Funny Brutal Death Bun Toons! YAY!

Because death and tragedy are ALWAYS funny.

WARNING: SPOILERS if you are NOT following the Batman titles at DC, I’m about to give away a HUUUGE plot element.

Seriously, you’ve been warned.

Have fun.

I know I’m not supposed to get all fanboy for a sitcom, but it’s been so long since Larry Sanders went off the air, and I get to get sucky-baby at the terrible mistreatment my favorite TV show has been suffering.

Whine over, we now return you to your regular internet.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your BONUS Comic Book COMMUNITY moment:

For those of us who got the COMMUNITY SEASON ONE DVD disc set, it comes with a free copy of KICKPUNCHER: THE COMIC BOOK, drawn by Jim Mahfood.  Can the worlds of Comics and Community get any sweeter?

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For last week’s silly Bun Toon, click the trademark infringement above

for the BUN TOON archive, click the trademarked bunny above

Sketch Cover Commissions!

Ty has been asked a few times about doing commissions, and generally says no. But after posting some of the sketch covers he’s done recently, he was asked if he’d make it possible for out-of-town fans to get one…  As he was giving it some thought, he got to do a bunch for a one-day Toronto comic convention and enjoyed it enough that he decided–yes. Yes, he will!

Okay, this is NOT a sketch cover. But it could have been!

Email Ty at tybunny AT gmail DOT com, if you would like a sketch cover. Please list your name, mailing address, and which blank sketch cover you would like. We have access to Batman, Deadpool, Thor, Uncanny Avengers, All New Xmen, and Fantastic Four (to the best of my knowledge). You can request characters, situation, etc. and Ty will let you know if he’s able to accommodate you.

**NEW**–I’ve checked and we also have access to The Hulk, Daredevil, The Defenders, Scarlet Spider, and Wolverine blank sketch covers.

Covers will be done in pencil, ink, archival quality markers, Prismacolours…more or less whatever Ty has to hand. They’ll be black and white, with some greytones and occasionally with red marker/ink.

Ty is charging $45/Cdn for these covers (that will include the cost of the book which we purchase from our LCS). That’s for a maximum of two characters–if you ask for something complicated or with lots of characters, he may quote you a higher price. Ask for a quote for a full cover wrap.

Shipping will be  $4/Cdn shipping and handling to addresses in Canada; $5/Cdn shipping and handling to addresses in the USA.  (Anywhere else, email and we’ll figure it out and get back to you!) When Ty has confirmed with you that he’ll do the sketch cover, we’ll send you a PayPal Invoice. Books will be shipped in a comic bag between two backing boards, in a bubble-wrap envelope.

**NEW**  (AND…if you want to have your cover submitted to CGC, we actually have the ability to do that through a recognised representative. Let us know when you email, please. We would find out through the rep what extra costs and time that would add on to the commission)

Keiren

<—completely accurate

portrait of me by Ty.

Gotham City Bun Toons YAY!

I’m Bunny-Man, punks.

It’s Thanksgiving weekend in the States, so statistically, no one is reading this. But I don’t Bun Toon for the readers, I do it for the man in my head who WON’T STOP YELLING AT ME!

Full confession:  This was a lovely idea Dan Slott suggested we try back while we were doing Batman Adventures together.  But since Dan and I are each doing a version of Spider-Man at the moment  (Dan writes Amazing, I do  Ulitimate  Adventures), it ain’t going to happen anywhere but here.  No one ever gets to hear about the Red Hood either, after what…almost ten years now?

So, ten years delayed gag from the Slott/ Templeton Batman Adventures Team.

Happy belated American Thanksgiving everyone.  Now, go buy Christmas gifts, you economic engines, you.

Oh, and see you all at INDUSTRY NIGHT and the ONE DAY CONVENTION tomorrow.  SEE HERE for details.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your BONUS “Batman is frightened of the light” MOMENT.

