Pre-Con Sketchcover Commissions: Open!

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UPDATE:  August 29 2015. My list for FanExpo is closed. I will be doing sketches and sketchcovers at the show itself. I will be bringing some blanks with me. If you want a Harley though I’m all out…check your LCS or the retailers at the show.

UPDATE:  I won’t be taking anymore requests for Chicago, as I have to get on a plane tomorrow morning! I will be at the convention all four days, sitting at the Hero Initiative booth and will happily do sketches and sketchcovers (although I won’t have any of my blanks with me).

When I get back from Chicago, I will be picking up more sketchcovers and will update my list for FanExpo requests then.

I generally only do commissions on-site at conventions but after a number of requests, I’ve decided to do some in advance. At the moment, I’m limiting this to sketchcovers. Single figures are $60, Two figures are $90, markers and copics.

My next convention is Wizard World Chicago, August 20 – 24. I will be there the whole weekend, holding down the Hero Initiative booth. FanExpo Canada is September 3 – 6. I will be at my own table in the pro section for that show.

The blank sketchcovers I currently have on hand are:

Batman 66 #23

Batgirl #38

Superman #32 (FanExpo only)

A-Force Secret Wars #001

The Flash #39

Wolverine #310

Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars #001

Wonder Woman #19

Wonder Woman #36 (FanExpo only)

Justice League #16

I have some others ordered; I’ll update the list when I get them.

All covers will be available for pick-up ONLY at the convention. Payment can be in cash at the convention or you can PayPal me before pickup.

If you’re interested, send me an email at tybunny@gmail.com and tell me which blank, and what you’re looking for. I’ll confirm with you before I start anything.

Ty the Guy OUT!

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Go Forth, Young Bunny! YAY!

This year’s #4 position, BOTH the most popular and the least popular, come from the last couple of weeks.  It was a wild swing in readership from one week to the next this December, but that’s standard around here.  You fickle monsters make me paint my backside and dance, and sometimes you love me, and sometimes it’s head first into the mud holes.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you.  I know how complaining comic book artists get treated on the internet….

For example…

For those who don’t recall this tempestuous teapot, back at the beginning of December, a comic book artist (of my generation) named Pat Broderick had a word or two to say about cosplayers ruining conventions for people who turned out to be the same age, height and weight as Pat Broderick.  It was something about women in skimpy outfits blocking aisles, not earning their place, and generally being on his lawn when he clearly wanted to get them off his lawn.

Pat’s probably a wonderful guy, and the backlash was more about how inelegantly he complained about getting older, than any real animosity towards him, but for god’s sake, don’t wear any odd hats around the man…he’s nervous.

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Our #4 LEAST favourite Bun Toon was the following week.   My fame and fortune crumbled and died in a scant seven days, and all because I cut off Santa’s foot.

I’ve learned my lesson.  No more hurting Santa Claus.  To make it up to my emotionally damaged readers, here’s one of my MOST popular Christmas Bun Toons from a couple of years ago, in which I do not hurt Santa at all, except for one or two moments in the “agonizer”.

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See you tomorrow, for the THIRD most and least popular Bun Toons of the year….neither of which will be from the month of December, I promise.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Reno Convention Bun Toons!

I’m in the sunshine, all you snow covered Canadians, you!

Hey there internet family.  I’m not at my desk today…I’m not within a thousand miles, or even my own country at the moment, as I’m in RENO, NEVADA for the Wizard World Convention this weekend, signing the comics and meeting the peoples.

Normally, I don’t put up a Bun Toon on convention weekends, and I run an old one, but today, we’re doing a slight variation on that.

See, I was asked to give the Wizard folks an image to do up as a poster for the convention, and the one that was decided upon was my Bun Toon about Batman without Bill Finger.

The original art for that was pretty low-rez and sloppy as it was for a Bun Toon, not a poster.  So I did up a proper, put-some-effort-into-the-artwork version of this year’s most popular Bun Toon and this is the result…available as a poster in Reno!

I think if you click on that it gets bigger in your browser…try it and see!

Ty the Guy OUT!

ALSO exclusively available in Reno is my alt cover variant for Superior Iron Man #1

But…since you guys are so good and deserve it, here’s the cover without the trade dress, only available RIGHT HERE at Bun Toon Central!

