Just like Celebration IV earlier this year, Celebration Europe has now officially come and gone and it was another very exciting and memorable experience. It was also another week of very late nights and very early mornings but every hour of sleep lost in the name of Star Wars was worth it. It seems whenever I'm around my fellow Star Wars artist and Lucasfilm friends or even the Star Wars fans in general I find myself hanging out into the wee hours of the morning having a great time not wanting the fun to end no matter how tired I may actually be. I was so completely spent when I got back home finally from all of the traveling I just collapsed and slept for almost 12 hours. It was my birthday too the day I got back from the convention and to paraphrase a certain archaeologist, I'm pretty sure it was the mileage and not the years that caught up with me... at least I hope so anyway.

This was my first trip ever to Europe and I'm really glad and very fortunate for the opportunities like this that Star Wars has given me over the years. I would have never imagined even a year ago that I'd get to travel to London, display and share my artwork with the fans there and experience the city like I did this past weekend. I want to give a huge thanks to our tour guides Paul Bateman and his lovely girlfriend Athena for taking our group of Star Wars artists (which included Chris Trevas, Brian Rood, Tsuneo Sanda, and Lawrence Noble) around the city after the event. They were really great hosts and there's no way we could have seen the entire city like we did had we been left to our own devices. Fellow Star Wars artist Cynthia Cummens also played tour guide for a group of us on Thursday night since she spent some time last summer in London and knew her way around the area very well (thanks, Cynthia!).

I'd also like to thank the Animation Art Gallery who sponsored the Celebration Europe Art Show. Russell, Emma and the rest of the crew were especially helpful and friendly and took good care of us during the entire time of the event. Of course I'd like to thank the folks at Lucasfilm for their guidance and support too before and during the show. Thank you everyone!

Some of the other highlights from the event for me were meeting Jay Laga'aia (Captain Typho), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) and Kamay Lau (Sei Taria from Episode One) who I was able to chat with when each stopped by to visit the Art Show and also getting to meet some of the European SW.com bloggers, Dark Horse.com forum members and Myspace friends and costumers I've had contact with over the past months and years. I hope all of you had a great time as well.

I'm busy gearing up for another appearance at San Diego Comic-Con next weekend (I'm at table BB-08 in Artist Alley) and finishing up some new Star Trek artwork before I leave so I have to keep this short but I took pictures from Celebration Europe to share with everyone which you can see right here.

Also, on Monday after the convention I was able to check out Star Wars: The Exhibition at London's County Hall (read more about it here and visit the official website for the exhibition here). I took a lot of pictures of the amazing costumes, props, and models on display there so if you're curious you can view those here.

I've also added a new Celebration Europe album to my Myspace profile so if you're a registered member you can view even more pics from my London adventure there as well.

Just because Celebration IV and Celebration Europe are now over, there's still plenty of reason to keep celebrating Star Wars 30th Anniversary. New comic books, toys and collectibles, Topps trading cards (shipping July 25th), novels, etc. and even more conventions (like Comic-Con next week and another Star Wars convention in Dallas in October) are always just on the horizon. I think this party will keep going strong for a long time to come.

It was really great meeting everyone in England last weekend and I look forward to coming back again sometime. Thanks for making me feel so welcome there. I'll update with another post as soon as I'm back from Comic-Con in San Diego. I hope to see some of you soon to celebrate thirty years of Star Wars there as well!

~J
Joe Corroney.com
Drawing in the Empire/MySpace