Woof! Bark! Arf! Bark! Bark! Bun Toons YAY!

The dogs are barking.  I think that means we’re due for an earthquake.

Fenrir tends to like blues songs or Ringo Starr songs.  She’s absolutely devoted to “Octopus’ Garden” and “Yellow Submarine” and comes running to the piano as soon as she hears the opening notes.

The real trouble with this arrangement is that I have three cats who hang around the living room.

They’re not happy about this new dog thing, but none of them have even TRIED to take the instrumental solo verse when I play, so screw them.  The dog’s in the band.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Dogs and comic books go together like squirrels and nuts…which is to say one tries to eat the other….

But dogs are occasionally the comic book star.

This is a “Who’s Who in DC Comics” art entry from fairly early in my career.  Rex the Wonder Dog, originally drawn by Gil Kane, but drawn badly here by me.  Who doesn’t love wonder dogs?  Writer James Robinson bought this piece of original art from me because he too loves the wonder dogs.

This is some of the art from a series of Seinfeld/Superman ads for American Express that included Jerry’s dog cavorting with Krypto.  I got to do the artwork for the ads, but never got to meet Jerry’s dog even though Jerry’s dog got to meet Krypto.  There are no perks in cartooning like there are in sit-com stardom.

For last week’s Bun Toon, also animal based, click the bunny above

Hop, hop and away!

I promise, no complaining about the new Zack Snyder movie, except for this bit here.

Another honest-to-god-true-life-adventure.  Ah, the life I lead…

I suppose my other children are pretty cool, too.  No, really.

Ty the Guy OUT!

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As long time readers of this blog might recall, my eldest son, Kellam once went out on Halloween as BLUE SUPERMAN!  

Perhaps the only Blue Superman ever on Halloween.  Not a single house knew who he was.

Below is a conversation I had with Taylor about the Archie characters.  It’s an ongoing education with my brood.

And, of course, me and the lad aren’t the only ones with a Christopher Reeve man-crush.

Jerry Seinfeld’s man-crush on the big blue boy scout is so strong, a few years back, American Express actually hired me to draw Superman and Jerry palling around together.  No, really.

I think Superman is tickling Jerry here.  What was I thinking when I drew this?

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For last week’s Bun Toon, click here!

If you life in the Toronto area and are interested in learning to write or draw comics, click here.

Happy Birthday Big Red S!

Seventy Five years old!  Great Rao!

I have a lovely essay that I wrote on the occasion of Superman’s 70th Birthday, and rather than rethink it, I’ll just link to it below.  Click on the image and you’ll be taken to a much larger and readable version of the article.   When you’re done (or once you’ve ignored the article and scrolled below it), you can rejoin the regular blog, still in progress.

What I said still holds true (unless the upcoming movie REALLY sucks).

I’ve had a long and unexpected association with Superman through the years, and I consider it quite an honour to have contributed to the great character’s legacy. Working out of the Superman office in the late 80s and early 90s gave me the whooping-giggle thrill of collaborating with some of the legends of this comics industry.  I got ink over such childhood heroes as Jim Mooney:

And John Byrne…

 Dan Jurgens…

…and the definitive Superman artist for a generation: Curt Swan.

…as well as a dozen other artists working out Mike Carlin’s Superman office.  My single favourite image I contributed to while I was a Superman inker was this cover for Superboy: The Comic Book #4…penciled by Kevin Maguire and rendered by your humble blogger.  I rarely put my own artwork up on the walls of my house, but I consider this a Kevin piece anyway, so it sat on my wall for years.

I dare you to tell me that isn’t a great cover.

Superman was on hand the first time I co-wrote a story with my pal Dan Slott.  Though we’d worked together as a writer/artist team a few times, this was our first collaboration as co-writers, and our little tale featured Krypto and his big flyin’ master.   Go find a copy and read it, you’ll let go of a few honest tears when it’s done.  I’m proud of this one.

I got to work with Jerry Seinfeld because of Superman.  I was asked to design the look of  Superman for a series of Seinfeld/American Express animated commercials, as well as creating some odd Jerry and Superman scenes for billboards and print ads.

The original photo is Jerry grabbing at “no one” in the air, and I had to draw Superman to fit where Jerry’s hand was.  Kal-el is supposed to be saying “this guy’s crazy”, but it looks equally like he’s tickling the comedian.

Superman and Jerry bond over their dogs.

Is there any better job than being paid to illustrate Krypto starting a bromance?

Working for Superman offered me to opportunity to design collectable action figures:

and crayon boxes, and puzzles and t-shirts and colouring books and darn near anything with an S on it.  Of the many many images of Superman I’ve drawn for DC Comics over my career, this is my favourite:

I know there’s other characters on this JLU cover, but there’s something about the Superman figure that sits just right with me.  His proportions, his expression, even the colours of his costume, all came together in this image and I didn’t screw any of it up.  I actually don’t hate this cover and my wife will tell you how rare that is for me.  I might be wrong, but I think it’s the last time I drew Superman for the mother corporation…once I get it correct, I scoot off and don’t do it again.

So happy birthday Mr. Cape.  You’ve been a delightful character to read as a child, to work on as a young adult, and to come back to every few years like a comfortable trip back home.   I hope I get another chance at him someday…and I treasure the time we spent together.

I’m always a little jealous when he dates someone else.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your BONUS Superman Moment- You knew this one was coming.

Free Comics on Free Comics Mother’s Day!! YAY!

It's always Free Comics Day every Saturday around here!

Ah, moms.  If it weren’t for mothers throwing away the comic collections of other people my age, then my personal collection wouldn’t be worth so much money.  So on behalf of the other mothers who tore up Green Lantern comics and tossed all those Avengers into the trash, we salute Mother’s Day…

ADVANTAGE:  The Flying Dog.

I’m off to Paradise Comics in Toronto for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY.  It’s like Christmas for our industry, and I love giving out the candy.  See you in the funny papers!

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your BONUS Aunt May Moment:

Yes, this was a real thing.

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CLICK HERE for last week's BUN TOON!

Or click HERE for every BUN TOON ever!

New Pages…

Way, way back in September when we started up this blog, I posted an entry on the art Ty did for the Jerry Seinfeld and Superman American Express Commercials.  Just a bit of intro and a link to the commercials.

Now, Ty’s decided to put a couple of the pages up for sale. He loves the Krypto page–he’s always had a fondness for Krypto the Superdog (cannot type that without instantly hearing the theme song for the recent Krypto cartoon. Ty saw every single episode so I know the song well) and even tried to pitch a story or two to DC Comics.

I don’t remember all the details of this assignment, so I’ll have to get Ty to add something later. I know that Seinfeld had a particular Superman in mind, and DC Comics knew Ty was the man who was going to be able to give him that.

The Seinfeld-Superman pages are here…

Gambit vs. Gambit Xmen video box cover is here…

Keiren
To share:

New Pages…

will be going up tomorrow, on Tuesday. I did a bunch of scans per Ty’s request, but he forgot to leave me with pricing info. So, check back tomorrow to see what’s what…

–and for just a quick peek, here’s an Xmen video box cover with Gambit fighting…Gambit? And Krypto, the Superdog, looking around for Jerry Seinfeld.
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Keiren

KeKeiren

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