Matthew Stuart "Matt" Busch (born September 22, 1972) is an American artist and entertainment illustrator. He is currently a professor of Media and Communication Arts at

Macomb Community College Macomb Community College is a multi-campus community college in Macomb County, Michigan. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. The college's offerings include university transfer, early college, professional certification ...

. He teaches a range of courses including figure illustration and commercial arts.

Early life

Busch was born in

Lebanon, Pennsylvania Lebanon () is a city in and the county seat of Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 26,814 at the 2020 census. Lebanon is located in the central part of the Lebanon Valley, east of Harrisburg and west of Reading. ...

on September 22, 1972, to Frederick and Peggy Busch. He grew up in the northern suburbs of

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

. After getting an associate degree from Macomb Community College, he moved to Pasadena, California, where he attended the Los Angeles Art Academy, and received a bachelor's degree from the

Art Center College of Design Art Center College of Design (stylized as ArtCenter College of Design) is a private art college in Pasadena, California. History ArtCenter College of Design was founded in 1930 in downtown Los Angeles as the Art Center School. In 1935, Fr ...

. After living in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

for nearly a decade during the 1990s, Busch eventually returned to the Northern Detroit area where he set up his company, Planetmatt Entertainment, and continues to work on Hollywood projects, via new technology. He is well known in many different circles of pop culture and fandom as an entertainment illustrator. Mostly known for his work with the ''Star Wars'' universe, Busch has provided numerous covers, posters, and other material for the franchise.

Career

''Star Wars'' illustrator

Since 1994, Matt Busch has provided art for official Star Wars books, posters, magazines, and other products. Early in his career, Busch started illustrating products for the '' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game'' and the cover for '' Star Wars: Tales from the Empire'', which became a New York Times Best Seller. One of his more recent projects was illustrating the Style D One Sheet movie poster for '' Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.'' Busch is perhaps best known for his outspoken antics in the ''You Can Draw Star Wars'' video series, which is based on the book of the same name, which he also illustrated. The video series was first released online and later released on DVD. Following that, the videos found even more success when they were released on MySpace.com, and shot straight to number one on their charts. Volume Two of the same tutorial series was also released on DVD. SWCE - Stormtroopers1 (854266698)

In 2008, Hasbro released a droid action figure named MB-RA-7, which was named after Matt Busch. Also that year, Busch became the first Honorary Member of the 501st Legion of Stormtroopers to become an official member with his own TK Stormtrooper armor. In October 2009, he created and released Zombie Wars Episode I: The Zombie Menace, Zombie Wars Episode II: Attack of the Undead, Zombie Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Zombies, Zombie Wars Episode IV: A New Epidemic, Zombie Wars Episode V: The Living Dead Strike Back, and Zombie Wars Episode VI: Return from the Grave. A couple of months later,

Kohl's Kohl's (stylized in all caps) is an American department store retail chain, operated by Kohl's Corporation. it is the largest department store chain in the United States, with 1,165 locations, operating stores in every U.S. state except Hawa ...

department stores re-released an exclusive

Boba Fett Boba Fett ( ) is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. First appearing in the '' Star Wars Holiday Special'' (1978), where he was voiced by Don Francks, he is an armored bounty hunter featured in both the original and preque ...

T-shirt featuring Busch's art.

Pop artist

Busch has contributed to comic books and trading cards, having worked on such properties as ''Afterburn'', ''Alizarin's Journal'', ''Coven 13'', ''

Lady Death Lady Death is a fictional goddess appearing in American comic books published by Coffin Comics. Created by Brian Pulido, Lady Death first appeared in '' Evil Ernie'' #1 in December 1991. Lady Death then reappeared in the ''Evil Ernie: The Res ...

'', ''

Night of the Living Dead ''Night of the Living Dead'' is a 1968 American independent horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, with a screenplay by John Russo and Romero, and starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. The story follows seven p ...

'', and ''

Witchblade ''Witchblade'' is a comic book series published by Top Cow Productions, an imprint of Image Comics, which ran from November 1995 to October 2015. The series was created by Top Cow founder and owner Marc Silvestri, editor David Wohl, writers ...

''. In 2009, Busch was hand-selected to illustrate

President Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

for the cover of the

DVD documentary A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

, Becoming Barack: Evolution of a Leader. Busch also produced a bonus feature on the DVD.

Filmmaker

Having worked behind the scenes for years in many aspects of movie making, Busch eventually moved into the world of independent filmmaking. In 2006, his first feature-length movie, ''Conjure'' was released straight-to-DVD; a project that he wrote, directed, starred in, and even composed the music for. The movie gained critical acclaim and even shattered records in the Horror Genre. In 2009, Busch released a DVD titled ''Illustration Nation'', a documentary of travel adventures ranging from Hollywood to London to Tokyo. Busch is currently filming and directing a trilogy titled ''Aladdin 3477'' based on the classic

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

tale ''Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp''. The movie is set in Asia 1,500 years in the future. The first film is expected to be released at some point in 2023.

Personal life

Busch married his wife Lin Zy (née Selestow), a

puppet designer A puppet designer is a person who designs and creates puppets for themselves or for other ventriloquists and puppeteers. Puppetry predates written history in many cultures , and seems to have evolved from the mask. In Eastern and Western Europe ...

, on September 18, 2011, in

Royal Palm Beach, Florida Royal Palm Beach is a village in southeast Florida, located within Palm Beach County. The population was measured at 34,140 in the 2010 census. It is part of the Miami Metropolitan Area. Despite its name, the village is located approximately fif ...

. They reside in a multiple-studio house in

Macomb Township, Michigan Macomb Township is a civil township of Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 91,663 at the 2020 Census, which makes it the most-populated civil township in the state. It is the third most-populated township overall a ...

with their dog Roxie.'Yes, we're crazy and we brought out dog here. Roxie doesn't appear to be much of a Star Wars fan... YET.'
(April 16, 2015) – Instagram

Filmography

Film

Film director

Television

Internet

Published books

* ''Hollywood is Dead'', published by Planetmatt Entertainment (2014) * ''Matt Busch's Sketchbook (Now With 90% More Bad-Ass!)'', published by Planetmatt Entertainment (December 2010) () * ''The Worlds of Matt Busch'', published by Hermes Press (April 2008) () * ''You Can Draw Star Wars'', published by DK Publishing (January 2007) () * ''Pucker: The Seductive Art of Matt Busch'', published by SQP Publishing (September 2006) () * ''Fantastic Visions: The Art of Matt Busch'', published by Avatar Press (September 2001) ()

References

External links

Matt Busch's official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Busch, Matt Living people 1972 births American illustrators People from Lebanon, Pennsylvania People from Macomb County, Michigan