>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. >> I am thrilled to kick off the 2014 National Book Festival by introducing Eisner award-winning and New York Times best-selling author Jeffrey Brown. Mr. Brown earned a Master of Fine Arts -- [ Applause ] >> Mr. Brown earned a Master of Fine arts from the Art Institute of Chicago School as a painter, but he soon found his niche drawing comics. He began his career with a self-published Clumsy. And among his many published works, Mr. Brown wrote and illustrated Darth Vader and Son, its sequel Vader's Little Princess and its sequel Goodnight Darth Vader, which was recently released. And he is the author-illustrator of Star Wars: Jedi Academy. And -- [ Applause ] >> And its recently released sequel Star Wars: Jedi Academy Number Two: Return of the Padawan. [ Applause ] >> The Jedi Academy series describes the trials and tribulations of Roan Novachez, a late blooming Jedi Padawan that was invited by Master Yoda to the Jedi Academy Middle School. Please welcome Mr. Jeffrey Brown. [ Applause ] >> Hi. So I grew up with Star Wars. It was the first movie I saw in the theater. I was only like two years old and I don't really remember it. And so it's probably -- I'm probably just making up memories based on stories from my parents about how they had to take me out to go to the bathroom. But I have two older brothers and we had all the Star Wars toys and I had all the Stars trading cards and saw all the movies whenever they came out in the theater. And one thing that was really inspiring to me was having these art books of the art for Star Wars, that the [inaudible] concept art work storyboards before they made the movies, and those books and those pictures were something, that really inspired me when I was a kid, to draw. And for a while I thought I could -- maybe someday I can grow up and draw Star Wars. And I grew up a little bit. I'm still not done growing up. But I grew up some and realized like now, you know, I probably won't ever be able to draw Star Wars. But about four years ago I got a phone call from Ryan Germick at Google. And you guys know how the Google homepage they'll change the logo for special events or special occasions. And they had the idea, they thought it would be fun to do a homepage doodle for Father's Day on how awkward an everyday father-son moment would be between Luke and Vader. Oh. Sorry. A spoiler for anyone who didn't watch Empire Strikes Back. Sorry. Maybe you can edit that in the webcast that go before. And so they called me because I had done some autobiographical books about my own awkward moments often in adult situations. So kids, don't feel like you need to go read those books just yet. And I also -- I've also loved science fiction. I love Star Wars. And my son was four years old at the time. And I thought Luke should be four years old, and I should -- the awkward moments that Vader should be going through are the ones that I'm going through every day right now. But one of the things is, you know, Vader just has this helmet and, you know, how can you show Vader in an awkward moment? He doesn't really show emotion. But one of the great things about comics is that you can kind of manipulate reality to show emotion in ways that are very effective. So what I did was I kind of turned Vader's helmet into eyebrows. [ Demonstration ] >> So there's my very simple Dark Vader. Now if Vader's confused -- [ Demonstration ] >> -- I just have to change his helmet a little. [ Demonstration ] >> And I'm exaggerating here a little bit because I don't want to make it too extreme in the book. So you'll notice even when Luke is really, really annoying Vader, he doesn't get too angry. So anyway, I did up some sketches with Luke and Vader, you know, Vader telling Luke to pick up his toys and saying he doesn't want a sister. Another spoiler. I just won't tell you who the sister is. And I was really excited. I was like, I'm going to do it. I'm going to draw Star Wars. Lucasfilm was on board. And in the end Google decided that they're going to use a different idea. And I was really, really bummed. But you know, as an artist there's lots of things that you want to do and you don't always have the right venue to do them in. And sometimes there's things that I want to do and maybe it's not the right time, or maybe I can't do it quite the way I wanted to; but I figured I can still draw a bunch of these Dark Vader comics just for myself, and maybe