Star Wars: Empire, Issue 31, Page 03

Star Wars: Empire issue 31 came out in 2005. That was right in my heyday of being a con exhibitor and attending the first four Star Wars Celebrations. Most of these events I was assisting an assortment of Star Wars artist friends, including my longtime pile Joe. From this issue’s release until around 2009 I picked up a number of pages from Joe, and also from issue 25 released a year earlier. I’ll never have the complete issue 25, as George Lucas bought the last two pages of the story. George also bought the cover to issue 31. Darn that first right of refusal clause! But, I’m still adding pages occasionally when I find them. This page was picked up at SDCC 2024, after Joe found a handful of issue 31 pages during a recent move.

Publisher’s summary - For the velociraptor-like inhabitants of Tiss'sharl, assassination is a common method of corporate or political advancement—as the planet's president can attest. But the Tiss'shar are about to get a surprising lesson in the use of force from one who has made the ruthless application of fear and violence a way of life: Darth Vader has dropped in for an unexpected visit.

Vader's arrival could not have come at a worse time for the President, who is fending off attempts on his life—and business offers from a dangerous quarter. But even the President's cool reptilian intellect can't guess at the real reasons for Vader's visit, or the depths at which the Dark Lord's machinations run.

This issue was colored directly over scans of Joe’s pencils, as can be seen in the additional images. Also included is a scan of Joe’s layouts for the page, done in pencil and marker on a sheet of 11x17 copier paper.