Because this death trap has to be generating thirty or forty watts of pure power.

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For last week’s equally daytime-related comedy, click above.

For an archive or previous Bun Toon, going back years, click the Bunny.

Delayed Bun Toons! Boo!

If anyone asks, I’m not here.

There is a Bun Toon coming, I’ve read it, and it’s officially funny.

But circumstances beyond my control are delaying my getting it to you.  My schedule, my family travelling for the long weekend, and let’s just say “caprice” have all conspired to delay the Bun Toon.

In the meantime, I present to you, a bunch of sketch covers I did for the Montreal Comicon a couple of weekends back.   I got scans and some of them don’t suck.

Don’t say I don’t give ya nothing, internet family.  Bun Toons return tomorrow!

Got asked to draw a Clayface cover. I’m not sure I ever drew Clayface in the series, and didn’t have a reference in front of me, so it was Clayface from memory. That’s the great thing about him, he can look like ANYTHING and it counts.

The New Harley Costume. As much as I love this character, I don’t love the new costume, but what’s more fun than a thirty pound whoopie cushion? (I had reference for this costume, provided by the fan. I’m not THAT good at working from memory).

This is the sequel to a con sketch I did last year (Death Fish I). That’s a first for me, as I didn’t think sketch covers ever got sequels.

 

A familiar idea that a fan asked me to reproduce for him. Yes, it’s flipped over…again that was a request. I haven’t drawn a Dark Claw cover yet that’s not based on an existing cover, since the official cover was taken from a B:TAS promotional poster.

There’s a bunch more of these sketch covers, but I don’t want to overwhelm you with dazzle all at once.  I might upload a bunch more later this week…

Ty the Guy OUT!

And now, your BONUS blank cover sketch:  I told you there were more of them.

I promise, that’s Montreal in the background.

 

Quality Footwear Bun Toons! YAY!

All glories to St. Hubbins, our patron saint.

This is a story I tell often, but don’t often tell in comic form.

Off we go.

I know Gene’s brother told that story as a point of pride, but it filled me with dread.  I still don’t like wearing shoes (or pants), but I’m SO lucky I have a reason to.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your BONUS Comic Book Shoe Moments:

A comic book story about shoes. (And about a murderer too, but so many stories are about murderers…)

And the epitome of the comic book shoe. Ask the internet and it shall provide.

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For Last Week’s Bun Toon…about a man who wears boots with spurs, click above.

For Every Bun Toon Ever, mostly about a rabbit with no pants, no shoes, but plenty of service (if you know what I mean, wink wink) click HERE.

Dark Knight Rises in FOUR PANELS!

I promise you….I LOVED the LAST Dark Knight movie. Don’t blame me.

Spoilers ahead, and I don’t mean Stephanie Brown.  Though she would have been cool….

Considering that DARK KNIGHT is one of my favorite movies ever, and Batman is one of my favorite characters ever, and that Inception was, like, an amazing movie, my level of disappointment with this bloated, pretentious, wrong-headed car wreck of a film is a heavy burden.

Please, if you enjoyed this movie, don’t send me hate mail.  You’ll never change my mind.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your bloated Batman comic book moment:

Art and story by my friend Rob Walton. It’s better than Dark Knight Rises. Except for the Catwoman bits.

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For last week’s somber and not-at-all-funny Bun Toons, respectfully click the Bunny above.

For every Bun Toon ever, click the much less dour rabbit above.

Batman Stuff! Plug! Plug! Plug!

On sale now!

Mad Magazine goes after the big summer movie.  Check.

Ty Templeton featured on a couple of pages of amusing Batman spoofing and high spirited satire.  Check.

And just in case fanboy outrage is more your style.  Remember “Bill The Boy Wonder:  The Secret Co-Creator of Batman” is on sale everywhere.  The first book ever written (and drawn) about Batman’s REAL father, is being well reviewed and is FLYING off the shelves.

Who’s giving it good reviews?  Check it out…

Bill Finger for the win. And Mark Tyler Nobleman, too. And me!

And that’s not even mentioning my ongoing Spider-Man work (tying into LAST week’s big Super-hero movie.)

If it turns out I’m working on the Hobbit or the next instalment of The Bourne Identity, I’ll let you know.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your BONUS Batman Movie Moment:

I’ll help you sneak into your movie, if you help me sneak into mine.

Plug, Plug, Plug. Baby needs new size twelve shoes.

Plug.

Plug.

Spider-Man Plug.

On Sale Tomorrow.  I wrote it (Dan Slott helped).  Matt Clark drew it.  Marvel printed it.  You’re going to love it, I promise.  MOST. FUN. MARVEL. STORY. I’VE. EVER. WRITTEN.

Plug.

Ultimate Spider-Man Adventures #3.  Coming next week.  I drew one of this issue’s interior stories.   Two Spider-Man Comics in two weeks!  Plus:  Spider-Man in the movies, yo!  Spider-Man on the comics’ stands! I’m at pop culture ground zero, fellow babies.

Batman plug.

Plug.

On sale in July.  I drew this one.  The true story of Batman’s creation, finally giving due to BILL FINGER, the REAL creator of Batman.

Plug.

Some pages from Bill  The Boy Wonder.  This scene recreates the moment Bob Kane “created” Batman.

Plug.

Another scene from Bill  The Boy Wonder.  This the moment that Bill Finger explains to Bob Kane how to fix that first version of the character so that people will actually read it.

plug.

On Sale in July.  The Bat-Fan in you needs this book.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here, now your Bonus Plug:

naughty Halloween revellers ruin it for the rest of us.

Moebius Bun Toons! YAY!

Darn it! Someone's let all the air out of my garage!

We all lost one of the corners of the comic book sky last week:  The magnificent Jean Giraud (also known as Moebius) has died.  If you know him only as one of those two names, you’re missing half his career.  Giraud, or “GIR” was probably the best illustrator of western comic books ever to pick up the pen, and Moebius was certainly the greatest illustrator of Science Fiction/Fantasy comic books of all time.  Amazingly enough, they were both the same man, and both an incalculable influence on me since I can remember discovering ARZACH in high school, and Blueberry in college.

Besides losing a legendary comic artist, the world lost a lovely and whimsical human being when Jean passed away, and my first thoughts after I heard he was gone, were of a small moment I remembered from a meal we once shared.   I share it now, with you.

It helps if you remember that MARRIED TO THE MOB was a Michelle Pfeiffer movie from the early 90s.  I think it was out in the theatres when Jean made this joke.

Is this moment as important as the Airtight Garage, or The Incal or Metal Hurlant?  I don’t know.  But it was charming and human, and whimsical, and unwilling to be cross or annoyed at the world.   And who doesn’t treasure that?

There are four postcards of Moebius’ doodles that are stuck in the wall near where I draw.  They’ve been there for years.  Here they are:

Those are the wee bits of Moebius that greet me every day in my studio.   Charming, and human, and whimsical, and unwilling to be cross or annoyed at the world.

Ty the Guy OUT!

HERE NOW, BONUS TRIBUTE TIME:

This month has also seen the passing of Sheldon Moldoff and Ralph McQuarrie.

Sheldon Moldoff drew the Batman I first encountered…he was the guy I THOUGHT was Bob Kane when I was a very young kid, because Bob Kane was signing his name to all of Sheldon’s work.

I cannot tell you guys how much I LOVE the 50s and 60s Sheldon Moldoff version of Batman, with ACE, Batwoman, Bat-Mite and the Flying Batcave.  I don’t see that stuff as corny or camp, I see it as the first version of Batman I ever saw, and my nostalgic affection for it is hard to hide.

