BIG HOVERBOY NEWS!! ORIGINAL ART CONTEST!!

No, it's not Friday...but this was TOO important to wait!

For those looking for the Original Art Contest, y’all gotta scroll down about fifteen inches  (past the stuff about Nazi dentistry, and it’s connection to Hoverboy), and look for the big red letters saying IMPORTANT  HOVERBOY ANNOUNCEMENT!

For regular Hoverboy readers, my extended research about German Tooth Hygiene  has finally paid off.  It led me to discover what might be the most important photograph in the world of Hoverboy! It certainly suggests a possible origin for the familiar Battlin’ Bucket’s costume never before considered.

If this photo is genuine, it changes everything we know about our favorite Battlin' Bucket!

This is a photograph of Hermann Stark, father of Hoverboy co-creator BOB STARK, taken in 1929, when the elder Stark still lived in Germany, and worked for Auergesellschaft, a German company who marketed Doramad Radioactive Toothpaste to European customers throughout the thirties. “Es macht Ihre Zähne leuchten mit Weiß!” was their well known slogan, which roughly translated to: “We shall make your teeth glow with whiteness!”. Sales were brisk right up until the factory was destroyed by Allied bombers during the war.

A poster advertising Doramad Toothpaste, unscientifically blaming much of tooth decay on the Jews, and promising to chase their decadent influence from your mouth with military precision.

(As shocking as the concept of thorium toothpaste might be to our modern world, it was hardly the worst example of radioactive medical quackery in the first half of the 20th century. Radium enema treatments were quite the rage in the United States at the time, a practice that increased in popularity for years after Hiroshima changed people’s relationship to atomic power. The enticing slogans “Bop a bomb in your bowels”, and “Radiate health from the bottom up” was enough to keep the radium enema in the public imagination until the wave of rectum amputations that followed in the early fifties.)

How many Nazis got cancer of the lip from this tube alone? One can only hope....

But this photo of Stark, on his way to the PASTE ROOM at Auergesellschaft Works, shows the HAZARDOUS MATERIALS suit that factory workers wore to save their reproductive organs from decay while making the deadly dental cleanser. The mask bears an uncanny resemblance to later versions of the Hoverboy Helmet used in the comics, and the large black “H” on the chest (signifying that this outfit belonged to “Hermann”) is hard to chalk up to mere “co-incidence”.

Early Hover Boy appearances bear little resemblance to the startling photo at the top of this article. Which throws this entire theory "into the bin".

It’s interesting to note, that the first published versions of Hoverboy, seen in both the comic strips and the early pulp novels had a round faceplate instead

The first example of the "H" logo on his chest, from 1940. Click to enlarge

of eyeholes on his helmet, and there was no “H” on the chest until 1940. Like many of the pre-comic book appearances of the Hovering Hero, there is some confusion as to what was original to the character and what was clearly plagiarized.

The  photo at the top of this article (if genuine), casts an enormous shadow of doubt over the widely accepted version of Hoverboy’s creation (often stated by Charles Nutt in interviews) that Nutt alone had created Hoverboy due to the fact that “….my dad worked at a hardware store that sold buckets.”

Now, I don’t know WHAT to believe about any of this stuff.

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IMPORTANT HOVERBOY ANNOUNCEMENT:

We’re having a membership drive for the HOVERBOY FACEBOOK PAGE, and we want YOU to join!

It's not just fun. IT'S YOUR PATRIOTIC DUTY, PUNKS!!

WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN:

Besides the swell of pride one feels knowing that they’re better than regular people, members of the FACEBOOK FAN PAGE get regular updates on Hoverboy Happenings around the web, alerts for new entries at The Hoverboy Museum, and Hoverboy Fridays! at Art Land, first dibs on auctions for old Hoverboy memorabilia, including DECODER RINGS, POSTERS, DVDs of old TV and Radio Shows, and a chance to upload their own Hoverboy memories to share with a heart pounding world! And it’s FREE! What else on the internet is free, huh? I think it’s just us.

AND right now we’re running A FUN CONTEST with a BIG BIG PRIZE!!

THE CONTEST:

(open only to members of the Facebook Fan Page, so ya gots to sign up…) Give us your favorite Hoverboy Villain from the past. Tickle that memory bone, and tell us your favorite issue of Hoverboy THAT WE HAVEN’T YET FEATURED  ON THE WEBSITE GALLERY and name that Villain!!  The winner

Don't send us "Legs Luthor" as a villain suggestion. We already have him, get it?

(chosen in a lottery draw conducted by eminent Hoverboy Actress SARAH SAMMS) gets the original artwork for the cover, painstakingly recreated by me, (Ty Templeton) with such line by line precision you’d think I drew it in the first place!!  Which I totally didn’t, okay?  These are old.

Don’t send us a scan of the cover from an existing copy, send us your description of it, as it’s easier for us to find the comic that way (wink wink wink—have I winked enough here?).

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HOW TO ENTER:

Go here

Hoverboy

Promote Your Page Too

and sign up to join the club. Membership is free, and ya could win prizes, ya greedy comic fans.

