Have you ever wondered how Tom Hodges became a Lucasfilm-approved artist?

Wonder no more! Here's his answer:

"I was walking through San Diego Comic Con in 2003 when I came across the teeny, tiny Hyperspace booth. I was on my way to Artist Alley to set up with my wife, Terri when we met Bonnie Burton. This was the year they had the exclusive Hyperspace Clone Wars Animated Print for Hyperspace members only...

Anyway, Terri and I really connected with Bonnie. Joking around here and there and visiting each other when we could. I even danced for a Hyperspace T-Shirt while Bonnie yelled out 'DANCE MONKEYBOY, DANCE!'

Ok, fast forward to Sunday. The show was coming to a close and I had a handful of leftover sketches from my table. I decided to take them over to Bonnie and the guys from Hyperspace. It turns out Bonnie had left for San Francisco already and I asked the guy at the booth to give these to Bonnie and to take one for himself. He said no problem, and as I was walking away, he yells to me, 'HEY! Are you Tom Hodges?' I said, 'Yes.' He then says, 'I've been looking for you.' I then nervously replied, 'Are you guys going to sue me?'

It turns out, the guy was Paul Ens, The Big Cheese at Lucas Online and he had been cooking up an idea for an exclusive webstrip to connect some dots between the novel 'Labyrinth of Evil,' the Third season (or Volume II if you will) to 'Clone Wars' and Episode III. It took quite awhile for things to get moving. George had to approve the direction of the characters and there needed to be some things approved. Before the strip even debuted, Steve Sansweet made sure Matt Saunders at Topps knew I was approved and suggested I work on the Heritage Sketch Cards.

Since then, I've done several projects connected to the Star Wars Universe and much more to come."

Read MORE over at Artists-Allied.com --
Tom Hodges' exclusive Spotlight interview!