Woof! Bark! Arf! Bark! Bark! Bun Toons YAY!

The dogs are barking.  I think that means we’re due for an earthquake.

Fenrir tends to like blues songs or Ringo Starr songs.  She’s absolutely devoted to “Octopus’ Garden” and “Yellow Submarine” and comes running to the piano as soon as she hears the opening notes.

The real trouble with this arrangement is that I have three cats who hang around the living room.

They’re not happy about this new dog thing, but none of them have even TRIED to take the instrumental solo verse when I play, so screw them.  The dog’s in the band.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Dogs and comic books go together like squirrels and nuts…which is to say one tries to eat the other….

But dogs are occasionally the comic book star.

This is a “Who’s Who in DC Comics” art entry from fairly early in my career.  Rex the Wonder Dog, originally drawn by Gil Kane, but drawn badly here by me.  Who doesn’t love wonder dogs?  Writer James Robinson bought this piece of original art from me because he too loves the wonder dogs.

This is some of the art from a series of Seinfeld/Superman ads for American Express that included Jerry’s dog cavorting with Krypto.  I got to do the artwork for the ads, but never got to meet Jerry’s dog even though Jerry’s dog got to meet Krypto.  There are no perks in cartooning like there are in sit-com stardom.

For last week’s Bun Toon, also animal based, click the bunny above

The Leporidae and the Felidae: A Love Story Bun Toon! Yay!

My brother from another scientific sub-order.

Sorry I wasn’t here last week.  I was in Kansas City, helping to raise money for the wonderful HERO INITIATIVE  (Click on the name and go donate!) so, I could not come to the Bun Toon.

But I did do something this week that I’ve been waiting to do for decades.

No punch line this week.

Just jumping for joy.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Long time readers of this Bunny blog are familiar with my connection to Avengers #58.

It all begins here

I’ve “re-imagined” the story at least twice while writing different Avengers books over the years, and make no secret of my love of the Vision.

But the Black Panther holds a similar place in my heart because of that issue, and I made a point of including Panther as often as I could manage it when working on Marvel projects.

When Dan Slott and I were putting together plans and ideas for the Spider-Man/Human Torch mini-series we did, Dan asked if I had any wishes for the plot.  “Black Panther” was my only request, and he appeared in issue #4.

When I was writing the AVENGERS UNITED mini-series in the early 2000s, I was given a set of Avengers to work with (Wasp, Vision, Hawkeye, Ant-Man, Wonder-Man, Tigra, Falcon) and Black Panther was not amongst them.

Nevertheless, in the premiere issue of that series, the Avengers first appear on page 2-3 in a sequence where they’re working out in the training room…

….You’ll notice Black Panther is there, in the background.  The story claims he’s “visiting” the mansion while he’s in New York, even though he’s not an Avenger.  I’m sneaky that way.

Some months later, the Avengers are captured by the Collector and find themselves on the Collector’s ship, in orbit around Earth.

…you’ll notice T’Challa is there, behind cap’s leg.  Apparently the Collector didn’t know The Panther wasn’t an Avenger and he captured him along with the team “accidentally”.

He’s there in the next couple of issues, too.

I made sure the Black Panther appeared in as many issues as the editor would let me get away with.  I wasn’t writing the Avengers without him.

Why?

Because the Black Panther is the ultimate heroic character.  He’s insanely wealthy, he’s king of his own country, he’s young, handsome and good looking and a genius inventor….but he spends his time helping the less fortunate instead of wallowing in his remarkable good fortune.  And unlike Batman, T’Challa’s not doing the heroic bit because of personal trauma or compulsion…he’s doing it because it’s the right thing to do.  It’s his moral position that those who can help, must help.

As a kid, I never wanted to be Batman, because of the whole orphaned childhood thing.  And I never wanted to be Superman…it’s too weird that you could fly.

But I wanted to BE Black Panther.

Who wouldn’t?

Some pages from the amazing “Panther’s Rage” story that introduced Killmonger and the whole concept of a two hundred page comic book story.  Art by Billy Graham (the other one).

Nice job on the movie, guys.  You could have screwed it up and ya didn’t.  Thank you from this happy five year old boy who waited patiently.

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The Gloves are Off Bun Toons!

Literally.

Tradition is a weak reason to continue things that are echoes of a truly awful past.

Ty the Guy OUT!

When you compare the outfit that minstrel show player above is wearing and the shapes of light/dark in the face above….to THIS common image of Mickey Mouse below…

….a beloved children’s character suddenly becomes part of a ghastly, terrifying “tradition” that starts bringing up the lunch.

I only really began to look into this recently, after hearing a tossed off joke about it on the Samantha Bee show this week.

Disney has known about this for every minute of the last ninety years and they’re fine with it.  No big redesign since the early Minstrel Show roots:

Hmm…

Bugs Bunny is certainly aware of his roots as well.  There’s PLENTY of disgusting stuff in the Warner Brothers/ Bugs Bunny library that never played on your TV when you were a kid, because of how awful it was.

THE CHARACTER ON THE LEFT IS LITERALLY NAMED “BOSKO THE NEGRO BOY”.

These images are quite tame compared to what’s out there.

“It was a different time.”  That’s usually how the tradition is excused.

So let’s leave the tradition to another time.

The past.

Krazy Kat was created by George Herriman…who was black, by the way.

Make sense out of that.

