Star Wars Artist Series: Matt Busch

For years Busch wrote, illustrated, printed, and distributed his own underground comics and fanzines to local comic book stores and conventions -- slowly growing a steady following of fans. Before long he was illustrating movie posters and video box covers for foreign films and B-movies. But it wasn't until Busch submitted his work to West End Games as a writer, as opposed to an illustrator, that his artwork was ultimately sought out for Star Wars projects.

"It's actually a funny story," Busch says. "I had found out that West End Games was looking for writers for a quarterly periodical called the Star Wars Adventure Journal. I was primarily an aspiring illustrator, but have always enjoyed writing as well, so I managed to get West End to review a sample story of mine. Before sending in the story, I had inquired if I could do the art for it. The answer was no, and that West End already had enough Lucasfilm-approved artists, but that I could do quick sketches to indicate to the 'real' artists what I might suggest for visuals. So I created sample art for my story and sent everything in."

"Well, as it turned out, West End hated my writing," Busch laughs. "However, they were really surprised by the art, and before I knew it, I was illustrating a plethora of Star Wars books! It was ironic since being an illustrator is what I was ultimately aiming for. With my aspirations coming full circle, I have since gone on to be a published writer, both fiction and articles. Some of the published material I've written has been for Star Wars books and magazines, and I did eventually write Star Wars material for West End Games at one point too."

Busch has spent over 10 years creating licensed Star Wars art for West End Games, Bantam Books, Star Wars Insider magazine, Star Wars Kids magazine, Wizards of the Coast, and most recently Topps Trading Cards where he drew one-of-a-kind Artist Sketch Cards for both the Heritage and the Revenge of the Sith series.

"I had been wanting to do work with Topps for a long time, so Star Wars was a great way to get my foot in the door," Busch reveals. "As for the Sketch Cards, I had been doing them for years for other properties like Witchblade, Crimson, Lexx, and Top Cow Universe. I think it's a great little one-of-a-kind collectible for the fans."

Fans who attended Celebration II in 2002, may have also spotted Busch's work on the cover of the program guide, and later for Celebration III in 2005 Busch created a limited-edition poster sold at the event.

"I did a lot of Star Wars work that no one has ever seen for companies like Mattel, when they were trying to acquire the toy license, and Team Disney, where I helped to design a new (but never produced) Star Tours ride at Disneyland."

Recently, Busch illustrated 10 pieces for the new Vader: The Ultimate Guide.

The Star Wars universe isn't the only place Busch has been lending his talents. He's illustrated such popular titles as The Crow, Battlestar Galactica, The Hulk, Bruce Lee, Robocop, The Mummy, Stargate SG-1 and Star Trek.

"The variety I've had has been crazy," Busch says. "I remember at one point I was writing and illustrating the book How To Draw Peanuts (the Charlie Brown kind) at the same time I was illustrating the packaging for the Reservoir Dogs action figures."

In addition to comics, Busch does creative work for major music artists like Alice Cooper, Beastie Boys, Beck, Black Sabbath, Foo Fighters, Garbage, Kid Rock, L.L.Cool J, Ozzy Osbourne and Jessica Simpson -- among others.