MAIKEL DAS: What triggered your interest in art?

MATT BUSCH: Star Wars, without a doubt! I was four years old when Star Wars first came out, so it really was a major visual milestone for me as a child, where I first began to notice things like design and art.

MD: "Planetmatt Entertainment" seems to be a family enterprise with your father and brother helping you at the shows. Everybody in your family seems to be creative. How did this influence you?

BUSCH: I've been very lucky that I've been able to drag my family and friends to various shows and conventions to help me out! My whole family is very creative, but we're all in different professions of art. My brother, Ian, is an actor; my sister, Delena, is a hair designer; and my other sister, Jessica, is a dancer.

MD: Was it always clear to you to purchase a career in a creative profession?

BUSCH: To have a 'creative' profession, yes. But I never knew exactly what I wanted to do. And with as many things as I have going, sometimes I still think I don't know! Haha! I've always been 'the jack of all trades, master of none' but that's always been the secret of my success. I keep my hands in all sorts of different pots, so when one field of entertainment is slow, I've already got something else cooking.

MD: What's your formal training?

BUSCH: I studied at seven different places after high school. Most notable are Macomb Community College, Art Center College of Design, and the Los Angeles Art Academy. Art Center is also the school that many other Star Wars artists graduated from, like Ralph McQuarrie and Drew Struzan.

I also teach part time at several colleges, currently at Center for Creative Studies and Macomb Community College. Center for creative Studies also happens to be where several Star Wars artists have graduated, including Doug Chiang.

MD: Your musical abilities shouldn't go unnoticed. Why didn't you become a professional musician?

BUSCH: I was in a band called Passion, early on. I found it hard to work with guys who may or may not have been as committed as I was. One of the reasons I like being an artist or a writer is that I'm responsible for everything, and it let's me take charge and do what I want.

MD: Do you still play in a band?

BUSCH: No. I wish I had the time to! But I still tinker around when I take breaks from the daily grind. I play guitar, drums, piano and keyboards.

MD: How did you become an "official" Star Wars artist?

BUSCH: Peter Schweighofer, an editor at West End Games, was the first to give me 'official' Star Wars work, doing illustrations for the Star Wars Adventure Journal and other various projects for the roleplaying game. I've actually just started on my first project for the new Star Wars roleplaying game from Wizards of the Coast, a book called Secrets of Naboo. So it's interesting to see the Star Wars stuff come full circle.

After doing a bunch of stuff for West End, that led to the cover of Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, for Bantam Books, which was a New York Times Bestseller. That really pushed me up front to being known as a Star Wars artist, and I started doing projects for Disneyland, Del Rey, Mattel Toys, Star Wars Insider Magazine, Star Wars Kids Magazine, Team Disney, and Trends International.

I started doing official Star Wars work in 1994, but it wasn't until 1999 that Lucasfilm proclaimed me an "official Star Wars artist."

MD: And...? Any involvement in Episode II?

BUSCH: Not yet. [Editor's note: This information is now dated!] I'm sure I'll be involved with the onslaught of advertising, merchandising, and related projects, though. I'm excited! I hear the look and designs of the film are just amazing!

MD: Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) bought your "Death of Chewbacca" painting?

BUSCH: Yes, actually, he bought every single piece of Chewbacca art that I've done! I had the pleasure of hanging out with Peter and his wife, Angelique, at the recent Wizard World 2000 show in Chicago. The "Death of Chewbacca" piece is very emotional, and no one deserves to have it hanging in their home more that Peter himself.

MD: Your own stories often have a mysterious touch. Do you have any personal relation to occult things?

BUSCH: Not really. I find the supernatural extremely fascinating, and it makes for great storytelling, but I have no personal connection to it.

However, I used to have these gatherings called "Mysteries of the Unknown Parties" where I would invite witches, fortune tellers, psychics, and other interesting walks of life. We would sit around and do experiments and tell spooky stories and cast spells. I'm not sure how much of it I believe, but I saw many things with my own eyes that I cannot explain! Perhaps some of it is real. Anyway, those experiences are probably where I draw a lot of my
inspiration from.

MD: You always work in different media - film, comics, writing, painting. Is there's something you prefer?

BUSCH: My blessing and my curse is that I love them all! I don't think there is one media I like more than another. They all communicate ideas and stories through art, which is what I love. Having all of those opportunities
keeps me from ever getting bored with one media!

MD: Is there's something you still want to you but haven't done yet?

BUSCH: I've been trying to do Star Wars comics for Dark Horse for a long time. I've worked for every Star Wars licensee except Dark Horse, which is funny, because Star Wars comics are what I'd like to do the most! The folks at Dark Horse always say they love my work, but never give me the call. I've been keeping busy, and I'm content with the rest of the Star Wars stuff, but hopefully I'll get to do something soon!

MD: What are your current projects, respectively future projects?

BUSCH: I'm currently developing several of my own projects for films. Alizarin's Journal, which is a supernatural thriller; Diamond Joe's, which is a romantic comedy; and Crisis, which is an action-packed thriller.

MD: And in comics?

BUSCH: Where do I start?! I'm doing covers for a lot of books, like First Wave, Vladimira, I Dream of Jeannie, and Battlestar Galactica. I'm doing a bunch of trading cards for sets like Witchblade, Crimson, Lexx, and Lady Death. One of my own comics, Daria Jontak, comes out in December, and FANTASTIC VISIONS: The Art of Matt Busch comes out from Avatar Press in January!

MD: Thank you, Matt, for taking the time talking to us.