“Uh, hey,” I called to Travis from across the print room. “At the risk of sounding like a nerd (and I know that’s a surprise)…Is that, by any chance, a Wookiee bowcaster?”

The familiar, black crossbow shape of Chewbacca’s weapon from the Star Wars movies caught my eye as I was binding some spec books. It was sitting atop his desk, leaning against the wall amidst Halloween decorations that seem to stay up at his desk year-round.

“Why, yes it is!” Travis replied. It was homemade, part of a Chewbacca Halloween costume he’d constructed for his son. He opened the photos and showed me how he basically made the entire costume from scratch. And it’s damn good. It reminded me of the costumes my family and I built when I was a kid.

(It should be noted that Travis is cool. Actually cool. Funny, easygoing, socially functional, has good taste. So those of you who are picturing an awkward, cloistered office drone, you’re off-base. Travis is a cool nerd.)

I mentioned that my friend Ed was part of a Star Wars costuming group, the Rebel Legion, and he troops in a screen-accurate Rebel pilot costume. This was not a new idea to Travis. He has a costume of his own, and he’s clearly passing the geeky creativity to his son, who I think is pretty much guaranteed to turn out cool. Travis mentioned that he had the bowcaster here at the office, because he was going to work on making it more screen-accurate, because his son wants to go to the next CONvergence.

Musicians, pilots, and now creative Star Wars geeks. Fun people work in this print room.