My wife Keiren did most of the colour work on this one.  Knocked it out of the park, she did.

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For last week’s original, not a re-run Bun Toon, click here.

For the Bun Toons archives, click here

 

Tony Harris Bun Toons! YAY

Fortunately, the bunny is sexy enough to cosplay without pants.

Eternally attractive comic book artist, Tony Harris, has FINALLY told the cosplayers of this world the rules of the game.  Please, ladies, don’t show up to conventions in sexy clothes unless you’re a) very sexy,  b) aware that you’re not sexy, but an expert on the character you’ve dressed up as, or c) a virgin man.

He gets to make these statements because he’s a handsome man with a VERY powerful social position.  He draws comic books.

But what if Tony Harris held a position with even MORE power?

Imagine the controversy if Tony Harris owned a dry cleaners, or sold door to door soap.

THEN, people might take him seriously.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your BONUS Tony Harris Knows Sexy Moment:

Harris artowrk from the cover to one of the Ex Machina collections. This artwork just oozes, discharges and secretes sexy.

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For last week’s sexy Bun Toon, drawn from a hospital bed while on heavy drugs, click above.

For an archive of past Bun Toons, click the sexy, sexy bunny above.

Niagara Falls Comic Con 2012

Been too busy for anything but drawing, writing scripts and teaching these days. Sometimes there’s a burger and a coke. But I realised that I had a couple photos from the Saturday I spent at Niagara Falls Comic Con 2012 and thought I’d do a super-quick post.

The con went really really well–we’d heard about it from Christopher Yao and Leonard Kirk who had both been guests the first year. When Dan McKinnon contacted me and asked if I’d like to be a guest for 2012, I jumped at the chance. (I got to do a panel with Dan McKinnon, a former letterer and inker for comics who now runs High Concept Media with his wife Katie. We talked about how to get in the business and be a comics creator.)

Aww.  Hulkie Smash Sumpting.
Thanks to my work on Marvel Ultimate Spider-Man Adventures, I’m used to drawing Spidey’s web mask pattern.  That actually takes a couple of drawings before you can match the “official” pattern.  It’s like Superman’s “S”.  There’s always an “official” version.

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The “official” version of my friend Christopher Yao.  Christopher was moving copies of his wonderful creator owned title Fauntkin, about an adorable little grandson kept alive by evil technology.

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I think this is Wolverine’s daughter now, or a clone, or his clone’s daughter and the women who love them.  But the sketch went away with someone happy with it, and I was not pelted with rocks and garbage.  I think she’s named X-49 and a half or something.

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I was asked to do a drawing of Arcangel and I’d mentioned that I’d done an old X-Men video cover featuring Warren having a good scream while on his knees.  Jason said, “Yeah, draw that.”.  So I tried to recreate the image from memory.  Let me hunt down the original to compare how I did…

8Can’t find the sketch right now…but here’s the printed version of the video box cover.

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I asked Dr. Evil what he would like and he said, “ONE MILLION DOLLARS!” Instead I drew him Guy Gardner being terrorized by a bunny.

A haircut I feel partially responsible for.  I tend to blame Kevin Maguire when I see it on people at conventions, though.

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The last couple conventions I’ve been at, I’ve been eyeing the Batmobile…and the owner of this one invited Keiren and me to sit inside…  Yes–life is good!

We had a wonderful time at the convention–before the end of the day, the organiser announced that it will be two days next year, and he’s booking twice the floorspace for it. Happy to see more comics fans getting a place to gather…

After the convention was over, Dan and Katie McKinnon took Keiren and I out to dinner, and we invited Christopher Yao and his wonderful girlfriend Cate to join us…  We had a great dinner and better conversation–some fun war stories were told that night.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Calgary–I’m on my way!

This Friday, I’ll be heading off to the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo for the first time ever. I’m pretty excited to be there–for a couple of years various friends like Gibson Quarter and Yanick Paquette have told me that I have to go. (In fact, I’ll be on a panel with Yanick, and Whilce Portacio—The Art of Batman)

The cast of Star Trek:  The Next Generation will be reuniting for the show. I got to write a list of my favourite things about Next Gen for the show’s program booklet–when I get back, I’ll post it here.

