Pablo Hidalgo
Author of Star Wars: The Force Awakens The Visual Dictionary
About the Author
Image credit: Pablo Hidalgo at Star Wars Celebration IV By Star Wars - Fan Movie Challenge, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55562312
Series
Works by Pablo Hidalgo
Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker The Visual Dictionary: With Exclusive Cross-Sections (2019) 155 copies
The Essential Reader's Companion (Star Wars) (Star Wars: Essential Guides) (2012) 126 copies, 1 review
Star Wars Be a Pilot in 3D A Spectacular Vehicle Guide that Puts You in the Pilot's Seat (2016) 4 copies
El libro de Star Wars (The Star Wars Book): Expande tu conocimiento de una galaxia muy, muy lejana (Spanish Edition) (2021) 3 copies
Das Star Wars™ Buch: Das ultimative Wissen über eine weit, weit entfernte Galaxis (Big Ideas) (2021) 2 copies
Verge of Greatness 1 copy
Associated Works
From a Certain Point of View: 40 Stories Celebrating 40 Years of Star Wars (2017) — Contributor — 1,061 copies, 41 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1974-10-12
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- artist
illustrator
animator - Organizations
- Manitoba Society of Independent Animators
- Short biography
- Hidalgo served as Internet Content Manager for Lucas Online, the division of Lucasfilm responsible for maintaining StarWars.com, where he also published multiple comics until 2011. In addition, during this time Hidalgo was being consulted to ensure continuity in various Star Wars media releases.
After Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, he approached Kathleen Kennedy about making his consulting role official which led to the creation of the Lucasfilm Story Group (other members include Kiri Hart and Leland Chee), a group of Star Wars experts tasked with maintaining the canon of the franchise after its partial reboot in 2014. Their duties range from fact-checking dialogue, e.g. whether a certain character would really say a certain line or whether it makes sense in the universe's context, to keeping track of names and locations of planets as well as naming unnamed planets, characters and other entities as well as coordinating all stories in development. - Nationality
- Canada
- Birthplace
- Santiago, Chile
- Places of residence
- Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
- Associated Place (for map)
- Canada
Members
Reviews
During the first few seasons of The Clone Wars tv show, StarWars.com ran an official tie-in webcomic. The accompanying strips were collected in a limited edition trade paperback by Dark Horse, which I picked up not long after it came out. Back in the 2010s, I was still a devoted collector of Star Wars tie-in media. I didn't quite buy everything, but one of my areas of interest was the Clone Wars. Not because I was a fan of the show (in fact, I barely watched it), but because of the show more original 2002-05 Clone Wars multimedia project, where between Episodes II and III the war had been chronicled across comics and novels. Some of that enthusiasm still lingered.
The book is very much not aimed at someone who didn't watch the show, to be honest. It's mostly made up of short strips, each 5-6 pages, operating as preludes to episodes of the show. Like, you'll get five pages of Anakin and Ahsoka getting ready for a fleet action—I imagine as a prelude to an episode about said fleet action. Or you'll get five pages of Ventress defeating the king of a planet and getting him to lowers its shields—I imagine as a prelude to an episode about our heroes taking back said planet. Or you'll get five pages about Anakin and Obi-Wan getting captured—I imagine as a prelude to an episode beginning with them captive.
So if you haven't watched the show... well there's not much of a point. Strong art might make the experience enjoyable, but I found the art pretty variable; it's very mid-2000s DeviantArt. Though Dark Horse did good work with this era in its digest comics, these artists struggle to render the show's style in 2D. Tom Hodges's work is the strongest; I was sorry that I found Katie Cook's work here so poor because I liked her My Little Pony comics a lot, but she really does poorly with people's faces.
The definition, I suppose, of a book that's for "completists only." Or maybe not even them; though Marvel has released some pretty comprehensive "Epic Collections" of the Dark Horse EU material, these strips were not included in them. show less
The book is very much not aimed at someone who didn't watch the show, to be honest. It's mostly made up of short strips, each 5-6 pages, operating as preludes to episodes of the show. Like, you'll get five pages of Anakin and Ahsoka getting ready for a fleet action—I imagine as a prelude to an episode about said fleet action. Or you'll get five pages of Ventress defeating the king of a planet and getting him to lowers its shields—I imagine as a prelude to an episode about our heroes taking back said planet. Or you'll get five pages about Anakin and Obi-Wan getting captured—I imagine as a prelude to an episode beginning with them captive.
