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Star Wars

Give Him That Medal!

Perhaps the most famous “fur-suiter” on the planet has left us. Peter Mayhew, best known as the human inside the massive “walking carpet” Chewbacca in the Star Wars series of films, passed away on April 30th at the age of 74. Interestingly, before Mr. Mayhew came to the attention of director George Lucas he appeared as another anthropomorphic character: The minotaur in 1976’s Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. Peter Mayhew played Chewbacca the 200-year-old wookie from the first Star Wars film in 1977 (Episode 4, aka A New Hope) until 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, when he passed on the role to former basketball player Joonas Suatamo. But Peter Mayhew will always be known as the warbling roar that announced Star Wars to the world.

image c. 2019 The Verge

Mole Magic

And here’s another project we found out about thanks to Animation Magazine: “A new CG-animated, uplifting TV special featuring an all-star British voice cast is underway! Lending their talents to Master Moley (currently in production) are Star Wars franchise regular Warwick Davis, The Escape star Gemma Arterton, Emmy and BAFTA nominee Charles Dance, two-time Oscar nominee Julie Walters, and Golden Globe nominee Richard E. Grant. The 30-minute special, based on an original story conceived as a bedtime tale by James Reatchlous, will follows the adventures of a mole who wishes to be the keeper of a magic book which has the power to bring peace between humans and moles. Master Moley is being directed by Leon Joosen (animator on Space Jam, The Rescuers Down Under, The Little Mermaid, Oliver & Company, et al), from a script by Ricky Roxburgh (Tangled: The Series) and Arthur Landon.” No word yet on when they plan to complete this, so stay tooned!

image c. 2018 Signature Entertainment

So Fluffy… And Cute

The creator of 100% Soft describes himself this way: “Truck Torrence lives in Los Angeles and makes kawaii pop art under the moniker 100% Soft. He is the designer of the official emoji for Star Wars and the creator of the Kaiju Kitties. His work has been shown at Gallery 1988, Bottleneck Gallery, Giant Robot, and Spoke Art. His clients have included Lucasfilm, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Fandango, Nickelodeon, and Marvel Studios.” And as you can see on his web site, he’s been busy making emoji, message stickers, plush kaiju kitties, and more for a while now — including an entire set of stickers for Disney’s Zootopia!

image c. 2017 100SOFT.US

Fine Turtle Art

Albert Nguyen is a fine artist and illustrator who has created works for online games, children’s books, pet portraits, and people portraits — among other things. After he completed a popular graphic-arts-style series of illustrations from the Star Wars universe, he set about creating a series of portraits of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a historical samurai style. Visit his web site, KnewWhen.com (get it?) to see more of his works both furry and not-furry.

image c. 2014 by Albert Nguyen

image c. 2014 by Albert Nguyen

Prepare for the Battle of the Endor Moon

Love them or loathe them, the Ewoks became a big part of the lore of the Star Wars universe, both during and after the original movie trilogy. Now this October comes a brand-new full-color trade paperback from Dark Horse Press, looking to tie up some loose ends. “Until now, the Ewoks had been able to ignore the arrival of the Empire’s stormtroopers on Endor. But when they discover their rivals, the Duloks, have been enslaved and a legendary beast has been awakened, the Ewoks realize they may have to prepare for war—as soon as they figure out how to survive the beast!” Written and illustrated by Zack Giallongo (with art help by Braden Lamb), Star Wars: Ewoks — Shadows of Endor links up events and characters from the Ewoks animated TV series with the events in Return of the Jedi.

image c. 2013 Dark Horse Press