FREE COMIC BOOK DAY and…

Saturday May 5 is Free Comic Book Day ! It’s like Christmas with less nog!

Christmas is RUINED. If only there was something to read with Batman in it, some time in May...

But just in case FREE COMICS aren’t enough for you ravenous T-Dot funny book fans–it’s also the weekend of The Toronto Comic Arts Festival, where the best of the indy creators gather together and just commit art all over the joint. Bring splash guards for all the flyin’ ink and paint.

You want MORE?  Free Comics and a great comics convention isn’t enough?   How greedy are you guys?  Okay, just to calm down the insatiable maw I sense out there, The Comic Book Lounge & Gallery ( conveniently located at the same address as the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop) will be crawling with lots of great comics creators including Stuart Immonen, Kathryn Immonen, Gibson Quarter, Marco Rudy, Raffaele Ienco, Mike Del Mundo, David J. Cutler, Karly Macdonald and this long eared Ty-Bunny, signing autographs, doin’ sketches, and making FREE COMIC BOOK DAY the magical adventure that it is.

According to the plans I’ve heard, there will be face painting for the kids, a mini artists alley, and obviously–free comics!! And word has it that Toronto Batman might make an appearance.

There, I hope that satisfies you folks for a day of comics fun.   After that exhausting day is over, I’m going to put my feet up on the couch at the Comic Book Lounge…and…

WAIT!  THERE’S MORE?!?!?

After the Free Comic Book Day events are over,  starting at 8pm, I will be sitting talking with my guests about Canadians and the comics industry exploring the idea of “As Canadian as possible under the circumstances.” in a LIVE talk show.

The first person I thought of to be my first guest ever was Mark Askwith. I’ve known Mark for thirty years now? Wow–long enough that I’ve lost track. I met Mark back when he was manager of The Silver Snail comic shop. When Mark created the much-beloved and much-missed Prisoners of Gravity for TVO, I did the art for the opening sequence, and guested on it frequently. These days, Mark is a producer at Space:  The Imagination Station, producing Inner Space. That’s only some of his comics cred–there’s so much more!

And we’ve got Will Pascoe, director of an upcoming documentary about the Golden Age of Canadian comics superheroes. And we’ve got Scott Chantler, the award winning creator of Two Generals and Towers of Treasure! Not enough for you? We’ve also got Ken Lashley–as he says in his bio “[he’s] worked for them all, Lucasfilm, lucas arts, Hasbro, Mattel, Dc comics, Marvel comics, Fox sports..etc..” In the midst of his many projects, he’s doing covers for DC Comics at the moment.

We’re planning for roughly an hour–but if we’re having too good a time, we might go longer. And the audience isn’t allowed to be shy, as we will be taking questions! (But keep your questions relevant to the conversation.  No one gets to bring up our Mayor’s weight problems or the price of gas.).

When On the Couch’s inaugural episode is over, there will be an announcement of the Joe Shuster Award nominations. Then–

–an Industry Night Party to celebrate comics, Canadians, the Shuster Awards and anything else we can think of.  We will make you ACHE with fun.

Come join us for some of, or all of the day–and the night! We’re excited about everything we have planned for Free Comic Book Day and for On the Couch with Ty Templeton. (This will be the  first of hopefully many On the Couch episodes–unless there’s a death in the audience, or an armed rebellion, we’re coming back).

Ty the Guy OUT!!

Here now, your BONUS FREE COMIC BOOK MOMENT:

Isn't this cool? And it didn't cost you a dime.

FIGURE DRAWING FOR THE COMIC BOOK ARTIST

Ty really wanted to put together a blog post about his new class FIGURE DRAWING FOR THE COMIC BOOK ARTIST but he’s been too busy teaching his other classes (Writing for Comics Level One, Inking for Comics) writing a script, sketching, sleeping, and occasionally talking to his children. So, I’m here pinch-hitting…

Figure Drawing for the Comic Book Artist is a brand new class which starts tomorrow, Wednesday January 25, at TCW. The school has had Studio Life Drawing classes with Geordie Miller, and recently ran some Open Session Drop-In Life Drawing Classes. But Figure Drawing is being taught by a comic book artist with a focus on learning what other comic book artists need to know. Before this, Ty has taught Drawing the Human Figure from Memory–this obviously helps put those lessons to use! With a model in front of the class, students now have the ability to clearly see what Ty is teaching and the muscles and bones he’s trying to get them to pay attention to and learn.

As he was packing up for his Inking class tonight, I asked Ty to quickly tell me why he thought this was a good and worthwhile class. He said, “Most comic book artists learn anatomy, learn the human figure by imitating other comic book artists. While not a bad thing, it does mean that you end up making figures that look like Neal Adams drew them, or Ty Templeton or whomever you imitate. (Sometimes, depending on the artist, that means you learn to draw their mistakes!) What you need to learn is to draw from life, to draw the human figure as you see it in front of you. It helps you to know the figure, to be able to draw it out of your head, and to have your own style, your own way of drawing.”

(photo by Geordie Millar)

A couple weeks ago, Ty ran a Sneak Peek workshop for Figure Drawing for the Comic Book Artist. Every one who attended came out raving about it.

Ty Templeton teaches his Sneak Peek Workshop FIGURE DRAWING FOR THE COMIC BOOK ARTIST (photo by Geordie Millar)

Artist/animator Karly MacDonald was nice enough to send me scans of some of her drawings from the night. Ty was particularly impressed with the model, Rubie Laframboise, as she actually is eight heads high–although that’s always touted as the standard to follow in figure drawing, it’s unusual to see someone who actually fits that perfectly.

There’s still a couple of spots left in the class if you’re interested…check out the information on the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop site and reserve a space. This workshop probably won’t be offered again for several sessions after this.

(photo by Geordie Millar)

 

Keiren