The Star Wars #8 cover painting by Nick Runge (Dark Horse 2014)
Artist: Nick Runge (Painter)
27 Comments - 4,375 Views - 8 Likes
Additional Images:
published cover
me with the painting (for scale of size:)
Artwork Details
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DescriptionI need to start this off by saying that I truly love Nick's work and he is easily one of my favorite painters of modern comics. He is such a nice and humble guy too, in addition to being an incredible artist, and he is absolutely amazing with likenesses and realism. His work (to me) is very reminiscent of the old Drew Struzan movie posters and such, especially Nick's covers to this new Star Wars series."The Star Wars" was an 8-issue mini-series that just wrapped last month, based on George Lucas' original 1975 rough draft screenplay of Star Wars. So it is wildly different than what ended up on screen and became the original trilogy. While the story is very similar in a lot of ways, there are a lot of differences, especially in the characters. In this version, Jedi are more like hired warriors to fight your wars, the Sith are many and the universe's best assassins who are hunting the Jedi to extinction. Luke Skywalker is a 65 year old Jedi General, Han Solo is a green alien, and Darth Vader is a Soldier only and not a Jedi or Sith. It's a new and interesting take on the original movie, as envisioned by Lucas and designed by Ralph McQuarrie. This penultimate issue cover painting is HUGE, at 20"x30", and features all the main characters of Annikin Starkiller (the original Luke Skywalker hero), Princess Leia, Darth Vader, C3PO, and R2-D2. Other than issue #2's cover, this would have been the one I wanted anyway, so I was very fortunate to inquire about this to Nick when I did. When I first heard that Nick was doing the covers for the Star Wars series, I knew I would have to get one. I have been buying his art for years through other collectors and his Rep, Mike, at NSN Art. I saw a lot of great covers over the years and I would watch Mike's site to see what popped up and no new paintings ever seemed to show up. So I finally emailed Mike to ask about that and it turns out that several other collectors figured out how to just buy from Nick or Mike directly before it is even posted to the site, so they never made it there. It was then that I remembered I had Nick's card and contact info from meeting at SDCC a few times, so I reached out to him directly. Sadly by this point, all his cover paintings were sold except for this one, and only because it was the last one of the series and he had just finished it recently. He explained that Lucasfilm gets first crack at all of them, although they had only bought one of the previous 7, but I would need them to pass on it before he could sell it to me. So it was a brutal 2 months or so of worrying before they finally officially passed and Nick told me it was mine to buy. Then it was another 4 months of him letting me make payments over time so I could afford it! It was a long road to get it but I managed to do it. The best part of it was that Nick had moved to the Bay Area since I bought from him last, so now he's just 20 minutes from me! He was very patient with me and was even cool enough to meet up with me this past weekend to give me the piece and another I bought but hadn't picked up yet (The Boy Wonder movie poster painting) in person. We hung out for a while and talked shop and he is just such a cool and grounded guy. This will be my last major art purchase for the foreseeable future as my daughter is going away to college soon and that will be all my money for the next few years. But for me this is a trifecta piece in that it is a published Star Wars cover painting from the final issue of a great series, a poster-sized painted piece that looks and feels like a movie poster, and the biggest and nicest piece I have gotten from Nick to date (and that's saying something as I have several outstanding pieces by him already). It's the perfect piece to go out on top (and with a bang:) for a while and I couldn't be happier! Thanks for reading this all:) Social/Sharing |
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Comments on this Artwork
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Jens Walter
Member Since 2012
Posted on 6/3/2014
Great painting and great story how you got it (must have been a really hard time while you were waiting on the decision from Lucasfilm - be glad that I'm not Lucasfilm; I wouldn't have passed that up ;)
Trent Abraham
Member Since 2011
Posted on 6/3/2014
an incredible piece my friend. that really is a great score. congrats
Gal Schwartz
Member Since 2005
Posted on 6/3/2014
Incredible cover for one of the all-time greatest "what if?" tales ! This piece alone makes me wish that Nick would be invited to draw the posters for the next film.
Patrick Brooks
Member Since 2008
Posted on 6/3/2014
Dude, I really love the style of this. Beautiful piece.
Joshua McCoy
Member Since 2013
Posted on 6/3/2014
Such a beautifully unique take on Star Wars. Great addition, Dave!
Little John 
Member Since 2011
Posted on 6/3/2014
This is amazing! The detail that Nick put into this is astounding. Congrats on the addition to your collection.
Jason Versaggi
Member Since 2005
Posted on 6/3/2014
Dave that is truly one awesomely impressive painting. Really sensational...but are those capri pants you're wearing?
Mike Mayhew
Member Since 2005
Posted on 6/3/2014
Nick did an incredible job on all the covers! Great pickup.
J L
Member Since 2005
Posted on 6/4/2014
Really great to see this in your collection Dave. Goes so well with the other nice Runge paintings you have. Congrats my friend!!!!
Eric Callen
Member Since 2005
Posted on 6/16/2014
Here it is!! Wow!! This is just a stellar piece, man. Congrats!!
JEff G
Member Since 2006
Posted on 1/19/2015
What an amazing story and work!! Thanks for sharing such an extraordinary piece, Dave.
Eric Callen
Member Since 2005
Posted on 9/4/2015
SWEET! I know I commented already, but just wanted to say how cool that this is a highlighted piece!! I always wanted to have a piece of my collection highlighted here on CAF. So freakin' cool, man. Just a stellar piece of art.
Bill J
Member Since 2009
Posted on 6/17/2019
Spectacular! Beautiful reimagination of the Star Wars universe!
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