CONTEST ENDS:

Well, according to Marcus Moore, curator of The Hoverboy Museum, the contest ends on the 21st of May, but I’m trying to talk him into letting it run until the 1st of June. Enter now and save the trouble of Marcus and myself squabbling over the whole thing.

Is it possible that this might be THE GREATEST HOVERBOY CONTEST OF ALL TIME?!?

It’s possible…

Ty the Guy

To share:

A page and a page and a page and a page…

This was a piece Ty did for a Spider-Man calendar…I think 1993.  He’s going to look for the calendar and scan the colour version later, so we’ll find out then! (His computer is still down…it’s got the scanner on it…blah blah blah)

The art is 12″ x 12″, pencilled and inked by Ty and is $400/USD.

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This is an illustration Ty did for Mad Magazine. It’s part of the two-page spread Mad did for their special SDCC edition:  spoof comic book covers.  This was for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (I flatted the colour version of this–not the most fun for a vegetarian!).  Ty did all of the drawings for that spread on paper; this drawing is on a piece 8″ x 12″, pencilled and inked by Ty,  and is $60/USD.

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Ty was thrilled when he got a call to do this Spirit assignment;  he loves Will Eisner and The Spirit, and it was a chance to work again with Scott Peterson, his long-time editor on many of the various incarnations of The Batman Adventures.  Scott, now at Wildstorm, is one of the nicest guys in the biz, and Ty feels pretty beholden to him for letting him get to wander around in the Batman universe drawing and writing.

This page was done on paper in markers and ink. It’s 10″ x 15″, pencilled and inked by Ty, and is $100.

Th

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And…it’s the X-Men.  Ty lost track of just how much work he did for Marvel’s Creative Services department way-back-when (thanks, Dana!).  Much of it was for the art and promotion for the videos of the 90s cartoon series of the X-Men. (An absolute favourite of our boys)  This was done as the back of the video boxes (I believe…have to check the notes on the art when I have a moment).

It’s 12″ x 12″ on board, pencilled and inked by Ty and we’re selling it for $500/USD.

It’s going to take me some time to put these pieces on the **New Pages this week** page, and into their various categories so, just to let you know…if you’re interested in a piece, check out pricing, payment and shipping info, then email us at tytempletonart@gmail.com.

Keiren

and the New Pages

are up.

Check This Week’s Pages.

Keiren

New Pages this week…

as ever, slowly…(lots going on this week).

Here’s a few; I’ll have them up and labelled later today.

(Green Lantern Corps Quarterly, Issue 2, pencils Ty Templeton, inks Al Gordon, words Mark Waid)

And some promo art for Spidey…

Keiren

**New Pages this Week** are now

up and available for your viewing pleasure. An eclectic bunch: a Tailgunner Jo page, something from a Teen Titans Annual, a poster for Marvel Heroclix…and a Batman and Robin Adventures page.

Keiren

BREAKING MAD MAGAZINE NEWS

In a move that shocked both the world of publishing, and the world of child rearing, power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have adopted a copy of Mad Magazine #503 as their seventeenth child. “I’ve never been happier” a visibly glowing Angelina has told insiders.   “Months ago,  Brad and I agreed to start adopting from the print and publishing world, and we wanted to start with an American magazine, just to show everyone we’re not so addicted to things from foreign countries, though a copy of Paris Match was very nearly our first choice.”

Ty Templeton, a cartoonist whose work appears in this now-famous issue said “Good for them.  I’ve always liked Brad and Angie, and now I feel like family.  I’m wondering if I have breastfeeding rights or something.”

For those who cannot afford to adopt a copy of MAD #503 (called by some critics “the funniest magazine printed in March of 2010”), you can BUY one at newsstands, comic shops,  grocery stores, and hotel gift kiosks all over the world RIGHT NOW!  And, if you’re too cheap to afford the six bucks a copy will cost you, it’s available to steal from your dentist’s office in about eight weeks.

We have provided a handy guide to what the cover looks like, immediately above.  You may tear out this copy and bring it with you when you go shopping, to ensure accuracy in purchasing your own copy.

Go now, you have been tasked.  Do not give up until you have found one.

Ty the Guy

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THE KIRBY QUESTION and More Unseen DC

First off–Nomination Shmomination.  I’m honoured, and hope all the other nominees are killed in a sudden, painless skiing accident at once.  Otherwise, should they survive, I’m good if Ian Boothby gets the Shuster.  He’s rock solid funny every month over at my secret home, BONGO comics, and may not have been properly acknowledged for that yet.

