I used to POUR over the Sketchbooks and Portfolios.
As did I--I really idolized fellow Texan Joe Johnston (Despite the helmet hair )
You weren’t the only ones.
Like many of you, I spent countless hours drawing and re-drawing Joe's concept art when I was a kid. Eventually I enrolled in the Industrial Design program at Cal State Long Beach because that's where Joe studied. Basically, I wanted to
be Joe.
While at CSULB I got hooked on making short films. Long Beach had a sucky film program at the time, so I transferred to USC. As fate would have it, the
very first student I met at film school orientation was Joe Johnston. This was in `84, shortly after he’d won an Oscar for Indy 2. George had sent him to SC to learn how to direct. Even then I wasn’t easily star-struck, but you have no idea how hard it was not to geek-out in front of my idol. Fortunately I maintained my composure, and we ended up becoming friends. I still have some of Joe's “crit sheets," and his brutally amusing comments still crack me up. As does his former bowl-cut -- which, to his credit, he’d already started to shed by the time I met him.
I hadn’t spoken to Joe in years, but the company I work for is doing some work on Wolfman (which he’s directing), and we recently got back in touch. He’s still the same laconic Texan I remembered, only more so. To this day, I don’t think we’ve ever talked about Star Wars. I know that may sound odd to some of you, but I was just never comfortable going to that particular place.
Sorry for the long-winded story, but the whole "pushing people out of the way to meet your idol" thing got me thinking. No one loves Star Wars more than I do, but I will
never be that guy.
)