For last week’s Bun Toon, Click the not-at-all-racist depiction of an Inuit fellow above.

 

Sunday Funnies Bun Toons! YAY!

I think it’s Super-bowl Sunday….?

So let’s get this out of the way:

Okay.  Awareness of the big game has been acknowledged.  Go Fightin’ Yanks, or Walruses, or whatever mascots are involved.

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While the rest of the culture is focused on the sport-ball, they might be missing this huge announcement:

I mean, who isn’t enjoying all these DC “location” shows about places WITHOUT their iconic citizens?  After F.S.0.T.F.0.S. debuts, I’m waiting for “Light Breakfast:  The story of a B&B in a lighthouse, run by Aquaman’s father before he meets his mom.”

Or BATCAVE: 1812.  A cavern’s place in a forgotten war.

Eurgh.

Ty the Guy OUT!

There have long been comic books that played this game, by the way…

To be fair, Superman was on the cover, and in a framing sequence in this one.

He was just on the cover of this one–nowhere to be found inside.

Supes didn’t even make the cover of this series, which followed the stories of Luthor and Perry White as younger men.  The new WB series is supposedly about Lois Lane and Luthor solving mysteries together….so SORT OF like this comic, only not really.

The original “Gotham” comic book….without the homicidal, overacting Penguin.

Heck….they even DID a Fortress of Solitude comic book in the 80s.

 

KRYPTON:  Coming soon to SyFy Channel this month.

No Kal-el.  No Jor-el.  No Lara.  Probably no Beppo.

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For last week’s Bun Toon, click 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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All the News in Fits and Sprints Bun Toons! YAY!

If I wasn’t here you’d have to rely on the news cable stations.

There’s so much going on.  But what is the BIG STORY?

The red pants have been appearing regularly around here since 2011…

No kidding.  The Bunny wore them for quite a while, especially if the strip that week had something to do with DC or Superman…Here’s a toon praising the Grant Morrison run on Action Comics from 2012.

LITTLE KNOWN FACTS ABOUT SUPERMAN’S BATHING SUIT AREA

It can launch energy balls

…or fire off rockets

The little red pants were the only part of Superman to survive Doomsday.

Without them, the world would never have had this photo.

I’m proud to have worn them.

Ty the Guy OUT!

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LAST week’s Bun Toon.  Click above, I’m still here.

Where Have I Been Bun Toons?

It’s been more than a month since the last Bun Toon.  But where was the lost lagomorph? The runaway rabbit? The curtailed cottontail?  The castaway cuniculus?

Deadlines and holidays, actually.

Unless I’m still lying.

Ty the Guy OUT!

I tried to find a comic book featuring the word “SHITHOLE” in the title, just to keep the bonus section topical, but the closest I could come was this late 20th Century treasure from Great Britain featuring the talents that helped create Judge Dredd.

Thank god for the new era of civil discourse and class.  I’m happy to contribute to the destruction of the culture.

Happy MLK Day to two thirds of America.  For the remaining third:  Happy whatever-you-racists-do-today day.

For the last Bun Toon, last YEAR! (and it was a re-run anyway!) click the image above.

 

Deadline Doom Bun Toons! BOO! @#(*&!

‘Tis the season to placate editors.

The deadline is not just looming, it’s zooming past, and I don’t have five spare minutes to sleep or eat without drawing, so I certainly can’t draw something else….The Bun Toon must re-run this week…I’m out of choices.

Here’s two of LAST YEAR’S holiday themed Bun Toons to satisfy your ravenous appetite for rabbit based cartoon stories.

See you next week, when HOPEFULLY I’m a little caught up.

In theory, that Bun Toon above works just as well with Mueller as with Santa.

And now, this:

Merry non-denominational holiday season to you and yours.

Ty the Guy OUT!

To find the answers to these important animal questions, click the link above to last week’s BUN TOON

 

Moo! Bark! Howl! Bun Toons! YAY!

Four legs good.  Two legs bad.  Screw the penguins.

It may be the information age, but there are so many mysteries yet unsolved….

Someday we’ll find out of the critters have souls.

After we’re done eating them, I mean.

Ty the Guy OUT!

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This is the oldest of my many, many Walt Kelly ANIMAL COMICS I’ve picked up over the years.

You can see proto-Albert and proto-Churchie in the drawing.  Pogo, one assumes, is off sleeping somewhere before his debut.

I’m still crazed for Kelly and Pogo, but haven’t picked up any new issues for a while, as they’re no longer dirt cheap “kiddie comics” that no one wants, like they were when I was young.  Apparently Golden-Age “animals” are popular now.

 

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For last week’s slightly animal-themed BUN TOON, click the burnt creature carcass above.

By the way, Flounder, like all flatfish, have what is called the “wandering eye mutation”, one of the more controversial elements of the evolution/intelligent design debate.  Once a joke gets explained, it’s no longer funny, so I’m explaining it here, long after it wasn’t funny to begin with.

 

Bun Toons goes to the Birds! YAY!

I’m thankful that rabbits are so easy to draw.

’nuff said.

Ty the Guy OUT!

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As someone who’s always been a colleague of Lulu (if not a dues-paying friend), it’s nice to see her bring a gun to a hatchet fight.  That’s the spirit.

Some friends of Lulu brought a bomb.

For last week’s Bun Toon (somewhat on the same subject) click the image of a beloved industry icon of the past.