Via Starwars.com:
With the release of Darth Vader and Son in 2012, Jeffrey Brown’s adorable depictions of the cuter side of the galaxy were introduced to moms and dads with a passion for Star Wars. For some parents, this passion included a desire to rope their children into the saga along with them, and Brown’s books were the key. Now with several more books under his belt, including Vader’s take on parenting daughters, friendship, and even bedtime stories, Brown has made us love these characters all over again through a different lens. StarWars.com got to chat with the illustrator about his influence on young fandom, his most difficult drawings, and his own father/son relationships. We also snagged an exclusive sneak peek at the two prints included with his upcoming box set, which collects Goodnight Darth Vader and Darth Vader and Friends, due out this September!
StarWars.com: First, I want to ask you about how your books have been praised as a great way for “Geek Dads” to get their kids into Star Wars. When you started writing the books, did you have that intention or was it more something that just came about?
Jeffrey Brown: You know, it was really something more that came about. My original intent was I was just gonna write something to entertain people who were kinda in my shoes, which is having grown up with Star Wars and then, now having kids of my own, just mixing the parenting and the Star Wars with kind of some funny observations of life. But kids love Star Wars already, and kids would see the books, and one of the stories that I hear again and again is the parents get the books, and then the kids just take ownership of them. So really the fact that kids and their parents have been able to kind of reconnect or connect in a different way through the books was just kind of this extra happy accident.
StarWars.com: One thing I really love about the stories is they bring a silly, childlike side to Star Wars. Were you nervous or did you have any apprehensions when you first decided to take the saga in that direction? Maybe about how people would react to it?
Jeffrey Brown: I mean, not really. I think just because I’m coming from a place that I think is the same place that the people who are seeing the books are coming from, which is, you know, I’m a fan! … I think the fact that, really, where the books were coming from was a very personal place and just kind of [have] a lot of heart in it. I think I was never really too worried. I didn’t necessarily think that they would strike a chord with as wide an audience as they did. But I didn’t think there would be necessarily any backlash because it didn’t fit [continuity] so well.
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