Darwyn Cooke.

I have a bunch of Darwyn stories, but they all add up to what I said above…he was a funny, generous, charming guy.  I wish the last time I saw him (in Montreal outside our hotel at a comic convention) he hadn’t been smoking a cigarette, but I’m stuck with that last visual memory no matter what I do.  Fuck cancer.  

(The family has set up a page with the Canadian Cancer Society to accept donations in Darwyn’s honour. Link HERE.)

Ty the Guy OUT.

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A couple of images of Slam Bradley by Darwyn.

Darywn showed up in the Bun Toon every now and then.  He was too important to our industry, doing too much interesting work for me not to comment on him now and then.  Here’s one from a few years ago, when he did a magnificent job on his issues of Before Watchmen.

Amazingly enough, the Alan Moore Hover-Guilt quieted down when I read Darwyn’s series.  It helped that I knew Darwyn, and don’t know Alan.  It also helped that Darwyn did a fantastic job on the book, as he did every time he did anything.

I still haven’t read his last book, The Twilight Children, and wonder when I’ll be able to enjoy it properly.   I flipped through it today, and it’s beautiful.  Of course.

 

for last week’s Bun Toon, click here.

For the Bun Toon ancient archives, click here.

Breaking News Bun Toons! YAY!

This just in…

I wasn’t here last week to clear this up, but I’ve finally pushed my way back onto the internet to tell you all what you think.

Whew.

For those of us who survived it, the 90s was a time when everyone we admired as heroes were getting raped, maimed, wounded, destroyed, murdered, raped and murdered, and more….all in service of making fantasy super-heroes more “realistic”, the greatest oxymoron in fiction.  We’ve still got echoes of that nowadays, what with DC’s  chopping off the arms of beloved characters, or Marvel killing off of their flagship heroes…but there’s a sense of none of it being permanent lately.  We all KNOW, Wolverine will be back, and Alfred’s missing hand won’t last past the next continuity reboot.

For some reason, though…the atrocities done to female characters left more permanent marks.  Black Canary’s sexual abuse at the hands of Mike Grell created physical and emotional scars that lasted for decades.  Batgirl’s physical and sexual abuse at the hands of Alan Moore and later, the DC editorial staff, landed her in a wheelchair for a generation (while Batman’s trip to a wheelchair lasted a year and has never been mentioned since).

There’s a new crop of fans who weren’t there during the comic character holocaust, and don’t want to know about it.   Especially the female fans, who don’t, as a rule, enjoy the breaking of toys the way we boys often do.

These fans have spoken.   And I’m on their side…

Let’s glue the good toys back together and never discuss this stuff again, shall we?

PS:  I hope I don’t have to explain the difference between editing and censorship on this subject.  I’ve heard a few morons getting confused about that….

Ty the Guy OUT

The ultimate Broken Toys comic book.  I’m happy to see the misfits smiling.

But does this make you happy to see this  happen to Green Lantern?  (I shouldn’t give the editors at DC any ideas….they have a thing about severed limbs.)

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For the last new Bun Toon from two weeks ago, click here.

For last week’s re-run Bun Toon, click here

For the Bun Toon archive, click here

Third, But Not Least Bun Toons!

Half way through the Top Five,  and our entry at the middle spot was my least favourite Bun Toon to draw, ever.

This was one of the most read Bun Toons of the year, so it goes in the countdown, but I’d really rather it had never been drawn.

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Another of the year’s most read Bun Toons  (in a virtual tie for third place so I’m putting it here as a balance) is one of my all time favourite Bun Toons.

CONTEXT:  Alan Moore had done a lovely interview towards the beginning of the year in which he had described his opinion of Grant Morrison as one of mild disdain for the sycophantic attention Grant had paid him for decades.

Too much like another famous cartoon relationship in my mind, to pass up this entry…

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Onto my failures.

It seems that holiday themed Bun Toons simply don’t work (as yesterday’s low scoring Santa Story proved).  If I do a nice comic savaging a fellow professional for his opinion, there’s a line-up around the block to read it, but something I draw that pays tribute to a special day in the  year is culled from the honour rolls like bread mould at the back of a rye.

I often do an Easter themed Bun Toon on Easter Bunny Day, and I sometimes do a marijuana themed Bun Toon on 4-20….and when Easter fell on 4-20 this year, I thought this was funny…

Clearly, one has not properly done Stoner Humour if it doesn’t piss off the North Korean Government or the people that imprisoned Tommy Chong, the American Government.  I have to work on angering the fascists more directly and use less bunnies.

