Death Star troopers

John Hanson, b. 1978, d. 2005, left behind a closet full of creative work after his early death to cancer. His sister created a blog for him, and put some of his stories up there. His sculptures and his pottery was put on display in the basement of the Episcopalean Church. What excited most people, however, was a retrospective of his masterpiece, an existential comic book on Death Star troopers. The prints were meticulously drawn in large format, then inked and colored with the help of his friend Karl. (Karl also curated the exhibit at the Art Gallery and then published the comics at his own expense.) The premise of the comic was this: that the Death Star troopers from the Star Wars series, when they weren’t protecting the empire, including Detention Block AA-23, were busy working hard in training camps, writing stories, and even trying to commit to relationships. Hanson wanted to show how Death Star troopers had no idea of their historical situation. Like everyone else, they were caught up in everyday minutiae. For example, one whole comic was dedicated to Number 47, who was so obsessed with his girlfriend that he would run over banal conversations he had had with her over and over in his mind to asses whether she was angry with him. Then he started acting weird, and blamed her for his unhappiness. They split up, and she was killed a year later by a random explosion. Another comic told the story of Number 5, who was afflicted with feelings of melancholia during his training. He felt he didn’t belong on the Death Star, but when he visited his parents back on his home planet he felt even worse. He returned, and, after a year of being a Death Star trooper, developed an immobilizing depression. He was demoted by Devin Cant soon after and he eventually turned his E-11 blaster rifle on himself.