So if you haven't watched the show... well there's not much of a point. Strong art might make the experience enjoyable, but I found the art pretty variable; it's very mid-2000s DeviantArt. Though Dark Horse did good work with this era in its digest comics, these artists struggle to render the show's style in 2D. Tom Hodges's work is the strongest; I was sorry that I found Katie Cook's work here so poor because I liked her My Little Pony comics a lot, but she really does poorly with people's faces.
The definition, I suppose, of a book that's for "completists only." Or maybe not even them; though Marvel has released some pretty comprehensive "Epic Collections" of the Dark Horse EU material, these strips were not included in them. show less
Narrated from an in-universe perspective, this book presents a history of the evolution of propaganda in a galaxy far, far away beginning in the Old Republic in the years before the outbreak of the Clone Wars and continuing through the creation and reveal of the First Order sixty years later. There are five sections (The Republic, The Clone Wars, Building the Empire, Rise of the Rebellion, and The Next Great War) that are each preceded by a short description of the political context that the show more following works of art were created in. The author of these introductions as well as of the descriptions of each work of art is Janyor of Bith, an artist who contributed his works to every major galactic upheaval described in the book. His descriptions are short, usually under 200 words, but they give helpful insight in interpreting the art, especially when alien iconography or script is used. When possible, the artist and the body that commissioned that art are identified but much of the art is from unidentified artists and the possible place of creation is mentioned instead.
Overall, the book is very informative and highly enjoyable. Readers with a familiarity with real world propaganda, especially the styles of WWI and WWII will recognize much of the artist styles that are used to very similar effect. Studying propaganda allows for an idea of how governing bodies wished to be seen, or how their opponents wished them to be seen. This artist focus works well in the Star Wars universe, given the galactic bodies at work to maintain strength and order or peace and justice in the galaxy at large. The book also includes 10 art prints of propaganda pieces examined within the book. The prints include each time period examined in the book, with a mix of pro-government and anti-government pieces, depending on when they’re from.
All in all, it’s a very well done, well researched book that displays not only a deep understanding of the Star Wars universe (unsurprising from Pablo Hidalgo) but also a solid understanding of the history of propaganda in our world that enabled him to translate it so skillfully to the Star Wars universe. show less
Overall, the book is very informative and highly enjoyable. Readers with a familiarity with real world propaganda, especially the styles of WWI and WWII will recognize much of the artist styles that are used to very similar effect. Studying propaganda allows for an idea of how governing bodies wished to be seen, or how their opponents wished them to be seen. This artist focus works well in the Star Wars universe, given the galactic bodies at work to maintain strength and order or peace and justice in the galaxy at large. The book also includes 10 art prints of propaganda pieces examined within the book. The prints include each time period examined in the book, with a mix of pro-government and anti-government pieces, depending on when they’re from.
All in all, it’s a very well done, well researched book that displays not only a deep understanding of the Star Wars universe (unsurprising from Pablo Hidalgo) but also a solid understanding of the history of propaganda in our world that enabled him to translate it so skillfully to the Star Wars universe. show less
Star Wars The Essential Readers Companion is a must for any fan of the Star Wars expanded universe. With illustrations varying (in my opinion) from pretty good to masterful, this book is fun and colorful from start to finish. The reason for the 4 star rating is because, due to the constantly expanding universe, there can be no such thing as a COMPLETE readers companion. However the author and artists do a wonderful job of simplifying and explaining the complex web of Star Wars tales show more published thus far. show less
Transformers Vault: The Complete Transformers Universe - Showcasing Rare Collectibles and Memorabilia by Pablo Hidalgo
Everything here is great, although it's also not enough. I'd have loved for more information on many of the topics covered. I'd also like to have the book written a little more subjectively, but that's a minor complaint.
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 50
- Also by
- 4
- Members
- 2,342
- Popularity
- #10,948
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 8
- ISBNs
- 106
- Languages
- 9
- Favorited
- 1