CLASSIC ART: THE 'STARKILLER' THAT WAS...

Showing its roots as a deliberate homage celebration to the classic fantasy comic/book adventures of FLASH GORDON and JOHN CARTER, this is the cover to a very special, and very rare, auction collection piece (belonging to early STAR WARS spacecraft designer Colin Cantwell), of George Lucas's original epic, altogether very different screenplay draft for the film from the early seventies, when it was evocatively known as Adventures of the Starkiller! 

The cover art by Esteban Maroto was actually lifted from an earlier 1972 tribute piece that the artist did for Flash Gordon (titled "Even legends May Die"), the iconic sci-fi hero who inspired The Star Wars and its main character of Luke Skywalker. As we all know, Lucas had prior tried and failed to buy the rights to the classic space hero and had to create his own superior universe. 

More on Colin Cantwell's rare auction pieces (including other work on 2001 and the BUCK ROGERS TV series) can be found here: 

Unseen Star Wars artwork and designs come up for auction, in pictures - Telegraph

EXCLUSIVE: Video Interview with Colin Cantwell on ’74/’75 Star Wars Prototypes & Never Publicly Shown Concept Art, The Apollo XI Moon Landing with NASA & CBS, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, WarGames and More : The Original Prop Blog – Jason DeBord's TV and Movie Prop Collecting, News, & Authentication Memorabilia Resource

With thanks to Chris Baker for the heads-up on this.