The Art of Star Wars: The High Republic – Volume 2 | Review

The latest Art of Star Wars book lets fans dive deeper into the vast characters, creatures, and worlds of The High Republic, expanding on what we’ve already seen.

Author Kristen Baver returns for a second Art of The High Republic outing, offering even more insights and spectacular art from the publishing initiative. As someone who grew up during the Expanded Universe era, eagerly gobbling up all the new stories as they came, it’s wild to see Star Wars novels get so much artwork it can span two full coffee table books. It’s one of the many things that seems to make The High Republic special, cementing it as a defining part of the storytelling right alongside the movies.

The first Volume gave us some great insight into how the project came together, along with excellent early artwork for some of our favorite characters and iconic moments. But that came out when the story was still unfolding. 

The initial opening chapters of Volume 2 dive into this “making of” aspect on a deeper level than before, offering some fascinating tidbits about the inception of The High Republic and how it ultimately came together. Free from worrying about spoilers mid-way through, there are some great insight into how the sausage is made—so to speak. 

Personally, I was intrigued to discover how certain key elements of the later Phases were hammered out in such detail well before writing on the first phases began. Obviously there were some things that adjusted as the books released, but it shows the sheer amount of effort and planning that went into this project at even the earliest stages. 

Baver also goes into more detail on which authors were tasked with breaking down certain aspects of the story/lore (some of which those authors didn’t even specifically write about!). It also gets refreshingly candid on certain aspects of the creation process as well; going into how those involved argued for/against certain elements during the process. Baver doesn’t shy away from showing the ups and downs of such an undertaking, getting great quotes from all involved to help tell a—mostly—comprehensive story about how these stories come together. 

Of course, the main highlight of the book is the art on display. In this regard, it’s stunning. The Abrams’ Art of books have always done a great job of showcasing the art on display. The wide scale of the book itself gives the art ample room to shine, while highlighting smaller details along the way. Combine that with a thicker paper stock and it makes for an art book that feels as good as it looks; encouraging readers to keep flipping through and finding new stuff to enjoy. 

For me, it was neat seeing the thought process behind some of the older Jedi designs. The book went into detail on how the storytellers viewed the overall setting of Phase II (which took things even further into the past), and how they wanted to capture that older sense of Western expansion. As a Native American was even more excited to see how they specifically mentioned wanting to evoke that feeling without falling into some old colonialist tropes that…well, they aren’t great. 

Anyway, the book goes on to show how the artwork evolved to capture those vibes. Working to make itself distinct from the previous Phase of Jedi readers came to know and love, while retaining those classic elements that make it recognizably “Star Wars.” The same goes for the more King Arthur style for the final Phase, and the many iterations of the terrifying Nameless creatures. 

It’s almost overwhelming how much art is packed into this thing, but it’s laid out in an intuitive way. This makes the book easy easy to follow along with, while maintaining a clear look at how ideas, characters, and creatures evolved throughout the whole process. 

The best thing about these kind of books, which Baver manages to capture here, is they can work as both a great informational resource or just a fun coffee table book. There are some great insights to learn when you sit down to read it chronologically, but if you simply feel like flipping to random pages and seeing something cool, you can do that too. I’ve done a little bit of both, finding myself enjoying splitting my time between reading the chapters and taking a break to just ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ over the art. 

The overall result is, yet another, impressive Art of book. More than just a companion piece to the first volume, or an excuse to show off more art, it offers a deep look behind the scenes that is both insightful and candid. If you have any interest at all in how such massive stories come together, you’ll definitely want to check it out. Even if all you care about are the pretty pictures and to get better visuals on the characters/stories you love, there’s no reason to skip out on this one.