Who is IG-88?

I think it's no secret that I'm a closet comic book geek.  I've grown up knowing more about the random backstories of myriad supervillians and the hierarchies of heroes in spandex than I care to say.  I get goosebumps watching the Avengers.  Not so deep down, I'm still a ten-year-old oggling his Saturday morning cartoons.  B. loves on LOTR from time to time, but her knowledge pales in comparison to the extensive Silmarillion research I know certain members of my extended family have done.

We all have our obsessions growing up, some of them stick with us, other fall by the wayside.  I was an avid videogamer until one spring turned my fancy to love... or at least cute girls.  We often outgrow our childhood fantasies and pastimes. But sometimes holding on to the heroes of your youth can be the best thing for you.

I have one question for you folks:


Who is IG-88?


No peeking, no cheating, no googling.  Do you know who he is?


Didn't think so.


Well, I did, I'm ashamed to say.  And it landed me my first paid gig as an illustrator.

IG-88 is a particularly cylindrical fellow in the lineup of bounty hunters employed by Darth Vader to track down Han Solo and thereby lead the Empire straight to young Luke Skywalker. 

That's right people, we're gonna talk Star Wars for a sec.


I have many fond memories of watching Star Wars as a kid.  Often it served as background ambience to set the mood for my vast Lego mythologies spread across the basement carpet.  Many a summer afternoon was spent in the cool shelter of the dark, theater-like basement.  We owned the entire Star Wars trilogy on vhs back when it was still in its unadulterated form - no frivolous CGI plugins and extra characters so George Lucas could beat his chest and tastelessly flash his obvious zillions to the innocent public.  Sorry, tangential rant over.  I loved the characters, I knew the plots, I knew all the important lines and I knew when it was time to put my legos down and enjoy a lightsaber battle and when it was ok to focus on my latest plastic architectural masterpiece and let Han and Leia make out in peace.

But my devotion to the franchise is dwarfed by that of my brothers'.  Logan has played (and soundly beaten) nearly every video game made or designed by Lucasarts, Inc.  Adam somehow obtained thorough knowledge of every character, including the superfluous military leaders in the Empire who one by one get force-choked out of command.  Seriously, who remembers who Grand Moff Tarkin is?

Well, sadly I do.  Because you see I not only lived with these Jedi Masters, I roomed with them, listened to them, and was slowly but surely indoctrinated by them as their unwitting and unwilling padawan.  That is until the triumphant day when Adam coerced us into playing Star Wars trivial pursuit one rainy day and the apprentice truly became the master.  I beat him.  More than once in fact. An arbitrary victory, I know, but aren't all childhood squabbles?   Even as I type this I feel a strange swelling mixture of pride and shame. Their fascination with a galaxy far far away soaked in. 

And apparently some of it stayed there, because when the man who has now employed me talked about his idea about a Star Wars kids book about IG-88, my prior knowledge of the mischievous droid was what clinched the job for me.  Thank you Adam.  Thank you Logan.  Your brainwashing has done some good after all. 


Here's to all the geeks and nerds who wear their passions on their sleeves.  Go ahead and love what you love, you never know when you might find a kindred spirit and make something great.


May the force be with you,


S


p.s. - I'll post pages from the book when its finished in a few months.