Rebellion
#15. What can you tell us about working on those series?

DW: I actually did issues 15 AND 16 of Rebellion and they were a lot of fun.
It was my first time working on the classic characters like Luke, Leia, Han,
and Chewie. The Knights characters are a lot of fun as well and I have
personal affection for them, but there’s just something about drawing that
original trilogy stuff that is really satisfying. I had a genuine geek-out
moment when I first got to draw the Millennium Falcon. I’m excited for those
issues to come out. I hope fans like em.

Knights, or as it’s typically called, Kotor, has been great. John Jackson
Miller has really got a fun and interesting story going and I really like
drawing the characters. Hopefully it wont be too long before I’m doing more
with them.

EUC: Working on Kotor, you must speak with John Jackson Miller. What is it
like working with him? And how much actual communication is there?

DW: I first met John at Comic Con in San Diego back when I had just started
working on Kotor. Brian Ching, Mike Atiyeh, John and I all got together for
lunch. John sat there and excitedly told us all of his plans for the series.
He had story planned out for at least the next 2 years. There are things
that he told us on that day that I still haven’t seen play out in the series
and that was 2 years ago. That experience is pretty indicative of what it’s
like to work with John. He’s got a lot of ideas and a lot of excitement and
love for the story and the characters. You can tell that he really loves to
tell a story whether it be in comics or verbally. Brian, Mike and I finished
eating before John had even started.
I’ve met up with John since then, but most of the communication is done
through e-mail. But really, all the writers that I’ve worked with get
everything they want to say into the script. Then I draw up some layouts
that I show to them and the editor and see if there’s something they think
should be changed, and that’s really the extent of the communication.

EUC: The Kotor era is one of the most liked eras of all Star Wars, thanks to
the Kotor game. What is it like working in an era like that?

DW: It’s a good era to work on, I think. There’s a lot of room to be
creative. Sure, there are the Kotor games and the Tails of the Jedi books
that have established things in this era, but there’s still opportunity to
make up new things like new aliens, ships and worlds. In the Rebellion era,
for instance, it’s harder to find those opportunities. So many stories have
been told in the Rebellion era that it feels like there’s very little left
to explore.
On the other hand, I personally feel that there should be almost endless
possibilities for creativity in Star Wars regardless of the era. You’ll
notice that in the original trilogy they rarely have an alien species appear
more than once, other than groups of aliens like Jawas and Ewoks and some
incidental background aliens that you don’t really notice. Going somewhere
exotic and unknown and seeing things you’ve never seen is one of the things
that makes Star Wars so great. After a while, you’ve seen so many Twi’leks
that they have no impact and might as well be humans.
I guess Kotor just FEELS like it has more room to be creative, and I guess,
in that respect, it seems more true to Star Wars.

EUC: I’m sure many of our readers are interested in the painted comic
covers, so let’s get into that. What is your process when drawing and
coloring these pieces? About how long does it take?

DW: Everyone always asks how long comic art takes. I’m not sure why. You
know, it does takes more than just time to do it.The time it takes to create any piece can really range depending on thecomplexity of the piece, the distractions you’re dealing with, your own motivation, how inspired you are, your health, etc, etc. The “painted” covers I’ve done for Star Wars so far have taken from 3 days to well over a week. They’ve been particularly intensive because it’s kind of a new thing
for me. I haven’t done too much with color in the past, but I feel like I’m
picking it up pretty well and I’m really enjoying it.

As for the process, with all of the covers I’ve done so far I’ve started
with a black and white rendered piece that I create with ink, pencil,
marker, and opaque white watercolor. Then I’ll scan that in and color it in
photoshop.

EUC: Do you enjoy being a Star Wars artist?

DW: You know, I think Star Wars is a great franchise to work on. You always
get to draw something interesting. You could draw Spiderman or Batman and
end up having to draw pages of 2 people sitting at a table talking to one
another. At least in Star Wars, if you were to have to draw that same scene
you could put an endless parade of strange aliens or interesting
architecture behind your characters. It’s not tied to the real world and
scenes are only as boring as you make them.

EUC: When you were little, did you ever imagine you’d be an artist someday?
How fun is it to see your name on comic issues?

DW: Um, I’d say it’s 10 fun… Seriously, yeah, it is pretty cool to have my
name in comic books. I like it every time I see it. To be honest, I just
can’t get enough of myself.
I think I always wanted to be an artist of some sort since I was really
little. I was 13 when I decided I wanted to be a comic book artist. Before
that I think there was a period where I wanted to be an actor. Then there
was a period where I wanted to be an architect. I guess, in away, I get to
do both of those things in comics.

EUC: Mr. Weaver, thank you for taking this time to sit and discuss your
works with me. Please, visit us again anytime!

DW: “Visit anytime”?.. What are you doing tomorrow?