CLASSIC ART: SCARY DOMINION!

The idea of Darth Vader's own personal fortress home/'castle' may have been lost from the later Lawrence Kasdan script for The Empire Strikes Back, but its powerful and doom laden artistic legacy lives on, especially via Joe Johnson and Ralph McQuarrie's conceptual work during late 1977/early 78, in this great early ideas work for The Force Awakens, at a location we presume to be Mustafar, from artist Brett Northcutt - an image where the TIE Interceptors emerge like bats flying out from a haunted realm. By the time of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Vader's personal domain would be chillingly realized.

CLASSIC IMAGE: KILL ZONE!

The incredible space confrontation between Rebels and Imperials above Endor begins, as the Millennium Falcon and its fighter squadrons are swiftly caught in the swarm field of approaching TIE Fighters and Interceptors, in this great image from RETURN OF THE JEDI.

With thanks to Chris Baker for the image.

AN 'EMPIRE' AT 35: OF FUTURES AND FIREPOWER!

An EPISODE IV young and (so far) unafraid Luke Skywalker stands ready, lightsaber activated, for the onslaught of Darth Vader and his Imperial legions, in this very cool unused poster art concept by Tom Jung for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, sometime from late 1979. Note the early idea of wedged-winged TIE fighters (later becoming the familiar TIE Bombers eventually seen on Jung's classic 1980 poster)- a visual idea metamorphose into the TIE Interceptors that'd appear in their multitudes by RETURN OF THE JEDI.

Welcome to the first entry of AFICIONADO's 35th Anniversary celebrations for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

HOW TO DO A 'STAR WARS' SPACE BATTLE...

A TIE interceptor lets loose its weapons in a terrific animated fan film.

They may be baddies, but that doesn't stop STAR WARS fans from loving the cool ships, heavy weaponry and advanced technology used by the Galactic Empire against our heroes in the Rebel Alliance during the time of Luke Skywalker.

Check out this terrific fan made, manga/anime inspired short film showing the Empire's finest against our Rebel heroes in one helluva epic space battle worthy of the STAR WARS name, put on YouTube a while back by otaking77 and given a special edition upgrade by JPL4185. It's brilliant. Somebody at LUCASFILM or DISNEY give these guys a job and then please proceed with a new animated series like this set during the Classic Trilogy era.

Star Wars Tie Fighter Animation (WIP) by otaking77077 with sounds SFX! - YouTube

2015 UPDATE: Complete version of the superb project: ▶ TIE Fighter - short film - YouTube

CLASSIC ART: BRAVURA B-WING!

A very cool poster for RETURN OF THE JEDI from 1983 (if I recall correctly it was originally part of the revised STAR WARS FAN CLUB package for the new film) of the classic Battle of Endor space conflict, and showing one of the underused, and at the time kind of impractical to shoot, B-wing fighters. It's a shame that with the revisions made to the recent Blu-ray release of JEDI that they couldn't have added a few new CGI B-wings into the background of the battle here and there fighting/chasing TIE's. It would have at least been relevant to the film and much better than seeing an unneccessary and out of place Dug wandering about Jabba's Throne Room, or hearing Vader scream "Nooooo!!!"