Bun Toons.

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Isis has shown up in the BUN TOON a few times over the years….here’s one of them from 2013.

Very tough week around my house.

Ty the Guy OUT.

 

Click the rabbit above for the last BUN TOON.

Silly Pointless Bun Toons! YAY!

In these troubled times, there is no greater message than pointlessness.

Bunny attendance has been spotty, but he remains your humble hopping reporter of reality….here with another Honest-To-God-True-Life-Adventure!

Of course, I realise tomorrow is Memorial Day for my neighbours to the South, and not Weasel Day.  But few Americans are living on BRONSON TIME!

More’s the pity.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Just in case you’re into La Jour Des Weasels, there’s a comic book for you.

So many Weasels

Again, with weasels…

Are we not men?  We are WEASELS!

and of course, comic-dom’s most famous weasel….

What is it with the Marvelous Mustelidae that so catches the imagination of us all?

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For the most recent (of the recently rare) Bun Toons, click the singing pastry above.

Yet Another Another Honest to God True Life Adventure! YAY!

The honesty!  The veracity!  The truth!

It’s only funny when it’s true, unless it’s funnier when it’s not.  But in this case, it is.

According to the news, it turned out to be nothing nefarious.  It was a heart attack – another ticker brother taken from the field, but no foul play involved.

So I’m allowed to walk through the park all I want, now.

But I always was, apparently.

Ty the Guy OUT!

If we’re talking about police and rabbits in the bonus section, there’s only one that counts.

Sam, and or Max.  They’re both freelance police officers and one of those names is the rabbit.  I think the other one’s a dog.

click on it to make it larger.  It’s funny.  It always is with Steve Purcell.

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Daddio Bun Toons! YAY!

I’ll teach you young punks to respect me.

This weekend includes Father’s Day.  Finally, a day for the men of this world to put aside their privilege, and be celebrated for the effort they sort of make, helping their wives raise a family.

Even though my parents were divorced, my father still had important things to teach me as I grew up and saw him on the occasional weekend and summer holiday.

Every one of those bits of advice are true, and I constantly use the one about writing when teaching my scripting classes.  To this day, I still have a Siamese cat, and though I’ve never been in a boxing match, I know how to handle myself when a drunk gets troublesome.

No comment about the rest of it.

I have children of my own, now.

Ty the Guy OUT!

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In the world of Father-based comic strip characters, they’re all second rate compared to Jiggs, the orangutan-faced hero of “Bringing up Father” (later known as Jiggs and Maggie).

The magnificent deco-inspired designs and line work of George McManus was inspirational when I was a kid.

My father’s favourite comic strip was KRAZY KAT:

I read a bunch of them when I was a kid, and they didn’t make a lick of sense to me.  It wasn’t until I was much more sophisticated adult that I realised they weren’t supposed to.

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For last week’s Bun Toon, click here.

For the slightly updated Bun Toon archive of years past, click here.

If you’re at ALL interested in my fairly interesting father, there’s a bunch of past pages on this blog dedicated to him.

Here’s an entry about his brief career as a cartoonist

Here’s an entry about a feature film dedicated to calling him an agent of Satan

Memory Tricks Bun Toons! What?

Again? I did one of these yesterday?

Didja read yesterday’s Bun Toon?  Didja?

It’s up there as a link to yesterday.  Read that and then come back and read this:

Enhanced Honesty Plus.  It’s not just for American Media any more.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Your Bonus Moment isn’t a happy one… A Bun Toon from a little over a year ago…

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For last week’s haunting Bun Toon (co-created with the wife!), click here

For the Archive (Yes, it needs updating!) click here.

Comic Book Marathon Bun Toons! YAY!

And thus, Canadian Splendor is born.  

 

Right now, in Toronto, my wife Keiren is at the COMIC BOOK LOUNGE AND GALLERY (387a College Street, at Clinton) presiding over yet another wildly popular COMIC BOOK MARATHON, for dozens and dozens of local creators to show off their skills and stamina.

When the art and stories come in from this latest one, we’ll put some of it up here and at the school’s website and all over the darn ‘net, don’t worry.

But the last marathon was the first time my wife sat down and participated, rather than just running it.  She produced about ten or twelve scripts for short autobiographical comic stories, most accompanied with simple artwork.  There was no talking her into running the strips with her original art, but she was willing to let me finish up one and put it up here.