Ah, the whole KIRBY thing.  If you’ve lived under a rock for the last few days, you might have missed that Kirby’s family is suing MARVEL and DISNEY for the rights to many of the characters he created, or co-created, or was down the hall when someone else co-created them (in the case of the obviously-not-created-by-Kirby Spider-Man, for instance).  I’ve read some pretty passionate calls for the Kirbys to go sink their teeth into Marvel for what was done to Jack, and some equally passionate calls for the Kirbys to back off and accept that their dad sold that stuff to Martin Goodman decades ago, and that they’re just trying to reach into Disney’s very deep pockets.  I have to admit, I come down on the side of the family, simply because us creators have to stick together, and I’d hope someday my family can reap the millions and millions that will someday come our way from my dramatic re-design of the ROCKET RED costume, or the creation of a spin-off version of MODOK in Howard the Duck.  But I’m a sucker for anything that’s anti-corporate, EVEN IF IT’S THE CORPORATION THAT EMPLOYS ME FROM TIME TO TIME.

So, I’m very interested in hearing from the folks that drop by.  Pro-family or pro-Disney, let’s holler, as the kid’s say.

No, dude.  Not SUPERMAN should holler…oh, wait, this is more of that Unseen DC stuff, today with 25% more Jerry Seinfeld?  In honor of the truly horrific flogging that Jerry’s new show “The Marriage Ref” is getting all over the critic-o-sphere,  I’m posting some of the images of Superman that went into the production of the Jerry Seinfeld/Superman/American Express commercials of six or seven years ago!   And since we’re going for “Unseen” as a theme this month, I thought I’d start with some of the preliminary artwork, and dig out the finished (and printed!) versions later.  These were all meant to be “snapshots” of Jerry and his best pal SUPERMAN, hanging out at the ball game, doing laundry, walking their dogs together and male bonding in a totally heterosexual, dockers-wearing kind of a vibe.  Here are some of the REJECTED sketches I did.  They didn’t like the flying Krypto, and wanted him walking, they didn’t like the look on Superman’s face, so that got re-drawn something like eight times.  These are the Unseen comp versions.  There are five or six of these “snapshots” in total, here’s a few to chomp on for now!

Stay Tuned for more silly reasons to repost the Mad Cover as the days wear  on, and ALL NEW BUNNY FUNNIES this weekend, as the blog morphs into a webcomic.  Slowly, but very uncertainly.

Ty the Guy

Mad Puzzles and Games

Today is a real challenge.  We’ve put up an image of SOMETHING (hard to tell with all those numbers and lines) and are asking for YOUR help to see what it is.  All you have to do, is get out some paints that correspond to the guide seen at the bottom of the image, color INSIDE the lines, and send is the finished version of your artwork.  I’m curious to see how this turns out.

UPDATE:

It’s been up online for less than an hour, and we’ve already had a fan send us their attempt at the image.  This one comes to us from a MARK FREDRICKSON of the UNITED STATES, who did a fairly good job, but clearly coloured a LITTLE outside the lines.  Not bad, Mark, and you’ll do better next time.   Meanwhile, we were SO happy with Mark’s colouring, we’re using it as the cover for MAD #503, on sale NOW.  The fact that it contains a page or two of artwork by Ty the Guy should NOT be the deciding factor in purchasing it.  Consider how your birdcage needs lining, or if there are flies in your area that need swatting with a rolled up magazine.

But by it NOW, or we shoot this dog.  Oh, wait, that’s the National Lampoon.

Ty the Guy.

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UNSEEN DC! I continue to draw for the blind!

Yes, I know that’s a slightly offensive joke, but when are the blind going to read it?  There ain’t no braille internet!  The archeology of my studio continues with stuff far more recently unseen than all those mid-90s X-Men things of last week.  This was officially unseen only two years ago, by many thousands and thousands of Canadians, many of them from the “Big Smoke” itself, Toronto. The occasion was the Seventieth birthday of the Big Blue Boy Scout, and our local paper THE TORONTO  STAR, asked me for either an article about it or a drawing, I never recall details…but I’m not one to just write something when I could draw it, or not just draw it when I could write it, or something like that, and I ended up doing both.

The art that ran in the paper was nice and big, but there’s a hell of a lot of colour missing when you slap the image onto newsprint.  So, although the drawing and article was distributed to well over a hundred thousand households (I’m guessing the Star’s circulation is far over that number, but I’m too lazy to look it up), the art has “never been seen” in its proper, bright and colourful form, until this blog.   Up there.  At the top.  You have to scroll back up.

Click on the image of the newspaper below and it will open in another window large enough to read the article, should you wish (click twice).  It’s not a bad article, I mention the words “Jesus” and “Jews” more than you’d expect, but that’s my nature.

I’ve had a life long association with the Toronto Star, not just because I’ve done articles and artwork for them from time to time, and know some editors and reporters socially…but when I was a young child, my father (Charles) was the city editor, and eventually, managing editor of the 60s version of that paper.  So the Star is more like “home” than it is just my city’s newspaper.  And since I’ve done a few of these illustrations for the Star over the years, I might dig ’em up, and put them here on the blog. You’ve been warned…(cue scary music!)

Ty the Guy

PS:  Don’t forget to check back here this, and every weekend, for ALL NEW TY TEMPLETON FUNNIES!  I’ll turn this blog into a webcomic YET!

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New Pages Added…

to the Art Store. Check out the Index of Available Art to see where I stuck what.