print up a little mini comic to give out to friends. But I realized that one of my publishers, Chronicle Books, has done a lot of Star Wars books. And so they had a relationship with Lucasfilm. And I took the idea to them and they took it to Lucasfilm, and about eight months later Lucasfilm finally gave the full green light and said yeah, we'd like to do this book with you. And so that's how I got started drawing Star Wars. It was really just some lucky connections and getting my work out into the world and having the right people see it. And then that led to Jedi Academy, which is with Scholastic, a different publisher, but Scholastic had gone to Lucasfilm because they wanted to do a book about middle school set in Star Wars universe, and they wanted something that was a mix of text and illustration. And when they went to Lucasfilm, my editor in Darth Vader and Son said you should talk to this guy. So Scholastic called me. And I said yeah, I'm kind of enjoying drawing Star Wars actually. I would love to try and work on Jedi Academy. And the format that we came up with is to mix journal entries. Maybe I don't need to explain this because I'm assuming half of you here have read this. But there's journal entries and comics and pages from the school newspaper. And I started out doing autobiographical comics that were just kind of documenting my real life. And in a way, Jedi Academy is really my real life. So you'll see Roan draws comics for the school newspaper. And that was what I did in middle school and high school. I was editor of the school newspaper and did -- drew comics and did a lot of writing and all the layout and even some of the incidents where Roan is at his clumsiest and most awkward. That's -- those are -- if you see a moment where he's doing something that's really embarrassing, that was probably from my real life. And so I think another thing that I always try to do as an author is draw from my real life and draw from real experiences and tap into real emotions even when I'm trying to use my imagination and do something that's fantastic or science fiction. So you guys probably want to see me draw a little more. So I'll do a couple of more drawings, if you want. So does anyone have a suggestion of a Star Wars character? That hand went up like immediately, so. [ Inaudible ] >> Mr. Garfield, yes. So Mr. Garfield is the teacher and his name is Mr. -- he's -- the kids all call him Mr. G, which is based on my sixth grade teacher, Mr. H and Mr. K. And Mr. Garfield is really grumpy. [ Demonstration ] >> And he has a mustache like Mr. H had actually, my sixth grade teacher. Although, he was not actually as grumpy as Mr. Garfield. Although, he was pretty tough on us kids, I thought. [ Demonstration ] >> So you see, Mr. Garfield rolls his eyes a lot because he doesn't understand why these kids can't just do things right the first time. [ Demonstration ] >> So there's Mr. Garfield. And of course, his name actually comes from Garfield, the cat, which was one of the -- my favorite comic strips when I was growing up. So since Mr. Garfield has stripes and he's red, but red-orange, close enough. Yeah. Yep, you. >> Qui-Gon Jinn. >> What's that? >> Qui-Gon Jinn. >> Qui-Gon Jinn. He's a little tougher because I haven't drawn him as much. But one of the shortcuts in comics is if you can identify someone's hair, you can kind of fake. [ Demonstration ] >> That looks like kind of a young Qui-Gon, I guess. I don't know. I might need more visual reference to draw Qui-Gon properly. One of the things that I had to do when I was drawing these books is just watch Star Wars over and over and over again, and then I watched the Clone Wars cartoon over and over. And then I have all the DK reference books. And I just have this whole -- two whole shelves of just Star Wars books. And whenever I'm drawing something I'm looking for the right reference so that I can get the image right but then also still kind of make it my own. Yeah, you in the front. >> Yoda. >> I love Yoda. So I'm just going to give up on that, that cap there. So Yoda is the one character in Jedi Academy that already exists. And he was, I think, my favorite character from the movies just because he's so funny but then also so wise. But the scene where he first appears in Empire Strikes Back still makes me laugh. And I think one of the things that I've always loved about Star Wars isn't just that it's these fantastic creatures and space battles and