Chewbacca, Han Solo and R2D2 drawn as if part of A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh

Illustrations by James Hance, used with permission.

I'm surprised I didn't catch this earlier, but James Hance has recently released a series of lovely images. Here, he re-imagines Han Solo as Christopher Robin, Chewbacca as Pooh Bear, R2D2 as Piglet, and even (this is cool) an AT-AT as Eeyore.

Definitely go to his Cartoon page to see the images in their full glory. Also this just in - James writes:

The first Wookiee the Chew book gets published today (September 1st) and will be available from either my website or comic stores in Jacksonville. My main hub is at Cafe 331, downtown Jacksonville. I'm there every Saturday with prints, paintings and books.

Link

David Ng likes to find funny things to show in your next science talk.

MORE: guestblog

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Anonymous

Winnie the Pooh is not under public domain. It should have been multiple times now but Disney keeps buying new laws to keep Micky and Pooh away from it’s rightful owners.
cinemajay

Looking at the other stuff on his site, I think he’s pretty well protected under parody. Of course, IMNAL. But this is the internet and by law I’m required to share my uninformed opinion on everything.
Darran Edmundson

Looking at the drawings I was (somewhat unexpectedly) filled with joy. Then I read the comments above and this sense of bliss instantly evaporated.
Jeditigger

Well, clearly someone with this user name (and the associated tattoo of Tigger dressed as Luke from the first Star Wars movie) would think this is the most awesome thing ever.

I could die, it’s so cute.
Tribune

Must Resist…. CreditCard has tooo much stuff on this month already……

I have 2 daughters I get “AWWW CUTE!!!!” around her I should be more immune.
Anonymous

I would soooo love this for a nursery! ADORABLE! My boys even thought it was cool, and they are older. I hope there aren’t any issues with the law stuff-all you party pooper commenters!
brassandlace

Pooh-bacca! This makes me so happy!
Eutychus

It’s time somebody pointed out the original illustrator was E.H. Shephard.
kdub

Thanks for posting this! I am going to get prints of his Star Wars/stewardess paintings, those are great.
El Mariachi

Ob. “difference between copyright and trademark.”

You can’t copyright a character. You can trademark the depiction of a character, and that doesn’t necessarily preclude all other uses of it. I can’t find any indication that Disney has acquired trademarks to the pre-Disney Winnie the Pooh characters, which if they exist presumably belong to Methuen, the publisher of the Milne/Shephard books.

In any case, it’s a moot point, because these aren’t those characters, they’re Star Wars characters, and a quick browse around various t-shirt sites suggests that Lucas isn’t bothered by third parties making money off creative uses of his characters.

So IANAL but I think this guy doesn’t have anything to worry about. Which is good because I’ve always loved Shepherd’s work and I really like these.
- shadowfirebird
  
  FWIW I know as a fact that Disney own the copyright on all colour Winnie The Pooh illustrations, and a lot of the black and white ones, too.
  
  There was a case a few years ago of them prosecuting a nursery because of a wall fresco.
  
  But of course you are right, this might well be more difficult for them, should they choose to take offense.
  - El Mariachi
    
    The Pooh rights are a big mess. But copyright only applies to original works in a “fixed medium,” meaning you can’t copyright an idea or the idea of a character. As long as you’re not making a direct copy of an existing illustration, there is no copyright violation. (Trademarks are a different story.)
    
    Regardless, it’s irrelevant, as these are not pictures of Winnie the Pooh.
Anonymous

You always carry a blaster, just in case.
davejenk1ns

Lucas has often said he wanted to (re)create an mythology that is core to our society. To a large extent, he’s done that with Luke, Han, etc.

If Lucas _really_ wanted to gete that myth solidly in place, he would realize he has “enough” money, and release all rights to Star Wars into the public domain or some sort of CC licence. People are already integrating Star Wars into their mashups everywhere– why not embrace and encourage these mashups and reconfigurations?

If the Greek mythologies or Grimm fairy tales had been copyrighted, I doubt they would have penetrated our society to the degree they have.
Burzmali

No to be obvious, but wouldn’t selling that artwork tread awful heavily on Star Wars’ copyrights and trademarks?
- Mike
  
  Yeah, don’t let George Lucas hear about this. He actually tried to stop someone from inventing lightsabers, who knows what he’ll do here.
  
  And is Winnie the Pooh under public domain?
  
  Hope the artist works his way through any legal tangles. He’s done some absolutely lovely work.
  
  â€œWherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the forest, a little smuggler and his Wookie will always be playing.â€
- Jason Rizos
  
  I’m not a lawyer, but in my opinion, the success of this project relies solely on the borrowed interest of Star Wars, and, again IMHO, that’s low art.
Anonymous

The artwork? No.

The book? Almost definitely. He could call it parody and cross his fingers that Lucasfilm doesn’t care enough to “disagree,” I suppose.
P1rat3

Tut tut, it looks like a rebellion.

We’ve broken his web-server methinks.
shadowfirebird

Also, Disney’s. Disney owns ALL copyright on Winnie the Pooh illustrations, so long as they are in colour.
hollis

Please put these on a shirt. I am not afraid to wear my nerd on my sleeve.
- Mike
  
  Please put these on a shirt. I am not afraid to wear my nerd on my sleeve.
  
  The artist’s anticipated your desire for Wookie the Chew shirts:
  http://jameshance.com/t-shirts.html
  
  Unfortunately his server is running slowly at the moment, but you may be able to get through. Otherwise there’s always tomorrow.
- Mike
  
  Found the direct link to James Hance’s t-shirt shop, which is running much smoother:
  http://www.redbubble.com/people/strangelydrawn
  - hollis
    
    Much thanks, Good Sir.
- Anonymous
  
  Ditto! I want one!
mellowknees

Love, love, LOVE this guy’s artwork!
pyster

This is kinda cool. When I was 8 I had the winnie the poo weeble wabble tree house. I also had micronaughts galore (super tubes, astrostation, and other stuff), and lots of starwars figures. Winnie the Poo and Luke Skywalker used to have awesome adventures, discovering a destroyed space ship, fixing it, and blasting off into outer space to fight the gamalons. Tiger spent a lot of time in the falcon. Winnie didnt like ewoks or jawas, but had the hots for laia. Time Traveler took them all back to land of the lost where they were stuck until biotron rescued them!
shadowfirebird

Forgot to say how much I love these. Eyore as an AT-AT is enough to cheer anyone up. I really hope we are wrong about the copyright problems…
Anonymous

This is so insanely cute that it kind of hurts a little.
escowles

Unfortunately, I think the main question here is whether George Lucas’s or Disney’s lawyers will get to this guy first. Or whether any T-shirts will ship before the lawsuit hits.
- kpkpkp
  
  Mashups are fair use
- shadowfirebird
  
  Well, I just ordered a shirt. So I guess I will find out.
Anonymous

Cool, I really like this. Brilliant.