Star Wars Galaxy 4 Sketch Cards Q&A with RYCA

Did you folks know that there is an invisible UV Ink-painted "X" on the Storm Trooper cards done by urban artist RYCA - for the Star Wars Galaxy 4 Die-Cut sketch cards? [TAGGED] How cool is that?

CLICK THRU for a TRE-Q&A to find out more about what went on in the production of these cards!

TOYSREVIL: WHO is RYCA?

RYCA: My name is RYCA, i'm involved in the urban art scene, my webiste is www.ryca.net and i have been working as an artist for just over 2 years.

TOYSREVIL: WHAT was the inspiration behind your sketches? What was the concept you had wanted to portray?

RYCA: The inspiration for my cards was a mixture of comic book refrence (kirby krackle) and common symbols. For Vader I used a red star rubber stamp to maybe link the "Empire" with what red stars usually mean to the modern world (communism).


RYCA: The Storm Troopers have an invisible X, painted in 'UV ink' that will only show under UV/purple light. This symbol usually represents death or dead when used in a characters eyes (x's for eyes). Also its invisible because there are so many Storm Trooper who never get killed its up whoever has a card if they want to see death.


TOYSREVIL: Now that is one cool-effect with the UV Ink! (Just so you guys know what you've got in your hands!) What was the medium you used? (What type of materials, like marker pens etc) And how long did they take? Are you happy with the result?

RYCA: First I hand drew the artwork, then scanned it, produced a digital version, made a silkscreen and printed the cards using enamel paint. I was so happy with the result I did not want to send them back to TOPPS.


TOYSREVIL: How many cards did you do? Any favourite card in the series you've created? Or piece of artwork?

RYCA: I did 53 of each kind. 6 of which I have.

My cards are more of less the same, the variations come with the hand stamp and X, these are the only parts that differ from card to card really, I wanted to have only slight variation as this is often the case when looking for hard to find figures, for example, Brown Tunic Luke Jedi!

TOYSREVIL: Anyone out there willing to hook RYCA up with BT-Luke? (heh). What is the Best (or Favourite) and Worst memory of Star Wars you have?

RYCA: My best memory of Star Wars is getting Alec Guinness's autograph on an Obi Wan Kenobi photo!!!!! My worst memory is jar jar.

TOYSREVIL: Hardcore best memory evah! (Ditto on JarJar unfortunately - a non-erasable legacy of any LOL). And to round off this Q&A (I still can't get over the UV Ink!) - If you could be a Star Wars character (from the 6 movies) - WHO will you be, and WHY?

RYCA: The character I would most like to be would be Grand Moff Tarkin, he had authority over Vader, he probably had the best job in the entire empire.

[Additional Image via ebay-auction]