I started with the one you just read because it was the shortest, but I’m going to do a few more over the next few months, just you wait.  I loved them.  I didn’t change anything, I just inked her drawings with a bold line and some minor details. There’s one about a road trip Keiren took in high school with her best friend that I will be doing finishes over her layouts for in the next few weeks.  I couldn’t do it today because it’s five pages long and I didn’t have that much time…but it’s great!  Some are funny, some are poignant, some are really personal.

Who knew I was married to Canada’s Harvey Pekar?

I’m wondering what she’ll be creating and bring back with her today!  If you’re in Toronto, head over to College and Clinton, bring a pencil and a sandwich, and see what new majestic tale Kerien and the rest of the cartooning legions of the Big Smoke are spinning now.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Comic Book Marathon Bonus Moment:

The first person to tell me Mad Magazine isn’t a comic book gets punched in the throat.

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For last week’s MAN OF STEEL based Bun Toon, click the title above.

For the Bun Toon archive, click the Bunny Toon

For some of the work produced at the big 24 hour marathon in January, click here.

 

I was Gumby. Now it can be told.

Long time readers of this blog might recall that I briefly played claymation superstar Gumby on a local TV show in Toronto back in the 80s.  At least I did until the Art Clokey Productions people got wind of the WAY I was playing Gumby on the air and eventually took the suit back and put a stop to it.

Pictured above: The REAL Gumby.

We were given the suit and paid a couple of bucks to promote the Gumby video episodes that were on sale at the time, but because I am who I am, I tended to make Gumby tell dirty jokes and claim that the books he liked to walk into were mostly pornographic, and the owners of Gumby took the suit away after about three weeks of this.  I like to think the time we rented a live horse to play our Pokey, and took it to a dance club where it shat all over the floor on TV might have played a part as well.

Anyway, I was at a birthday party for Bob Segarini tonight (the host of the show LATE GREAT MOVIES, where these appearances happened), and ran into someone who actually has video tape of this legendary time in my life, and promises to send me some clips to share with you guys.   In the meantime, here’s a screengrab from one of the episodes.  I’m the idiot in the suit to the right.

Ah…memories.

“I can walk into any book, so I have a house in Fifty Shades of Gray…What do you mean I’m fired?”

I’ll let you know as soon as there’s video.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your BONUS Guy-In-A-Gumby-Suit moment:

Last year, someone in a Gumby suit tried to rob a convenience store in San Diego.   I have an alibi for the day, and police did not suspect me.

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.

Halloween Photos.

I mentioned on the Bun Toons last week that my ten year old daughter, Kate,  was working on her Wonder Woman costume, and she insisted it had to have the Golden Age look to it, with the long pants and the golden eagle, etc.

There we go.

The pants are a teensy bit longer than the originals, mostly to combat a Canadian Halloween, and we decided on nothing off the shoulder for a ten year old in the cold, but the costume scored big with out daughter.  Her mother Keiren did most of the work on this wonderful custom job, I just drew in part of the bird.

But the costume wasn’t the HALF the fun for our Golden Age Wonder Woman…

It was the honour guard that accompanied her.

Steve Trevor,  Steve Rogers, and a gumshoe up to no good in a city that’s got friends in all the wrong places.

Those are her brothers Sean (as the flyboy that looks suspiciously like MacArthur), Taylor (as the two bit cop with a chip on his badge) and their friend Josh (as the proud infantry man ready to mix it up).

The whole 1940s effect was pretty darn cool, if I might say so myself, and as they went from house to house, they  got a lovely reaction.

Who says this isn’t the Golden Age of Halloween Photos?

Our eldest son, Kellam and our daughter in law, Jessica came over and brought fantastic Halloween cakes and cookies that looked like pumpkins and ghosts.

 Beat THAT, Christmas!  You Suck.  Halloween ROCKS.

Ty the Guy OUT!!!

Here now, your BONUS Templeton-Smith Halloween Moment:

Behold the Family Pumpkins! And take note of the smattering of blood up by the door. Attention to detail.

True Halloween Bun Toons Extravaganza, YAY!

BOO! (True story!)

Around this house, Halloween is better than Christmas, and more fun than Birthdays.  You get to wear a disguise and see inside your neighbour’s front door.  We rarely do that on Christmas.

As always, every word of this is true, we didn’t even change the names of the innocent.  Screw the innocent.  What did they ever do for me?

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your BONUS Bun Toons Halloween Moment:  From last year’s epic Halloween Bun Toon.

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For last week's equally true Bun Toons, click on the Rabbit

For every Bun Toon ever, click the Rabbit again!