If you go–keep an eye out for me, come by and say hello. I’ll have some of my sketchbooks (if I run out, I’ll take names and addresses for anyone who wants one, and Keiren will ship them out, when I get back), and original artwork. I’ll be bringing the pages from the first issue of Ultimate Spider-Man Adventures #1–still looking around my studio to see what else I find in the piles of papers there.

And I’ll be bringing a copy or two of Bill the Boy Wonder:  The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, written by Marc Tyler Nobleman and illustrated by me. It’s available for pre-order right now (not coming out until July 4) so this is the only way you can get a good look at it!

Convention Sketches I don’t hate.

I always hate my convention sketches.

1)  I don’t draw particularly well to begin with, and

2) I’m always seated near Leonard Kirk, the KING of the con-sketch.

Both of those factors lead me to cringe at almost every convention sketch I see scanned and put up online.  But this last weekend, I actually did a handful that didn’t suck.

The above shot of Indiana Jones was done for a fan named Derek Jagt, who went around the convention asking all the artists for a drawing of Indy.  Obviously, I couldn’t draw one out of my head, but when presented with a reference photo, I did this in about fifteen minutes, with two grey markers and a Faber-Castell artist pen.  I’m not sure I completely caught Harrison Ford’s likeness as perfectly as I would have, given another hour or so, but what I like about it is the very casual line work all through the sketch.  When I do a portrait, I tend to tighten up, but this has some of that easy movement one might see in a Mort Drucker piece.  I’m not in his league, but every now and then, I can see what I’m doing to get there.

On the more whimsical side of things, here’s a sketch cover  I did for Jason Truong, a friend of the blog.  Whenever I do Wolverine, The Thing, Nick Fury or Howard the Duck, I always insist on the cigar, since they’re not allowed to smoke in the comics any more.

Even if it’s Chibi Baby Wolverine.  He’s a mutant, he’s got the healing power for when he starts coughing up the phlegm.

There were one or two others that didn’t suck from the weekend.  I did one with V for Vendetta that wasn’t awful.  But I don’t have a scan of that one.

Back to drawing in my home studio…where I get to use an eraser and white out if I don’t like how it’s going.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your BONUS Con Sketches:

I’m serious about not sitting next to Leonard Kirk at a convention if you have any pride.  Look at the sort of thing Len considers a “con sketch”.

It makes you want to break his fingers, except he’s a very nice guy.  GRRR.

2012 Convention Schedule and more…

Ty promised himself that he was going to be posting more on the blog this year and was getting frustrated that he hasn’t had the time–until I pointed out that it’s that he has so much work to do, all of which he’s excited to be doing.  But I did promise that I’d pop in to mention a few things, so here ya go…

The official start to Ty Templeton’s 2012 Convention Season is next-next weekend. Usually, Ty only does the Toronto shows but after doing the wildly-successful wildly-enjoyable Montreal Comiccon last year, he’s agreed to do more for 2012.  There might be a few additions to the list later in the year but for now, this is it:

Formerly known as Fan Appreciation and now Toronto ComiCon as presented by Fan Expo. And expanded to two days– Saturday March 10-Sunday March 11.

Toronto Cartoonists Workshop will be there, sharing a booth with The Comic Book Lounge & Gallery. (You might be able to register for the upcoming workshops at the show…but classes will begin the Monday after the show, so best to not take any chances and sign up now for WRITING FOR COMICS LEVEL TWO and Ty Templeton’s COMIC BOOK BOOTCAMP PART ONE.) If you’re not able to get to the show, but need to get some comics, make sure you check out The Comic Book Lounge & Gallery in it’s permanent space (shared with TCW) at 587A College Street West. Our oldest son will be holding down the fort.

Been waiting for Calgary Expo to announce this–now, we can confirm that Ty will be attending, for the first time, the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. The show runs Friday April 27-Sunday April 29, and features an amazing list of guests.

