The Empire Strikes Book is a 500-page book gathers the full arc of a lifelong fascination—drawings and works born from the Star Wars universe. The book begins with the artist's earliest, childhood sketches at age seven in 1977, when the first film detonated the imaginations of viewers across the world. JK5's work is organized by year and provides a visual progression of his skill, style formation, and infatuation with the franchise. The Empire Strikes Book is a visual feast that is chock-full of fan-favorite characters reimagined in JK5's unique style. "I drew obsessively through the original trilogy years. In 1994, during my senior year at the Rhode Island School of Design, I felt the desert winds of the 'Dune Sea' calling me back. That autumn, as I began tattooing in earnest, I adopted JK5 as my nom de plume (Jedi Knight, Red 5), and the visual grammar of Star Wars evolved into a parallel mythology—part homage, part catalyst. It became a lens through which I explored identity, expression, and the construction of my own personal cosmology. This work is the record of that journey." - JK5
