Posted in: Comics | Tagged: george lucas, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, richard fairgray, star wars, thought bubble
The Star Wars Comic George Doesn’t Know Is Hidden In The Lucas Museum
The Star Wars Comic that George Lucas really doesn’t know is hidden in his Lucas Museum Of Narrative Art in Los Angeles
Article Summary
- Richard Fairgray, the legally blind creator behind cult comics and kids books, is now making outrageous Star Wars parody work.
- His adult imprint Richard Sux includes a Star Wars comic packed with adult-themed versions of iconic characters.
- Fans have allegedly hidden at least ten copies of publication inside the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.
- George Lucas has no idea the secret Star Wars comic is tucked into his museum, from the library to gallery displays.
I bumped into a very old friend, comic book creatorRichard Fairgray, at Thought Bubble in Harrogate, England, yesterday, where he was signing up a storm. Richard Fairgray is a prolific author and illustrator, working across children’s picture books, middle-grade horror graphic novels, and, increasingly, adult personal work. He creates, draws, colours, and even animates his projects despite being legally blind, with complete blindness in one eye and roughly 3% vision in the other. Which is why his current Star Wars-adjacent project regarding one-eyed trouser snakes is so appropriate. His major breakthrough came with Blastosaurus, launched around 2008 and heading to its twentieth anniversary next year – more on that later – and was New Zealand’s first locally produced monthly comic about a curmudgeonly, crime-fighting dinosaur. Relocated to Los Angeles a decade ago, he is known for children’s picture books such as My Grandpa Is a Dinosaur, Gorillas in Our Midst, and middle-grade graphic novels Black Sand Beach, Cardboardia, Shed, and Four-Color Heroes, which won a 2024 GLAAD Media Award.
His lockdown memoir comic Octopus: A Memoir of Flailing, dealing with divorce, depression, relocation, and other raw experiences led to his own mature-reader imprint, Richard Sux, “grown-up books for dirtbags, gays and ladies”, explicitly aimed at readers who might feel underserved by mainstream offerings. And I use the word explicitly deliberately, as it includes the “Dicks by Richard” line, in which he draws penises in the most amusing, and sometimes even poignant manner, around a variety of themes.
And recently that includes Star Wars with The Foreskin Awakens, running the gamut of Star Wars characters and aliens in a very penile manner, from Han Solo to Yoda to Jawas to Hutt-Killer Leia. Including the very uncircumcised original version of Jabba the Hutt designed by Howard Chaykin from the Marvel Star Wars comic. There is more, much, much more, right here. But here is where we get to the meat of the story.
Because Richard Fairgray has a rather committed fanbase in Los Angeles. And it seems it has become a thing for his fans to visit the Lucas Museum Of Narrative Art, the spaceship-looking massive museum of comic books, storyboards, animation and films housing George Lucas‘ own collection of work collated over the decades, with some extraordinary pieces in one place, and including huge libraries of work. And in that museum, Richard Fairgray is aware that fans have secreted at least ten copies of The Foreskin Awakens without the knowledge of staff, or anyone but themselves – and Richard Fairgray. Whether in the library, behind certain items framed on walls or even in plain sight, they have survived repeat visits by people to check. George Lucas doesn’t know. Well, I mean, does now. Will he send the Stormtroopers round with a search-and-destroy mission? Or will he decide that Star Wars genitalia isn’t worth fiddling with?
Thought Bubble is having its twentieth show this weekend on the 14th and 15th of November at Harrogate Convention Centre, part of a week of festival events across Yorkshire in England. Thought Bubble is the UK’s largest comic art festival, a week-long celebration of comics, illustration, animation, and more that culminates in this weekend’s comic convention. Focused on those who create comic books, specifically the artists and writers, it is especially supportive of small press. The festival was founded in 2007 by Yorkshire artist Lisa Wood, also known as Tula Lotay, and was organised as part of the Leeds International Film Festival to raise the profile of comics in the area. The first Thought Bubble was held in 2007 in the basement of Leeds Town Hall. attended by a couple of hundred people, but it has grown a little since then. The convention originally ran throughout Leeds, but in 2019, due to issues with Leeds City Council and the need for more space, it moved to nearby Harrogate. Bleeding Cool will be reporting from the show all weekend long. Do feel free to say hi! And find more Thought Bubble coverage over the next week right here…
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