Star Wars Artist Series: Thomas Hodges

In addition to the online comic, Hodges spends much of his time drawing one-of-a-kind Star Wars portraits on Artist Sketch Cards for the Topps Heritage collectible card series.

"The sketch cards have been a lot of fun to do," Hodges confesses. "I just did one of Jabba meeting Han at the Millennium Falcon from A New Hope and that took 5 minutes, where a card I did in the beginning of the end scene to Attack of the Clones with Palpatine overlooking the clones and ships taking off from Coruscant, took 15 minutes. It was harder then it looked."

Hodges, who is an avid collector of Star Wars art and other merchandise himself, says he understands why the Artists Sketch cards are a huge hit with fans.

"Collectors get a kick out of some of the random cards I do and they love these things," Hodges says. "At San Diego Comic-Con this year just about everyone who had seen the Artist Sketch cards told me they couldn't wait to get their hands on them. Everyone involved is doing a killer job on them and I think fans love them because they own a little piece of Star Wars."

Of the 1,983 cards completed for Topps, Hodges confesses that his favorite to draw is still Amidala.

"I love drawing Amidala, because there is so much to work with in terms of costumes and emotion," Hodges explains. "She's very beautiful but you know in the end, she is the one who loses everything. And it's sad. It's kind of the one thing you know is coming but will tear you apart when you see it."

In addition to various Star Wars projects, Hodges is also working on a graphic novel with Marv Wolfman (creator of Blade and Teen Titans) called Secret Identities for Platinum Studios, as well as his animated series "The D'Vilknights," recently optioned by Headstart Entertainment.

With all the projects he has on his plate, Hodges finds that avoiding artist's block is his biggest obstacle lately.

"There's so much out there to draw you away from what you should be doing and when that happens, I get artist's block. I need to draw 8-10 hours a day to keep things going," Hodges admits. "But the biggest reward for all of this is that people like my work and recognize it. I have been glancing at some Star Wars message boards and there has been nothing but positive feedback to my work and the upcoming projects. To me, that is worth it all."

To learn more about Hodges and his work, visit his official site: tomhodges.com.