The Process of Designing the Cover of “Vader’s Little Princess”

Chronicle Books has released the front and back cover design process for Vader’s Little Princess, an upcoming Star Wars themed children’s book by cartoonist and author Jeffrey Brown. The book is a sequel to Darth Vader and Son. For the front and back cover illustrations, Jeffrey wanted to reflect the trials of fatherhood that Vader would have experienced with his daughter Princess Leia, if he were actually a good father.

Jeff developed more ideas, some from panels in the book, some just to try out for cover potential—happily, anything we fell in love with that wasn’t quite right for the cover found a home inside the book if it wasn’t already represented. We were looking for something with a sense of affectionate connection that’s also true to the characters and their relationship as Jeff imagines it inside the book, but wouldn’t overemphasize a single aspect (we love Vader as a nervous dad faced with the prospect of Leia dating Han Solo, for instance, but that seemed to us to overemphasize that particular aspect a bit much for the cover.)

Jeffrey was spot on with his final cover design (featured at the top of the post), which shows Leia as an innocent child playing tea with Vader (front cover) and a rebellious teen being scolded by Vader for what she is wearing (back cover).

images via Chronicle Books Blog

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips