Seuss Trek Wednesday!

I’m dropping in for a moment to share a couple more fun moments of Trekkieness here at the Bunny Factory.

First up, a sketch cover I did at the convention this weekend.  A fan got a Shatner signature on a blank Star Trek cover, and asked me to fill in the space above it with a portrait of Kirk and his ship above.  I get asked to do likenesses a lot in my work a lot (Mad Magazine, Batman 66, Dexter, Star Trek) but it’s never as easy to a good likeness sitting at a convention floor working from a little phone-google image of the celeb.  Fortunately, the fan brought with him a nice big shot of Shatner’s handsome mug, and it turned out okay.

Second:  We sold a few copies of David Gerrold’s TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES book, (the one with the all-new Tybunny cover art) at the convention….but we only had the softcover version at our table, and no one got to see the FULL wraparound cover that included Koloth bathing in the vile, barking, headless rats (his words, not mine).  Well, since I drew six zillion tribbles, and my devoted wife coloured six zillion tribbles, you have to see them all six zillion tribbles.

 

so there.

And it’s nice to announce that my latest Star Trek-adjacent project (with oft mentioned Trek Legend David Gerrold), “OH THE PLACES YOU’LL BOLDLY GO”  is gangbustering its way around Kickstarter.

But like all things Kickstarter-y, we need  your help to feed the beast (and yes, I’m referring to my teenage children).  If you’re hoping to see the love child of a Grinch and a Horta, or ever wondered how Thing One and Thing Two would deal with the Prime Directive, this is the book for you.

Check out the details HERE.

Ty the Guy OUT!

I’m drawing a cover that features the Bat-Eared Fellow this week, and promoting my Star Trek project, so of course the Bonus Moment is…

 

Where No Bunny Has Gone Before! YAY

Live Long and Hop Around More.

Last week, mere moments after I posted the Bun Toon, I headed out to my local theatre and took in the latest Trek Movie.  This week (with very very slight spoilers), I report back with…

Beyond turns out to be my favourite of the last three NuTrek movies.  Maybe because it wasn’t so ambitious, and maybe because they got Spock and McCoy bang-on-bullseye for all their scenes, but it “felt” right, and I was grinning the whole time.   I’ve warmed to the Earth-2 crew, even the new Kirk, though he’s the only one that still doesn’t “feel right” to me.  The rest of it was delightful.

It’s nice to see Trek back on track for the Fiftieth Anniversary coming up in less than a month.  With a new TV series, and other little things here and there, there’s much to celebrate for this old Trekkie, including a return to doing NEW Trek related projects that I can’t talk about in public quite yet…but I promise, I shall shout and howl and promote like crazy when I’m allowed to.  (I probably wasn’t even allowed to say as much as I just did.)

So forget I said anything.

I can’t wait for the next Trek Movie, already announced…with the GHOST OF KIRK’S FATHER!  BOO!

Ty the Guy OUT!

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A few days ago, another one of my heroes passed away at the age of 91:  Long time Mad Magazine legend, Jack Davis.

I first encountered Jack, like most of us did, in a Mad Magazine when I was about nine or ten.  He was one of the “gang of idiots”, the cartoonists’ cartoonist, whose casual excellence, and confident line work has been a primary inspiration in my career.

In my twenties, I consciously tried to draw like Wally Wood, Neal Adams and Jack Kirby, but some years ago, I realised that SUB-consciously, I always draw like Jack Davis.

At least I do when I’m at my best.

His aesthetic, his line, his easy precision, and his lack of pretension, worked together to create what I consider the perfect “cartoon” style of the 20th Century.  It was accessible, and impossibly skilled at the same time.  There was something about the way he seemed to splash colours or tone on his drawings as though he had only minutes until a deadline, and yet EVERYTHING looked like it was in the right place.  The effect was magnificent, and obviously in high demand as Jack did a heck of a lot more than Mad Magazine.

When I finally got good with a crow-quill, I went to Jack Davis art for instruction on how to create all those fabulous textures and tones. It’s a master class on how to make crosshatching and greys work in illustration.

Around the age of nine or ten, I noticed the same guy who was killing it in Mad Magazine, was the guy that did those fantastic TV Guide covers, and those wonderful movie posters, and those album jackets and those back cover adverts.  Jack Davis was everywhere a cartoonist was called for, and no one ever did it better.

Here’s a gallery of some of those MANY TV Guide covers, not as often seen as his Mad Magazine or Time Magazine covers.

Last week, the Bun Toon FEATURED artwork inspired by and swiped from Jack Davis.  I was still using him as inspiration as recently as seven days ago.

That’s never going to stop.

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For last week’s Jack Davis based Bun Toon, click here.

For the Bun Toon archives of years gone by, click here.

 

 

Celebrate Good Times Come On! YAY!

Love Long and Perspire

Oh my lack of god, there’s been a lot of my favourite people dying this last two weeks….  Writer Terry Pratchett,  Simpsons Co-Creator Sam Simon, Golden Age DC artist Irwin Hasen,  and of course, two of the giants of Star Trek:  Harve Bennett and Leonard Nimoy.

Enough feeling bad about this.

I’m not kidding.  If you’re reading this on Saturday afternoon, come on down to the TRANZAC CLUB at 292 Brunswick Avenue, just south of Danforth, west of Spadina.

It’s ten bucks at the door (two Spock Fives!)

and the proceeds go to the Lung Association of Canada.

I promise an evening of illogic and joy.

Ty the Guy OUT!

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Because Marvel eventually used every syllable in naming their various monsters…

…that purple monkey fellow up there is named “Grok”.  He’s in the Marvel Wiki.

‘Nuff Said.

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For my tribute to Leonard Nimoy Bun Toon (from two weeks ago) click here.

For last week’s non-Star Trek Bun Toon, click here

For The Bun Toon Archive, click here