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SYFY WIRE Original Video

Artists Alley: John Giang draws Masters of the Universe's Trap Jaw

By SYFY WIRE Staff

Within the Masters of the Universe mythos, Trap Jaw is just another one of Skeletor's minions who is doomed to be eternally punched in the face by He-Man. But to concept artist John Giang, Trap Jaw's unique cyborg features made him an ideal subject for the latest edition of SYFY WIRE's Artists Alley series.

"A big reason why I choose this opportunity to work on Trap Jaw is because I'm a bit of a gearhead too," said Giang. "So I love doing anything that has to do with mechanics... I think even machinery has its visual language and visual archaeology."

Giang went on to share his theory that Trap Jaw's various attachments are meant to beautify himself. While Giang declined to say whether Trap Jaw was successful, he did define his take on "visual archaeology."

"What that means is if a character wearing certain clothing or they have certain gear... that gives an indication as to what the history of that character is. That subtly gives you some sort of story behind the character as well."

While speaking about his technique, Giang also shared the unlikely story of how he was discovered by Lucasfilm.

"I [wanted] to pursue that dream of getting into concept art," related Giang. "So I thought one way to get my work out was doing conventions... comic cons... I'd gotten a convention [in] Oakland, and it was not a good show. There was no one there [and] I was about to pack it up, but some guys were across the aisle looking at me... They kept looking over at my work and came over finally. They were super cool dudes and they [were] like 'we love your art, what do you want to do?' and I was like 'well, I'd like to get into Lucasfilm or Pixar at some point.' And they're like, 'well, we're from Lucasfilm.'"

To hear the rest of that tale and more details from Giang, you're going to have to watch the entire video!