Since its inception with George Lucas' seminal 1977 film, the "Star Wars" franchise has been a welcome home for numerous cutting edge comics artists. This year, one of modern comics most inventive artists dove into the universe for the first time: Frank Quitely.

Quitely drew his first Jedi-themed image as part of the new "Star Wars Art: Comics" coffee table book from Abrams, and now thanks to Titan Magazine's "Star Wars Insider," CBR is sharing a look behind the scenes of the illustration from this month's issue #131.

In stores over the next week, the latest issue of the monthly Star Wars magazine features new info an interviews with the creators behind the book's imagery including Quitely and Paul Pope as well as a celebration of "Star Wars" joining the 3D fray with the cinema re-release of"StarWars:Episode IThe Phantom Menace" onFebruary 10. Read on for an interview with Frank Quitely discussing his newStarWars-themed work and how the sagahas influenced his award-winning art.

Star Wars Insider: Are you part of the generation that grew up with "Star Wars"?

Frank Quitely: Yes, I am, but I didn't actually see "Star Wars" when I was younger. I'm now 43, and I saw "A New Hope" when I was about 30. My wife bought me all six movies, so I could do some research before doing the piece for "Star Wars Art: Comics."

I realize now that the films actually were an influence on me -- even though I hadn't actually seen them -- just because the Star Wars aesthetic is so engrained and interwoven into all aspects of pop culture, and in turn has had an influence on sci-fi and in comics.

How did you come to be approached to contribute to "Star Wars Art: Comics" art?

I had just come back from a convention in America, and I had this big list of e-mails in my inbox, and there was one from Jonathan Rinzler from Lucasfilm. It was an offer to do a piece for this book and it was a total bolt out of the blue. The remit was so loose. It was basically: Do whatever I wanted. It was a total dream project! And then I saw a list of all the guys who were invited to do a piece. It was a great list and great company to be included with.

Was the finished piece your idea or was there anything else you came up with?

I had the idea straight away that I wanted to do something detailed that you could spend some time looking at.

I also liked the ambiguity of it; Why were they in this sleazy dive in the first place?

Why has the fight happened? You can just make up your own story.

If the chance came up for you to revisit the Star Wars galaxy, what would you like to draw?

Gosh, I don't know. The Tusken Raiders are very cool. I think I would want to do something like that rather than something that is set in space.

To read more of this interview, pick up the new issue of "StarWarsInsider"magazine #131, which hits stores inthe US and Canada on January 31and in the UK and Ireland onFebruary 9.