More holiday-themed Bun Toons will be showing up on this top and bottom list…coming up tomorrow!

You’ll have to wait to find out if it was a hit or a miss.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Fussin’ and Feudin’ Bun Toons! YAY!

Because it’s never too late to alienate another comics professional…

In his recent interview with Pádraig Ó Méalóid, Alan Moore admirably defends his choice to use the Gollywog in his recent work, and convincingly explains away any rumours that he’s got a “thing for rape scenes” in his writing.  He also claims this is his last interview on the subject of comics and the industry.   Towards the end, Mr. Moore wrote a one-act play about his relationship with Grant Morrison.

As one of Alan Moore’s oldest and dearest friends, and a frequent collaborator throughout our careers, I presume he wouldn’t mind that I adapted it for comics form.  Cam Stewart only WISHES he could do this…

And that’s the final word on the subject, apparently.  Ain’t love grand?

Ty the Guy OUT!

For those who don’t know, Alan Moore first ENTERED the comics scene (just as he’s leaving it) as a magic cat.  Doing clever bookends like this is what makes you a British writer…

Yup, this is real.

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For last week’s equally disrespectful look at people more famous than I am, click here…

For the Bun Toon archive (filled with disrespect) click here.

Kim Thompson Bun Toons.

The secret origin story of the bunny.

The great Kim Thompson passed away this week.

Along with Gary Groth and Fantagraphics, he made the 80s a rich, exciting time to read comics.  Love and Rockets, Neat Stuff, Bitchy Bitch, Critters, Usagi Yojimbo, Fission Chicken…Fantagraphics was the coolest, bestest comics publisher in the whole world, and half the reason comic stores were an exciting new idea back then.

When I worked at Vortex Comics, putting out Stig’s Inferno and Mister X, there was no secret to the idea that we were trying to be the Fantagraphics of Canada.  Hell, we even hired away the Hernandez Brothers to do the first four issues of Mister X.   We had Jamie envy.

But my experience at Vortex ended badly, and my experience at Eclipse ended badly (for  completely different reasons – neither my fault), and in 1986, my comic book partner and best friend, Klaus Shoenefeld passed away at the age of 24.    It was a very low point in my life.

That’s when Kim Thompson called me on the phone and asked if I wanted to do some stories for Fantagraphics.

Literally, at the moment I was re-considering doing comics as a way to make a living, the coolest, bestest, comics publisher in the world thought I was worth a call.

What follows is the first story Kim ever bought off of me.  (click on the images to enlarge if they’re hard to read.   It’s eight pages long, so settle in with a lunch…)

Yes, it’s a weak-sauce Walk Kelly pastiche….but it was the first thing I did for Critters.  Kim talked me into doing funny animals comics when I thought there was no value in them.  He introduced me to the work of Carl Barks and MADE me read his duck stuff, even when I didn’t want to.   Kim convinced me I was good at what I did when I was young enough to have trouble believing it.  He introduced me to Alan Moore (over the phone) and put us together on a project that included a rock and roll single that Moore and I traded A and B sides on.  That’s the cover to Critters #23 above and to the left…here’s the single being played on a RECORD PLAYER!  (I’m old.)

Kim was the biggest champion of great comics you ever met, and Fantagraphics published comics that cost them money because they believed  in those creators and projects like no other publisher.   Who does that?

Those long ago years when I did a handful of stories with Kim Thompson at Fantagraphics are what told me I was actually in a comics industry worth being in.   I never had an editor or publisher be so nice to me, or be so supportive, or “get” comics like Kim.

F*** you, cancer.

Ty the Guy

Kim, when I first met him.

Later Kim. Holding some of the many awards he absolutely deserved for his contribution to our art form.

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For last week’s MAN OF STEEL REVIEW BUN TOON, click Kal-el.

For the Bun Toon archive, click here.

Forgive Me My Impudence Bun Toons! YAY!

For I am wretched and unworthy

I spent some time in Texas last weekend, visiting with the kid customers at Randy Lander’s ROGUES GALLERY AND GAMES comic store just outside of Austin.  On the way home, we had a couple of flight delays and I got to read an old graphic novel or two I’d been saving for the trip.

Oh, wow.

And I claim to hate the nine panel grid.  I’m currently reading through all three volumes of CENTURY.  Don’t anyone tell me how it ends.  I’ll be done by this evening.

If Frank Miller and John Byrne want to smarten up, I’ll wash their cars, too.

A lovely alternative cover I hadn’t seen before.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your Bonus Alan Moore and the Bunny Moments.

