MICHAEL WHELAN • NAPOLEON HOKA by Michael Whelan, cover for...

NAPOLEON HOKA by Michael Whelan, cover for Hoka! by Gordon R. Dickson and Poul Anderson.

The ‘Hoka’ books, by Gordon R. Dickson and Poul Anderson, have been favorites among SF fans for many years. The Hokas are an intelligent teddy bear-like race of extraterrestrials who possess an outrageous propensity for imitating the fads and icons of popular Earth culture. So in the pages of the Hoka stories, one can find a Hoka Sherlock, a Hoka Napoleon, a Hoka… well, you name it. The surreal juxtaposition of characters from wildly different times and sources is at the heart of these satires.

I was invited to contribute the preliminary conceptualizations for a Hoka movie project, and with the popularity of both science fiction movies and teddy bears, it seemed a great idea. I enlisted David Wenzel to help with realizing some of the characters and scenes. Not only did David offer valuable advice regarding period details and atmosphere, but his preparatory drawings and watercolors for paintings such as these were right on the mark. Despite all the effort, and some eye-boggling work by Rick Baker (an Academy Award-winning makeup artist), the movie was never made.

Source: michaelwhelan.com