Earlier this month we learned about the upcoming comic book event from Marvel titled ‘Star Wars: Citadel‘ and now artist Marco Checchetto is sharing images and hints about what to expect! We already know that Jason Aaron (‘Star Wars’, ‘The Mighty Thor’) and Kieron Gillen (‘Star Wars: Darth Vader’, ‘Star Wars: Doctor Aphra’) are working together on writing the series that puts Luke Skywalker and Doctor Aphra in a situation that they’ll be forced to work together. With the images, Checchetto shows a little bit more on what we’ll see inside the Screaming Citadel with an idea of what this unlikely duo will be up against.
When looking at the sketches we’re seeing a variety of influences though mostly it seems to stem from a combination of “medieval, gothic, and Victorian” designs. According to Checchetto when he put this together:
I opened up a lot of concept arts books from many movies and videogames to find something that would inspire me. Two of the most beautiful books I have are definitely the art books of the last two Star Wars movies, The Force Awakens and Rogue One. Those books helped me to try something new to me, but at the same time stay close to our galaxy.
Now, the influence of the Queen who looks to be the ruler of the Screaming Citadel has a notable influence from one of my favorite pieces of horror of all time for it’s visuals:
For the Queen, and also for other characters, I was inspired by a Francis Ford Coppola movie, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” The costumes and the color palette in that are amazing. My woman here is beautiful, but very scary, a sinister and elegant alien-queen.
Now the guards themselves had a bit of a more traditional design scheme behind them:
For the Citadel Guards it was more complicated. I wanted a sort of new Star Wars stormtrooper, something iconic but new. The head has as a base a classic Mandalorian helmet. This helps a lot to make it immediately familiar to the Star Wars world-look. For their costumes I used a classic medieval armor, but with lights and sci-fi details. For their weapons, a classic blaster and something to help me draw cool battles with them against Luke and his lightsaber. And to make it all more credible, I added a new flag for this new faction.
Horror seems to be the theme of choice for this book in characters:
I decided to do all these characters without irises, and with cadaveric skin. Making them menacing is something you can do with your art-style; I really love to draw dark characters. I’m a dark side guy!
And setting:
For the Citadel I was inspired by old black and white horror movies, with these improbable castles perched on the most inaccessible mountains, but I didn’t want to go with their classic medieval look. I wanted something that would strongly evoke that particular Star Wars-type atmosphere.
I think that we’re going to have a dark story in ‘Star Wars: Screaming Citadel’ and one that has more of a visual that isn’t too often used but will be perfect to enjoy in a realm ruled by those who lean more towards the Dark Side.
Are you looking forward this ‘Star Wars’ crossover? What do you think of the designs we’ve seen so far?
‘Star Wars: The Screaming Citadel’ #1, ‘Star Wars’ #31, and ‘Star Wars: Doctor Aphra’ #7 are all set to be released in May of 2017!
Source: Marvel.
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
