Droids Custom Madine: First pencils!

by Bill Cable
on 2024-10-16, 08:56:09

On Monday I began work on my next Droids Custom: General Madine!

I'll admit, I was pretty much stumped when I tried to come up with an idea for Madine's artwork. I'd already done a stellar rendition inspired by his most famous (and only) scene from Return of the Jedi for my Droids Custom Admiral Ackbar. So I did what I often do when I'm at a loss... I read his bio on Wookieepedia.

Turns out Crix Madine was a bit of a badass. He was the leader of an Imperial commando unit before defecting to the Rebellion, where he continued to direct commandos in covert operations. I can work with that!

My mind immediately went to Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos - the old Marvel comics series from the 1960s and '70s. They sometimes had these really dynamic covers where Fury was charging into action surrounded by his team. Nine times out of ten Fury was charging in with automatic rifles in both hands (the tenth he had a rifle in one hand and a grenade in the other). That seems like a playground that'll be fun.

So far I've only taken a stab at Madine. Rather than two guns, I figured I had to work in his iconic riding crop accessory (or baton or laser pointer or whatever it is). I'm pretty happy so far, but I know I gotta improve on a couple things. For one, the hair.

Madine has, hands down, the worst haircut in the entire Star Wars saga. I was thinking maybe I could add some dynamism by having that hair flowing in the wind, but it just makes the hair not-Maidneish enough. I think I just gotta go with the twisty beehive helmet thing he has going on. It's just so, so awful...

Over the next week I figure I'll add in the supporting commandos and decide on a location for the attack. Fun stuff, indeed!