amazing powers, but there's a lot of humor in the movies and that's something I really appreciate and something that I try to put in all of my own work. Even when I'm writing a dramatic moment I try to make something funny happen or have someone say something. >> Yeah. >> Yoda laughs a lot. [ Demonstration ] >> I won't try to do [inaudible] Yoda voice in that because up here I'll probably -- it probably won't sound good, but trust me I'm really good at home. Like, when I'm by myself, it sounds exactly like Yoda. Yeah, in the middle there. Yeah, you. [ Inaudible ] >> Yeah. Here. Do you know what? Actually do want to go to the microphone? And then if you guys -- do you know what? If anyone has any questions, I can draw and answer questions at the same time. It's like chewing gum and walking for me. >> Didn't Yoda appear in the Clone Wars? >> Yoda is in the Clone Wars, yeah. >> He didn't first appear in, you know, in Empire Strikes Back; right? >> Well, the -- in the real world Empire Strikes Back was the first movie. So I mean, in Star Wars he appeared 900 years before Empire Strikes Back. >> Oh, yeah. >> So. And actually Jedi -- so Jedi Academy this is the question that I get sometimes, is when does Jedi Academy happen? It actually happens about 200 years before the Clone Wars. So in case you're wondering how it fits in the expanded universe that's where Jedi Academy happens. >> And for what you can draw, can you draw Pasha or whatever Roan's best friend is? >> Yeah. [ Demonstration ] >> So when Roan gets to Jedi Academy, he's the new kid and he meets this character, Pasha. And -- [ Demonstration ] >> -- Pasha is really nice and kind of makes Roan feel welcome. And then they just get along really well and end up becoming really good friends. Although, as happens with kids, or at least it happened with me and my friendships when I was a kid, in Jedi Academy, Book Two, Roan and Pasha kind of have misunderstandings and then they start to not be such good friends to each other. And I won't spoil what happens at the end of that. So there's Pasha. Let me go to that side. >> How long did it take you to draw, I mean, to write a book? >> It takes me about a year to do each Jedi Academy book. So I actually brought with me. This is Jedi Academy, Book Three, first draft. And so you can see the first draft I draw in a complete sketchbook. And this draft has taken me about three months so far and I'm not quite done, but two or three months is about usual. Before I even start the draft I have to come up with a lot of ideas about what's going to go in the book and then I make up an outline, and the outline is revised by me working with my editors. And so after this draft is done the editors will look at it. They'll give me a bunch of feedback and notes and then I'll do a second draft in a different sketchbook and then they'll give me a bunch of notes and I'll rework things and then I do the final artwork. So I kind of draw each book three times. And it's a lot of work, but it really makes the book better by going back and really being careful about what I'm putting in and changing things. [ Inaudible ] >> R2-D2. >> Sorry? >> R2-D2. >> R2-D2. >> R2-D2. [ Demonstration ] >> R2-D2 is another character I really like. And my brother, my older brother, he collects and does modeling with action figures. And a friend of his, who also does that, gave my brother a whole box of Star Wars figures. And my brother said here, you can give these to Oscar, my son. And I just went through and picked out all the R2-D2's and took those. [ Demonstration ] >> I was reading about the making of Star Wars, and they said when they first designed R2-D2, they designed all these panels without actually knowing what they were all for. But they just figured we'll just put a bunch of panels on and then if we need R2-D2 to do something in the movie, then we'll just say that little servo arm came out of this panel or the electric shock thing comes out of this. And so it was kind of -- they didn't know what they were going to do with that, but they designed it so that they could do something with it later. Yeah. >> One, who's your favorite Star Wars character? >> I think Yoda. Yoda and R2-D2. And actually I really like IG-88 for some reason. >> I don't know why. He only shows up in Empire Strikes Back for a few minutes, but there's just something about him. I don't know if you guys know IG-88. He shows up in the Clone Wars a little bit too, but he's