Our buddies, Heroes of the North will be there as well, showing off all their books, posters, figurines and some of the actors! Artist Gibson Quarter (Holmes Incorporated, Undertow #2) has finished pencilling a new 8-Ball story for HoTN and will be there, too. (Ty just finished a script for HoTN, to be pencilled by Richard Pace. Like Ty, Richard divides his time between teaching and drawing comics. He’s an instructor at Durham College, and is currently hard at work on Ashes written by Alex de Campi. AND he just announced that he’s drawing a 3-part adaptation of a Robert E. Howard story for Dark Horse’s SAVAGE SWORD (#5-7), written by Ian Edginton.)

In June, Ty will be off to Austin, Texas…but that hasn’t been “officially” announced yet, so I’ll wait to put up all the info.

In August, it will be The Big One–the biggest comic convention in Canada, that is. Fan Expo Canada runs Thursday August 23-Sunday August 26 this year. It was wildly busy last year–slightly overwhelming by the last day, butgreat to spend time with so many other creators and to talk to so many fans.

Toronto Cartoonists Workshop and The Comic Book Lounge & Gallery will both be at the show as well. Heroes of the North will put in an appearance as well. Their second omnibus collection will be published by then. And the HoTN comic story drawn by David J. Cutler (artist for The Northern Guard) will be out by then as well.

Montreal Comiccon is the little comic book convention that didn’t so much grow as EXPLODE!! It was such an enormous, unexpected success that they’ve moved to a bigger location this year, Friday September 14-Sunday September 16. Ty and I really really enjoyed the show last year…had a very brief twenty minutes when we thought it was going to be quiet, when we first arrived at Ty’s table. That was the last twenty minutes of peace for the entire weekend! Got to meet Dan Parent, have dinner with Dan, Gibson Quarter and the Heroes of the North crew.

That is currently the extent of Ty’s convention schedule…

At the same time that all this fun is going on, and as Ty is busy working, he will be continuing to teach at Toronto Cartoonists Workshop.

WRITING FOR COMICS LEVEL TWO begins Monday March 12, 7-10pm. Completion of Level One is a requirement.  Wednesday March 14, Ty starts COMIC BOOK BOOTCAMP Part One 7-10pm.

Rob Walton will be teaching CREATING YOUR OWN GRAPHIC NOVEL starting Thursday March 15, and Walter Dickinson will be teaching CARTOONING RODEO for kids 8-12 years of age Saturday mornings April 14-June 16.

                                                                                              Keiren

This Weekend…

Ty will be in Montreal, Canada to attend Montreal Comic Con. He hasn’t been to a comics convention there in fifteen years so he’s looking forward to it. Don’t know where he’ll be sitting and I don’t believe he’s doing any panels and such…but look around the room and you’ll eventually find him, signing, sketching and telling outrageous-yet-completely-true stories.

Ty Templeton has worked in the comics industry for more than twenty-five years, contributing scripts and art to Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Mad Magazine, The Simpsons, The National Lampoon, Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor, the Avengers, Justice League and many others. He’s also been a comics publisher, editor, colorist, letterer, teacher, and a lifelong reader of these things. His greatest creations are his four kids, and a musical single he once put out (with Alan Moore as the “B” side), guest-starring members of the bands BAUHAUS and APRIL WINE.

Keiren

True Life Urinal Bun Toons! YAY!

I've earned your trust with family entertainment, and now I'm pissing it all away!

It’s still a hectic, busy weekend at FanExpo, Canada’s largest Comic Convention- and that means I haven’t the time to colour this episode of Bun Toons.  But trust me, you don’t want to see it in colour in the first place.  It’s unpleasant enough as it is.

Okay, I lied.  If I’d coloured it, it would have given away the punch line, but wasn’t it more fun to be lied to?

I’m at the convention as you’re reading this, so I’ll see you after you’re done.  Get on down here and join the fun.  And BTW:  I DID get to meet Martin Landau (my secret father) yesterday, and had a very pleasant conversation with him.  Far more pleasant than the one my wife and I had with Robert Englund (Freddie Kruger).  More on that later…

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your BONUS RED SKULL COSPLAY MOMENT:

Go ahead.  Urinate next to this guy, and DON’T look over.  I dare you.  And to answer all your horrible questions…it wasn’t all red, but it did look circumcised, which I wasn’t expecting from the Skull.

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Click here to see last week's non-urine based Bun Toons.

For Every Bun Toon EVER, click on the bunny some place where it won't tickle.