Sillof’s “Wars” Series

The history, philosophy, and mission statement of  my ” Wars” line.

This section represents, by far, my most well known and largest of my work.  I simply call them my “Wars” line.

When George Lucas was creating Star Wars he was pulling from a myriad of sources that ranged from real history, world religion, mythological archetypes, Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, the films of Akira Kurosawa, and the westerns and sci fi serials of his youth.

Just as those films inspired Mr. Lucas, he has inspired me.  In fact, discovering those influences as a child led me to explore them on my own.  They shaped my interests and in many ways have shaped my career.  Today I am a teacher and the subjects I teach include World History,  World Religions, and Film Studies.  Throughout my academic career as a historian I have dissected those influences in countless ways.  I did research on them in the 90’s with a series of papers I wrote for my history degree.   I have incorporated their influences into my Religions Course.  I have created an entire unit that looks at the historical influences of Star Wars including the fall of the Roman Republic, the era of Japanese Samurai, and World War II.

Throughout my scholarly analysis of the Star Wars universe I began to look at how each of those items influenced Star Wars.  I eventually arrived at the notion to take each of those influences and isolate them and expand upon them.  It is as if Star Wars was created by putting all of Lucas’s influences in a blender and now I go through and resort the parts from the whole.  For example what would an entirely Western version of Star Wars have looked like.  I pull from the same mythological archetypes as Mr. Lucas and arrive at my own unique creations complete with new names and a back story that creates a wholly new narrative.

Most of the lines in the “Wars” series pull on the various influences of Star Wars.  However, some were born out of the simple creative exercise of what would those archetypes look like in a Victorian Steampunk world, a Cyberpunk anime or a classic Film Noir.

I hope you enjoy them.