Star Wars meets Tank Girl

Mashup master James Hance has crossed Tank Girl with Princess Leia to excellent effect. He's selling prints and tees.

Latest Doodle: ‘Falcon Girl’ (Tank Girl / Star Wars) (via The Mary Sue )

• [CountZero]

  Love this! I still have my Deadline comics, where Tank Girl first appeared.
  Six of them signed by Jamie Hewlett, too.

• [pizzicato]

  Hate everything about Star Wars, just wish their fans would start harping about a rather third rate knights and princess fantasy story, watching it once was good enough for me. I really can’t stand another Star War post not here, not anywhere, not even another Lego star wars whatevert.  (¬_¬)

   Star Wars is just shit, as Captain Kirk said, it is derivative!!!!!!!

  • [blueelm]

    Tank Girl, on the other hand… 

  • [MarcVader]

    “It’s a troll Jim, but not as we know it.”

  • [Scott Merrifield]

    Yes, your contrariness makes you cool. Congrats.

• [iamlegion]

  This is awesome! I love the little Red 5′s on her ammo belt…

• [Robert Cruickshank]

  Let’s see ChewBooga next.

• [Sarah McDonald]

  I don’t think it’s cool that they are -selling- this mash-up. Is copyright infringement ok if you like the subject matter, Boing Boing?

  • [Bill]

    is a derivative work copyright infringement?  I’m not sure.  

    • [Sarah McDonald]

       let me rephrase.. “is ripping off an artist’s work ok…” I hate to bring the technicalities of copyright infringement into this. I’m just thinking about morals, really.

      • [retchdog]

        we have a history of respecting satire both legally and morally. i think this qualifies; leia was a kick-ass woman in 1977, but not so much even as of the late 80s. this points that out wonderfully.

        • [Sarah McDonald]

          I’m in art school… I get it… I’m just saying it’s not cool that he is selling prints and t-shirts. I’m tired of the “everything is a mashup” in contemporary pop-culture art. It’s boring and uncreative.

        • [retchdog]

          (shrug) even as a mashup, i think this is a lot more creative than queen amidala was. :-/

      • [Antinous / Moderator]

        I hate to bring the technicalities of copyright infringement into this. I’m just thinking about morals, really.

        You seem to be confusing ‘your opinions’ with ‘morals’. You’ll be a better artist if you let that go.

• [itlawguy]

  it is a derivative work and absolutely guilty of copyright infringement without a doubt… this is not arguable..however..i would hope we could all agree that it’s a pretty inspired piece of art.  it’s all fine (and just a nice homage) until it get’s sold for profit..then boing boing, like all of us, should protect the rights of the original artists

  • [Sarah McDonald]

     It appears he IS selling this, and lots of other homages, for profit.

    • [retchdog]

      you’re allowed to sell parody/satire if it comments on the original work, which this does.

      • [itlawguy]

        you are allowed to do anything you want..however you can be sued for infringement where it’s clear you borrowed easily identifiable elements for profit… meaningful use is different than derivative…just because lucas doesn’t go after him doesn’t make it any less of an infringement… if i put a gingrich t-shirt on darth vader..its clearly satire..still infringement

        • [retchdog]

          you are allowed to sue whomever you want..however your case can be vacated where it’s clear the parody is an effective social commentary… fair use is different than infringing…just because they make money doesn’t make it any less of a fair use… if i wrote “the wind done gone”..its clearly derivative..still fair use.

      • [itlawguy]

        however, if your ‘paroday/satire’ is merely a new version of the same character (just another flavor of a highly recognizable princess leia) then it’s no different than the for-profit versions that lucasfilm sells to cartoon network and others and hence an infringement because it doesn’t show enough transformative nature..this especially refers to mashups which are similar to sampling in music…. you often need permission or you pay… all of this is really just academic as lucas isn’t going to go after every joe who sells t-shirts and such..but is still technically the law and important for people to keep turning out good work

        • [retchdog]

          i see what you mean, and if this guy is making a business out of churning out mashups that might make it questionable. if this guy made an ONGOING series of tank girl leia comics, i would agree with you that this is derivative; however, a one-off like this seems to be the minimum necessary to make the fair use social-satirical point. anyway, isn’t ALL parody  ”merely a new version of the same character”?

  • [Doug Black]

    “i would hope we could all agree that it’s a pretty inspired piece of art. ”

    I agree!  Oh wait, you said inspired not insipid.  Never mind.

  • [Ramsey Hong]

    Although I enjoy it, it’s nearly a straight trace of Jamie Hewlett’s original Tank Girl illustration. And funnily enough, he even makes a mistake including Booga’s waist pockets in the illustration. And as to whether or not it’s a legitimate parody or satire of Princess Leia and/or Tank Girl. In my personal opinion he threw out any legitimacy the second he started selling t-shirts of it. It’s very hard to see this as anything other than money driven.

    Based on his web site it appears he’s a very skilled artist. I’d sincerely like to see something original from him.

• [Adam Cahan]

  It looks like she should have some needle marks…

• [Optic]

  The more of his prints you look at on his site, the less creative it seems. This one is particularly cute, but they seem pretty formulaic.

• [Mister44]

  A little too clean (that is needs for junk hanging off of her), but otherwise pretty bad assed.

• [jere7my]

  Damn, I love this a lot. I am tempted to buy the tee, but I worry that I’d appear to be making a false statement about my gender identity if I wore it. Am I overthinking?

  • [Donald Petersen]

    Probably, IMHO.

  • [Mister44]

    How so? Falcon Girl is the character – not the name of the person wearing the shirt. If you fear confusion grow a beard. Not only are they “in” right now, but it’s winter and they keep your face warm.

    • [jere7my]

      Beat you to it!

• [CygnusXII CygnusXII]

  Awwww, Yeahhhh! Synchronicity strikes again! I just watched Tank Girl on Netflix night before last. It’s one of my stylized favorites. I was wandering the Intrawebs searching for some nice wallpapers. This is a great Mashup. I do agree with others though, it is a little too clean, and the lines are a little to precise, but the callout to the Original is pretty clear. Good work all around.