Free Comic Book Day Bun Toons! YAY!

It’s Comic Book Day! Like Easter and Christmas and Losing your Virginity all at once! Only with comics!

I have arisen this morning and left my home within minutes…no time for an original Bun Toon (the rules are very strict…I gots to do ’em the morning I get up, folks and folkesses!) But….since it is…

…there is a feast of FREE COMICS here on the Bun Toon, for you to enjoy.

We’ll start with the Rules:

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Okay, sure, that was a free cartoon on my website, but what about a free Ty Templeton Spider-Man comic book at my local store?

We have you covered there as well…

Apparently, if you pick up the new Rocket Racoon Free Comic Book from Marvel, it includes a back-up story by me and Joe Caramagna from the Ultimate Spider-Man Adventures series.   That’s the first page of a rollicking space adventure up there, and you can have the rest of the story FREE at any participating comic store!

Wait!  You want more free?  Here’s a complete Spider-Man story by Ty Templeton and Dan Slott!

Yeah, that’s from about three years ago, but if I posted anything more recent without permission, Marvel would vaporize my backside.

If you’re in the Toronto/Brampton area, come and watch me give out free comics in person at:

Stadium Comics at Shoppers World Brampton (Hwy 7 and Hwy 10, more or less)  

With all the traffic problems in Toronto, it’s probably an easier drive that anywhere downtown.  Come and see me…anyone under ten years old gets a free sketch!  Adults must pay through the nose and call me Lord Highmaster.

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THANK YOU, AL FELDSTEIN

When I was eleven years old, I saw the movie THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE with my mom, and felt very grown up to have seen a film with swearing in it.  A couple of days later, I saw this issue of Mad Magazine and had enough money on me to buy it.

At eleven, I was already waaay into comic books, and drawing, and I couldn’t get over the idea that a comic book had a painted cover that looked sort of like Norman Rockwell had painted it.  But…oh my…the interior artwork…

I copied every artist in this book over and over again.  Tried to paint that cover with acrylics and draw like George Woodbridge and Mort Drucker and Dave Berg and Paul Coker Jr. and Bob Clarke and Angelo Torres and Al Jaffee and everyone involved in this issue.  I couldn’t believe the level of artistic skill on display in a comic book that made me laugh like a monkey when I was eleven.

So I got the next issue and the next…and immediately I was a subscriber.  It was the first magazine I ever subscribed to.  The first issue that came in the mail had THIS cover:

In this age of the internet, it’s hard to understand the level of subversion involved in this cover.  I understand it was banned in a number of stores and even a few American states wouldn’t let it be displayed within their borders.   Take that, developing taste in pop culture!

Mad Magazine rather quickly became a cornerstone of my personality.  At the age of 20, when it first occurred to me I might actually have the skills to make a living in this biz, I sent samples of my work out to Playboy, the New Yorker and Mad Magazine (it never crossed my mind to work on Super-heroes at the time, I was a gag cartoonist…)

All three magazines rejected my work (as they should have, the work was terrible), but the rejection from Mad Magazine was a treasure to me, because it was signed by Al Feldstein, editor.  It was like an autograph, and the rejection hung over my desk for years, somewhat proudly.

Al Feldstein: Grinning mischievously after rejecting me, the callous bastard.

We lost Al Feldstein this week at the age of 88.  I never got a chance to meet him in person, but he absolutely changed my life when I was eleven, and kicked me in the pants when I was 20.  He retired when I was about 25, so I never worked for him…but…

This was the first issue of Mad Magazine to include my art.

I finally got to his magazine.  Thank you Al Feldstein, for ruining my life with your sense of humour and subversion, and forcing me to become one of the Gang of Idiots.  It’s all your fault!  I could have been a plumber!

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Not another one!

R.I.P. Efram Zimbalist Jr.

This silver haired devil had the coolest name in show biz.

A television staple throughout my childhood on FBI and a number of other shows, I always dug this guy’s off-beat name and too-handsome-for-the-room mustache.

But the world of Batman knew and loved him as the voice of ALFRED PENNYWORTH, butler to the cave.

“anything else you need cleaned up, Master Bruce…?”

Thanks for all the memories, Efram.

Ty the Guy OUT!

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For last week’s Bun Toon about Fanboys and their difficulties with Fangirls, click here…

For the Bun Toon archive, click here