the really tall robot that has like the tin can head. >> Oh. Yeah. >> That's a really simplified IG-88. [ Demonstration ] >> I think I like robots, so. >> And two, can you draw an Ewok? >> Yeah. I love Ewoks too. I can't say that any particular Ewok is my favorite. But in Jedi Academy Roan draws Ewok, kind of called Ewok pilot, which is about an Ewok who becomes a star fighter pilot. [ Demonstration ] >> I always liked Ewoks in Return of the Jedi. And so when I was drawing Jedi Academy, I thought, I didn't get to draw a lot of Ewoks in the Darth Vader books. Maybe I can find a way to draw more Ewoks. And so I came up with the idea that Roan would just draw the Ewok comics that I used to -- well, I used to draw Ewoks. I didn't really draw comics with them when I was drawing, but. >> Can you draw Pasha and the little one on the Star ship? >> Draw [inaudible]. I drew Pasha. So here, I'll draw Roan. So Roan always starts with -- he's got kind of an egg-shaped head. >> Egg shaped. [ Demonstration ] >> And usually he's surprised or confused about something, and that's a little way of showing that. He gets three freckles. That's a little bit of hair hanging down in the back. [ Demonstration ] >> And then quite often he's spilled something on his outfit, so. [ Demonstration ] >> There's Roan. >> Princess Leia. >> Yeah, Princess Leia. I'm going to draw a four-year-old Princess Leia. >> I like your choice. >> So when I was figuring out those very first sketches to send to Google, I had to figure out how to draw Luke and Leia. And so since Luke was basically based on my son, Oscar, this is how I draw Oscar when I'm drawing my comics about my own life. And so for Luke, I just had to give him a 1970's haircut -- [ Demonstration ] >> -- and different clothes. [ Demonstration ] >> Okay. I had two quick, quick one. Where's your son right now? >> He is in Portland, Oregon visiting a friend. >> Okay. Two, will Roan finally get his love in book three? Because I'm waiting on that. >> Wait. Say that again? >> Do we have to wait until book three or four until he finally says how much he loves her? Roan has confessed love actually. How long -- >> Wait. >> How long do we have to wait until Roan confesses his love? >> I don't know what you're talking about. Is there some storyline that I don't know about? >> Are you saying he's never going to never say he loves her? >> Who? >> Roan. >> You'll just have to wait until next year, at least to find out if you're going to find out next year. But yeah, so book three will kind of wrap up Roan's story. I guess I didn't really plan for when we were first starting Jedi Academy to do much more, and -- but hopefully book three will satisfy you all. We've got a couple of minutes left only. So we'll do a few more questions. >> What's your favorite comic in Darth Vader and Son? >> My favorite comic in Darth Vader and Son? Probably the bounty hunter page. It's a page where the scene from Empire Strikes Back, where Vader is talking to the bounty hunters, and. >> So awkward. >> And yeah. Lucas is crying and Vader is, you know, trying to be all tough, and the bounty hunters are all like, we're so bad. Looks like. >> What is the funnest character you've made other than Yoda? >> The funnest character that I got to make up? Probably. Mr. Garfield is my favorite. Although the Gammy, the Gamorrean chef from Jedi Academy, book two, I also really like. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Can [inaudible]. >> Can I draw Roan? Well, here's Roan. >> Ronald, Ronald >> Oh. Ronald. >> Ronald. >> Ronald. Ronald is named Ronald Rinzler. And so most of the names in the book have some story behind them. And Rinzler is the last name of JW Rinzler, who is my editor in Darth Vader and Son. So he got named after him, Ronald did. [ Inaudible ] >> You like C-3P0. I like C-3P0 too. I'll do one last drawing because I think we're about out of time. But what I love about C-3P0 is -- [ Demonstration ] >> C-3P0 is funny. >> He is funny because he's always running around going ahhh and waving his arms and saying oh, dear and oh, my; oh, goodness. [ Demonstration ] >> Oh, dear. So I think that's actually about all the time we have. But thank you all so much for coming. [applause] I'm going to be signing in about half an hour. And if you have more questions, I'd be happy to answer one or two while I'm signing your books later. [applause] So thank you. >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov.