Winnie The Pooh – Shit.
Winnie The Pooh. That lovable bear. All filler and no brain. A bumbling antidote to all those hectic adventures of other children’s books. Mellow, insightful and loved by millions for ages.
Well, nearly. Not everyone loved that ’silly old bear’.
It’s well known that Christopher Robin (Milne) hated the books and pretty much felt exploited by his dad (author AA Milne). Well, we’ve another one in the queue.
Stand up, Ernest Howard Shepard.
EH Shepard, who so famously captured Winnie The Pooh (DVDs) with simple line
drawings, actually despised all things Pooh related. It’s little known
that Shepard was the illustrator for Punch magazine for years, and
displayed visceral wit and an ace eye for an image. He cut down Hitler
with his pencil and was the leading British satirist (in terms of
cartoons) for 30 years.
The very fact nobody knew this is pretty much why he hated Winnie the Pooh.
The little-bothered bear cast a shadow that dwarfed the rest of
Shepard’s work. Boy did he resent it. In fact, it is widely regarded
that Shepard’s biggest regret in life was agreeing to illustrate for
Milne. In most instances, Shepard’s political illustrations are
infinitely more interesting, but it is still the Winnie The Pooh
drawings that fetch tens of thousands of pounds at auction.
Obviously, Milne’s tales became famous world-wide after Disney got
their mucky paws on them, but it is the drawings of EH Shepard – who died in 1976 – that will be
remembered as the definitive look of the bear and his pals.
Even though these pictures have made Shepard (and his estate)
incredibly wealthy, he died bitter about being associated with these
‘ridiculous’ characters.
Still.
Better than a kick in the balls eh?
An exhibition of EH Shepard work – The Man Who Hated Pooh – opens on March 22 at London’s Political Cartoon Gallery
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[story by Mof Gimmers]
