Luke Skywalker by Dave Dorman (Star Wars Dark Empire - Cover Quality Commission)

This one has been in the making for a while. A fully painted pin-up commission by Star Wars painter extraordinaire Dave Dorman. I have no clue how many hours I've stared at his Dark Empire covers and other Dark Horse material, but it's a lot! To me, there's always been something iconic and special about the Dark Empire version of one of my favorite heroes: Luke Skywalker. A hero with a bit of an edge.

Here, we see a classic Dark Empire Luke in a hero pose with his green lightsaber out, in front of an abandoned Jedi Temple. The temple design was based on old Roman ruins, which perfectly matches my interest in that particular historical time period. The piece in acrylic is 11x17 and honestly, the scan doesn't do justice to all the detailed work Dave did.

It was such a joy to see this piece come alive over 3-4 livestreams, seeing Dave work his magic on this for over five hours. It really felt like I was a part of the creating process, being able to talk to Dave (and sometimes help out).

During those streams, Dave shared some interesting Lucasfilm stories, as well as how his covers with Dark Empire Luke came to be. Originally, that version of Luke was supposed to be a bit older, apparently, but the Jedi had to remain recognizable. Just one of the stories you'll hear during his Daily Dugouts on Facebook!

Another definitive plus was JD Correa who helped me out with setting up the commission and helping throughout! All in all, we started talking in March and the piece arrived this morning (after having been stuck at Belgian customs for a few weeks).