Darth Vader is such a rockin' mega-villain, it took two people to play him in the original Star Wars: David Prowse for the body, and James Earl Jones for the voice. But really, it's taken an army of artists, muralists, stencilographers, calligraphers, graffiti artists and conceptual artists to do justice to the Dark Lord of the Sith. Most famously, Lucasfilm gave scores of Vader helmets to artists for the Vader Project, part of the traveling Star Wars Celebration, and the artists fucked them up in entertaining, political or just freaktastic ways. But there have also been Steampunk Vaders, dog Vaders, hot-air balloon Vaders, rainbow Vaders, Misfit Vaders and and cow Vaders. And where Vader can't go, his stormtroopers stampede through the art world, getting turned into Rod Stewart and cute desert commandos. There's also been some great art of bounty hunter Boba Fett and the lesser Sith Lord, Darth Maul. (Or Darth Whatsisname, as I call him.)

Send an email to Charlie Jane Anders, the author of this post, at charliejane@io9.com.