Wonder Bun Toons! YAY! YAY!

I am Bunny.  Hear me ROAR.

As promised last week…I’m back with more to say about something.

It’s really not fair.

Don’t think we didn’t notice Harley was the only good thing in Suicide Squad, and Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman was the only good thing in The Dark Knight Winds Down.

This is a conspiracy, to push male dominated super-hero movies aside in favour of these female friendly movies Hollywood makes every thirty years.

I, for one, am not putting up with it.

After two or three more trips to the theatre to see Wonder Woman a few more times, I’m boycotting the film until it comes out on Blue Ray.

Who’s with me?

Ty the Guy OUT!

Wonder Woman is one of my favourite characters to draw on sketch covers for conventions…here’s a couple of recent ones that turned out somewhat un-awful.

And while I’m comparing Harley, Catwoman, and Constantine’s movies to Wonder Woman’s…

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For last week’s Memorial Day Bun Toon (that might mention Amazon Princesses or not…) click here.

For the horrifically un-updated Bun Toons library,  click here.

Memorial Weekend Bun Toons! YAY!

A moment of reflection, please…

Next weekend, when Diana’s adventure opens, and we find out if hope triumphs over experience, I’ll be in Niagara Falls for a convention, but I’ll try to get out to the movies and report back as soon as I can.

I figure after thirty-eight bombs in a row, Warner Brothers is due for a good one.

Ty the Guy OUT!

I have a TEEENY bit of connection to this new Wonder Woman movie, I did a quick promotional film for the Cineplex chain, here in Canada.  Unfortunate movie goers have been trapped in a theatre with my face fifty feet high, for the last month or so…this is what they were forced to watch.

And now, your BONUS Bun Toon for the week.

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For last week’s comic book themed look at the Trump presidency, click the headline above.

 

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.

Wonder Woman: The mix of the traditional and the “New Look” doesn’t fit…

The New Wonder Woman costume is revealed!

Not terrible, but not magnificent either.  It’s not the cheap vinyl, or the odd new details (like the beating heart-stars of the torso-eagles(?)), it’ s just that it’s out of balance.  With all that light blue, the bottom half of the costume disappears.  In the new comics, her pants are dark, dark blue, which works, at least, even if it’s not the traditional look.

But I know a way they could fix it.

There. Was that so difficult?

Ty the Guy OUT!

SOMETHING NICE ABOUT THE NEW WONDER WOMAN

I’ve drawn a couple of Wonder Woman stories, and she’s shown up in my Justice League comics, so me and the Princess have personal history.

This is the wallpaper on my computer screen - smug, self-loving man that I am.

I was also exactly the right age to have fallen deeply in love with Linda Carter when Wonder Woman was on the air in the Seventies, and have NEVER gotten over that.  AND, I’m fairly friendly with Gail Simone and her lovely and talented husband.  So I get a little Wonder Woman cred, and I’m here to say nice things about the new direction.

Everyone has been trashing the new costume, mostly because it’s a lot less flashy, and it’s not the iconic Wonder Woman we all fell in love with.

But if we were all so in love with her and that costume, why weren’t we buying her comic every month?  And why isn’t there a big budget Wonder Woman Warner Brothers movie? Or a Saturday morning cartoon show?

Because we don’t really love her, do we?  Not the way capitalists want us to love our icons…by BUYING things.  We just love the idea of her.  Women dress up like her on Halloween–

Apparently, these women are famous.

As is Heidi Klum.

I recognize Kate Beckinsale, but don't know who the guy is.

Wonder Woman is second only to “the sexy nurse” as the most popular costume for women, I promise you.

And people like to point to her as one of the “BIG THREE” characters that have never gone out of print since the Golden Age.  But neither of these facts sells issues of the comics today and buys movie tickets tomorrow.  A fondness for an iconic costume, an old TV series and a long history of past success is nothing compared to the need to keep the character moving, fresh, modern and relevant.  Nostalgia ain’t sales.

DC wants what’s best for the Princess…it’s their job.  And what they’re doing is a perfect example of  “Genre Twisting” –  a tried and true way of waking up a moribund franchise.  James Bond does it,  Batman does it, Captain America does it- EVERY successful franchise does it, or it collapses dead.

Remember me?

What “twisting” is, is specifically taking THE most basic aspect of a character or genre, and removing that, for a time.  James Bond loses his “LICENSE TO KILL”,  Batman loses his ability to walk.  Captain America looses his shield.  Superman loses the battle for truth, justice and the American Way, Spider-Man loses his costume, Green Lantern loses the ring.  Hell, Marvel completely rebooted their entire Universe with the Ultimates, and then rebooted that Universe again last year with a massive death flood.

By changing THE most basic aspect of a character, you create new possibilities and new expectations from the audience, or more correctly, you abandon old expectations.  For the first time in a little while, you DON’T know what’s coming next in a Wonder Woman comic, because if they’d take away her iconic COSTUME, they might do anything…and that’s intriguing.  So the  audience comes back to the thing that was once just a pleasant memory or nostalgia, to see what’s going on with it…to see what ELSE the creators muck with.

Sure, it’s a gimmick, but if you tell the curious new audience stories that are ANY good, they’ll stick around for a while, and you’ll earn those new sales that just showed up to see what you’d done to their childhood memory.  And if the stories aren’t working and the audience abandons you…

Urghh.

Trust me.  They’ll put it all back.

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Enron accounting got us to this number, but close your eyes and go with it.

Now, I just read the issue that introduces the new outfit –  #600  went on sale a couple of days ago.

First off:  The book is primarily a nostalgia piece, as most anniversary issues are.  There’s a touching Gail Simone/George Perez curtain call for the excellent era of the late eighties when Perez was running the show near the top, and there’s some fun pin-ups and short stories about aspects of the character all through.  And of course, the requisite T&A, where appropriate.

The new costume in action.

But the most important part of the book was the introduction to the story we’ll be getting in the next year or so…the new costume, and what seems like a completely new reality to Wonder Woman’s environment, for now.  It’s the PERFECT bit of tease, with just the right amount of fun and mystery to encourage you to pick the next issue.  We’re giving glimpses of things, a sense of magic (important in Wonder Woman), a fun bit of ass-kicking in the new costume, and a promise that more will be revealed next month.  I wished this particular story was longer…which is the feeling the editor wants you to have.

So, the new direction is exactly the right call.  It’s not the costume I’d have designed, but it’s exactly the same editorial decision I would have made.

Good luck, Princess.  I for one, will be back next month to see what’s up with all this.
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And now, because it’s my blog, and I can do what I want…we’ll end with a few  shots of women I find ALMOST as attractive as my wife, in Wonder Woman costumes.

First: Rhona Mitra, from Boston Legal (amongst other things)

WAY better than the sexy nurse costume.

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And now, Megan Fox.    I suspect this might have been photoshop work, but I’m trying to figure out how to care.

Someone slap my eyes back into consciousness.

Ty the Guy OUT!

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