Before there was ‘JOKER’S FIVE WAY REVENGE” and the dark, sombre Batman of Neal Adams and Denny O’Neil, we had “ROBIN DIES AT DAWN”, a comic that got under my skin and freaked me out when I was about six.  I recall it as one of the first comic books that had an emotional affect on me, and it still holds a special place.

I also remember reading a Golden Age Hawkman story in a reprint book from the 70s and being surprised that Sheldon Moldoff USED to draw like Alex Raymond back in the 40s.   Golden Age Hawkman stories became my Holy Grails.  I looked for them everywhere, and copied the line work and textures.

I saw this stuff before I saw the REAL Alex Raymond…or even Eisner, or Fine. Moldoff was the first Golden Age artist I specifically remember seeking out…the first one to convince me there might have actually been a Golden Age.

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STAR WARS borrowed heavily from many influences:  E.C. Comics, John Carter novels, Flash Gordon serials and Moebius’ work in Metal Hurlant…but the one person most responsible for the look and feel of the movie of my lifetime was Ralph McQuarrie.

It started with his production paintings.  They were leaked to the world in an article in STARLOG magazine a few months before the movie came out, and those paintings were enough to get my little legs scurrying to the movies the day it opened.

Sure, it’s the robot from Metropolis standing on John Carter’s Barsoom…but that’s what makes it GREAT!  Ralph knew where this Star Wars movie was coming from, and where it was going, and he started it all with these paintings.  For making our lives a little more fantastic, I thank you, sir.

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For last week's Bun Toon, that actually MENTIONS Barsoom, click above.

For every Bun Toon ever, click on the Jasoomian rabbit.

The Convention Sketches Came From My Basement!

A couple of weeks ago, I put together a sketchbook for an open house/gallery show at the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop.    (click on Sketchbook by Ty above!)  We printed up a bunch of ‘em, and had a dozen or so left over after the event, so we offered up em through our little website here.

Each sketchbook has a first page left intentionally blank, so that I had a space to scribble a doodle and signature and a message for the person getting it at the open house.    I can’t remember what I sketched in those books, as my brain forgets the image as soon as it’s drawn.

But when I did little front-page doodles for the fine folks who ordered copies  through the website, there was a scanner handy.  So I’m posting a bunch of them today.  While you guys are looking at them, I’m busy finishing up a script for Heroes of the North, and designing a giant killer robot for a project I’m doing with a fairly famous pal of mine at a fairly major comic company.  (What a tease I am!)  I’ll keep you posted.

This last sketch below comes with a small story.   On Tuesday I got into a conversation with someone about what is the “right” tool to ink with, and responded with the advice Joe Kubert once said:  ”grab anything and use it.  If you need a specific brush or pen,  you’re not making the line, the tool is.”

Within reason, obviously. Kurbert didn't mean for anyone to ink with one of these.

Well, just for the straight up hell of it, I tried inking a sketch with the giant fat marker pictured above.  A really beat up, half dry one, too.  In fact, I searched for the skankiest marker in my studio.  This is what I got.

I wasn’t particularly trying to ape Kubert’s style when I did this, and pulled the Tarzan portrait out of my head, but there’s an eerie hint of Kubert-isms in the final sketch.  I think that’s the secret of Joe’s style.  Ink with the most awful piece of shit tool in your studio, and the constant awareness that you’ll never get a line you’ll like, that you stop looking at each stroke and focus on the whole drawing.

I’m going through the garbage and rescuing all my horrible dead brushes and gnarly markers.  That was fun!    Next sketch I do gets inked with a spray can.  I’ll show Kubert there’s tools you can’t use!

I think we have one or two sketchbooks left.   You’d have to check with my wife by going HERE.

Ty the Guy OUT!

PS:  BIG events at the Toronto Cartoonist Workshop tonight.  I shall speak of them tomorrow.

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Here now, a BONUS sketchbook page, left out of the printed collection for space.   I learned to draw the WildCATS: Animated style from back in the 90s…