Your Fave Disney Villains Got Their Own Stamps

Have you ever wondered to yourself "How can I let someone know I am a force to be reckoned with, but that despite my dastardly machinations, I'm also a classy person with a keen appreciation for the lost art of letter writing?" Well wonder no more! Last weekend, the U.S. Postal Service unveiled a new line of Forever stamps featuring your favorite Disney villains.

The Disney Villain Forever stamps were dedicated at the D23 Expo 2017 in Anaheim, California, a three day convention for die-hard Disney fans. The ten new stamps depict the Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, Cruella De Vil from One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Maleficient from Sleeping Beauty, the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Lady Tremaine from Cinderella, Honest John from Pinocchio, Scar from The Lion King, and Captain Hook from Peter Pan.

“The Postal Service is highlighting the Disney Villains and the pioneering spirit of the Ink and Paint Department that brought many of these characters to life,” Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan told the Los Angeles Daily News. “These Forever stamps are our way of saying Disney Villains will forever entertain us and serve as a tribute to Disney’s artistry and storytelling skill.”

Indeed, the process of bringing our beloved Disney heroes and villains to life was extremely labor intensive. Beginning in 1923, and continuing until the late '80s, after animators were finished sketching out characters and scenes in pencil, they took their drawings to the Ink and Paint Department in Walt Disney's Animation Studios in Burbank, California, where artists would painstakingly recreate each line in ink, and color each animation celluloid, or "cel". The last full-length Disney animated film to be created in this way was The Little Mermaid in 1989. Disney's next films, Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Lion King (1994) were hand-drawn, and then scanned and painted digitally. To honor the careful craftsmanship that went into creating these characters, the stamps featuring Gaston and Scar were recreated using these traditional ink and paint techniques.

In order to create this new line of Forever stamps, USPS art director Derry Noyes collaborated with Disney Creative Director David Pacheco and his team at Disney's Ink & Paint Department.

The stamps are available to purchase now, and a sheet of 20 will only set you back 49 cents — an easy, affordable, and sophisticated way to alert your family, friends, and nemeses that you're embarking on a journey to become a super-villain. Sleazy animal sidekicks sold separately.