DG: I've got my glass of water here, so start whenever you like.
SE: This shouldn't take too long. The last interview I did was with Kelley Jones, and we were on the phone for an hour and a half.
DG: Oh really. Well, I've been known to talk and talk myself, but for these purposes I'll try to keep to the point.
SE: Well, I'm cutting this off at half an hour no matter what, so I think we'll be safe (laughter all around). Is Vader's Quest your first Star Wars project?
DG: Really, it is. I remember when the movie first came out I did an illustration of Artoo-Detoo and See-Threepio for a magazine over here called something like Sci-Fi Monthly or something. and I did do a trading card for Topps, I think called Star Wars Galaxy, and again, strangely enough, I did See-Threepio. And I did get to draw See-Threepio in this one, but he only appears very small in two panels.
SE: Your See-Threepio is very striking. He seems less bumbling than many other depictions if him.
DG: Well, I've always felt that he's kind of the nearest we've got to an English character. He's a very irritating, but somehow endearing character. I try to be respectful of my fellow country-man (laughs).
SE: So other than a few chance drawings, this is your first major work on Star Wars. How were you introduced to Star Wars?
DG: I can remember very vividly, back in 1977 it must have been, sort of reading snippets about Star Wars in the newspapers over here. And in fact they filmed it about eight miles from where I'm sitting now, in Elstree in England. Strangely enough, a friend of mine who was a fireman, on his days off, he was a fireman on the set of Star Wars -- you know, standing by on the set in case something was to go up in flames. I don't think anything ever did, but he was there in case. And he's not a particularly science-fiction literate type of guy, but he used to tell me these things he's seen, and it was so tantalizing because it was obviously going to be quite an unusual movie. But I had sort of the inside track with my friend, and I enjoyed that. Actually I was talking to him just the other day telling him I was doing Star Wars, and I thought that was kind of exciting.
SE: Would you consider yourself to be a Star Wars fan?
DG: Yes -- I think Star Wars is a lot of fun, and the films are great. In fact, I just bought this book the other day that features all these cut-away drawings of the different space ships, and my fireman friend can actually remember when they were filming scenes with the Millennium Falcon and stuff like that. And he's told me how they had these big boxes full with parts of swimming pools and hoses and filters and parts of vacuum cleaners and things, and they'd say "hey we need some more wiring over here, or we need some ducts." And these special effects guys would just grab stuff from the box and sort of staple it onto the wall. And now, looking in this book, I see how they list all of the, you-know, trans-ionic inducers or something like that (laughs).
SE: Of course, in theory, these ships do have all the trans-ionic stabilizers. But Star Wars was really the first movie to try to capture that to any realistic degree. As far as anyone knew in 1977, that was exactly what the interior of an ancient space ship would look like.
DG: Oh yes, and they did a good job of it. And I got to hear all about it from my friend, and I was really tantalized way, way back before the movie ever came out. I really liked the first one, and Return of the Jedi is a favorite of mine. By then they really had the whole thing figured out, and it was such a memorable film.
SE: So, Vader's Quest, is of course about Darth Vader and his search for the Rebel pilot who destroyed the Death Star. What a great character to focus on and develop.
DG: He really is.
SE: What sorts of things do you have to consider when illustrating a story where somebody like Darth Vader is the focus?
DG: Well, I'll start with this -- he's wearing a helmet, and you can't see his face -- I can't give him facial expressions as I would with any other character, and that can be difficult. So I have to find other ways to make him expressive. It's hard work to make his emotions known. A lot of that has to come across in gestures . . .
SE: He is such an intimidating character that most of the time just his presence on a page or inside a panel is enough to start making things a little scary. There are a couple of scenes in the first issue of Vader's Quest where he's not doing much, but he's obviously intimidating the hell out of everyone who's around him.
DG: Well, I'm glad you got that from reading the issue. That's really what I was going for, and it's difficult, sometimes, to make that work. But Vader is a great character to work with -- and his costume is just mythic and impressive. It's really fun to draw.
SE: When all is said and done, and fans have read this series, how do you want them to feel about Darth Vader?
DG: Hmmmm. That's a very good question, and I guess I hadn't thought of it. But I guess I'd like them to see Darth Vader somewhat like I do -- he's a bit of a tragic character who is ultimately human. He has amazing power over people, and he's evil, but he didn't start out that way. And that makes him fascinating.