The Star Wars: The High Republic subseries has been one of the Star Wars franchise's most ambitious undertakings. Combining art and story, the creators of the subseries have worked to create a new era of Star Wars that both has connective tissue with previous Star Wars content and also stands on its own as a unique time period in the Star Wars franchise. To recognize the effort put into creating the subseries, Lucasfilm will release The Art of Star Wars: The High Republic by Kristin Baver, currently set to be released on October 18, 2022. This book will provide a unique look at the process behind creating the subseries, and, for comic fans, the book also could provide more insight into the creation of comics within a larger franchise. Most importantly, The Art of Star Wars: The High Republic will give more in depth spotlight to the artists behind the subseries whose work has been integral to both crafting a new era and also setting the tone for the various novels, comic series and other works in the initiative.
From the beginning of the subseries, the Star Wars: The High Republic Show has consistently highlighted the efforts of various artists and designers working on the initiative behind the scenes. In regards to the comics in particular, In the Star Wars: The High Republic Show's third episode, Krystina Arielle hosted a roundtable focusing on the Star Wars: The High Republic comic series with Cavan Scott, the series' writer; Ario Anindito, one of the series' main artists; and Rob Sampson, a senior editor at Lucasfilm Publishing. In the roundtable, they discussed both the process of creating the comic and their own personal histories with the Star Wars franchise. These segments throughout the Star Wars: The High Republic show have made the sheer amount of work that has been put into the subseries clear and also shown why a book delving even deeper into that work would be valuable to any fan of the Star Wars franchise.
With the Star Wars: The High Republic Show's focus on both the writing and the art of the subseries, it was fitting Kristin Baver announced her next book will be Star Wars: The Art of the High Republic in the latest episode. This artbook is not her first work digging deeper into the Star Wars saga. She wrote Skywalker: A Family at War, a canon biography of the Skywalker family throughout all three trilogies and beyond. She also wrote Star Wars Year by Year: A Visual History with Pablo Hidalgo, and earlier she also wrote the Star Wars: Galaxy of Creatures' children's book tie in. In regards to Star Wars: The Art of the High Republic, Baver stated, "What I wanted to do with this book was to tell that story of how this whole initiative came to be, and I got the chance to do that through all of these amazing interviews and through the generosity of all of the folks working on these projects." With this book, Baver will be able to go even more in depth into the creative process behind the art and the story of the Star Wars: the High Republic subseries.
While Star Wars: The Art of the High Republic will focus on the artwork developed for the subseries as a whole, the interviews with the artists behind Star Wars: The High Republic and Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures may be of particular interest to comic fans. While the authors of the initiative have been given the most spotlight so far, the artists of the subseries’ comic series have been an important part of balancing the subseries. From Star Wars: The High Republic’s focus on visceral horror to Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures' heartwarming stories of friendship and connection, artists Ario Anindito, Georges Jeanty, Harvey Tolibao, Pow Rodrix, Manuel Bracchi and Toni Bruno have managed to balance vastly different tones while creating cohesive stories that still fit together within the same Star Wars era.
With the first phase of the Star Wars: The High Republic subseries coming to a close, now is the perfect time to look back and dig deep into the processes through which the subseries was created. The book also could be valuable for comic fans wanting a behind the scenes look at how comics are created, particularly for a longstanding franchise like Star Wars. More importantly, the art of the Star Wars: The High Republic subseries plays an integral role in crafting a new era of Star Wars, and this Star Wars: The Art of the High Republic could reveal more insight into how that creation occurred.