Just when you think you’re safe from the Watchmen Squid.

Alan and I shared a “single” back in the day. I swear to GOD, he’s the record’s B-Side and I’m the hit.

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For last week’s tribute to Matt Groening Bun Toon, click the twin bunnies.

For Every Bun Toon Ever, click the solo bunny above

Before Bun Toons! YAY!

Ask George Lucas and Ridley Scott…when do prequels ever go wrong?

This actually happened.  I meant to consider the book under its own merits (it’s beautifully drawn and has clever ideas all over it) but try as I did, the man on my shoulder kept demanding my attention.

I didn’t expect that.  I’m frankly surprised.  Do I have a conscience or something?

Ty the Guy OUT!

I know everyone on Earth bought MINUTEMEN #1 this week, so there’s no reason to run the cover.  Here’s your BONUS MOMENT poster that was released to promote the first issue going on sale by the lovely and talented Darwyn Cooke.

Ain’t no denying it’s pretty.

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For more BEFORE WATCHMEN Bun Toons, click here.

For even MORE Watchmen related Bun Toons click here (this one contains satire and was misunderstood by almost everyone –  no nasty letters).

For last week’s romantic and disgusting Bun Toon, click here.

For every Bun Toon ever (though at this point, I’ve put up links to practically all of them above!) click here.

Ethics Lesson Bun Toons! YAY!

Pay attention, class. I'm only going to be utterly correct once.

There’s been a lot of hoo-hah lately about moral high grounds, and people quitting their jobs (sort of) or calling for boycotts over which creator is being treated how by what publisher.

I get that people want to find their own ethical path in life.  And I’m glad that folks are helpfully pointing out the pathway to others.  Now it’s my turn.

CAUTION:  Satire and irony ahead.

The world is far less confusing when it’s all in black and white.  I’m doing a public service, no need to thank me.

(NOTE:  Full disclosure:  The series TERRA OBSCURA was illustrated by a friend of mine, Yanick Paquette.  I felt bad about it, but the last time he was in Toronto, I ran him down with my car.)

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your BONUS ethically challenged BLACK TERROR moment.

The wife often works for a Canadian webcomic/webseries called “HEROES OF THE NORTH“, that includes an iteration of Black Terror amongst their characters.  She’s colouring a BLACK TERROR story as we speak.

Damn, now I have to divorce her.  The kids will understand.  It’s about ethics.

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For last week's 100th Anniversary of the sinking of mankind's dreams Bun Toons, click the happy captain above!

For every ethical Bun Toons ever, click the highly moral bunny above.

More Angry Fans Bun Toons! YAY!

I buy comics! I'm entitled to be royally pissed off about this!

The internet is all abuzz again, and the wicked monsters that run the comics industry are killing and eating puppies and kittehs one more time.

Here’s the link to donate to Gary’s fund if you want to help him pay off that seventeen grand counter-suit Marvel filed to slap him around a bit.    Gary could use the help, so give him ten bucks, okay?

Ty the Guy OUT!

The Bonus Moment:

Is it my imagination, or were bikers wearing flaming skull tattoos and jacket decals since the fifties?

No one sue anyone over this, okay?

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click here for last week's CREATOR'S RIGHTS Bun Toon! It's a series!

Click here for every Bun Toon ever! I created them! I have a right to them!!

Who Watches the Bun Toons! YAY!

Like you didn't know this Bun Toon was coming...

If you’ve been on the internet in the last few days, you know that fandom collected has their matching Underoos in a bunch over DC’s announcement that they are, in fact, FINALLY doing the WATCHMEN prequels they’ve been threatening for over a decade.   I could say that responses have been mixed, but they seem to be mixed between complete revulsion and utter disgust.

I know what’s frightening people.  The WATCHMEN was a brilliant satire that deconstructed the comic book forever, and people are worried these prequels are going to be just comic books.  They won’t be epoch-making once-in-a-lifetime experiences that will mark everything before and after.  They’ll simply be the work of folks doing their best and falling short of shocking genius.

So what?

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your BONUS Watchmen-in-the-hands-of-others MOMENT.

See? And this turned out just fine.

And who could argue against this steaming pile of quality?

Okay….here’s the ACTUAL “Before Watchmen”

I mean, FUCK Ditko. What did he ever do for comics?

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Click here to read last week's Bun Toon in which I brag about working on Spider-Man, cause that's how I roll.

Click here to read EVERY Bun Toon ever, including some in which I do not strut or crow at all.

And…as always, you can click SKETCHBOOK by TY to order a copy of…well, you know.

from Guerilla Printing