End of an Era Bun Toons. Not so “yay” …

5...4...3...2...1...

Normally I like to give an introduction to these things, but I’ll be saving it for an afterthought.  All I’ll say today is that my friend Jason Laudadio helped out with this one and deserves a round of applause.  And if you click on it, it gets a little bigger, and easier to read and see Jason’s wonderful linework.

Here ya go.

Okay, here’s my afterword:

Holmes Inc. launched last night to rousing success, and I hear the launch of Captain America into theaters was equally successful (I promise I’ll be going this week and bring back a review!).  But there’s one kind of launch we won’t be seeing any more, and that’s the launch of American space craft.

I spent a good chunk of my life watching NASA put things into space.  I’ve been in the room with three actual moon rocks, Buzz Aldrin, and Jim Lovell’s space suit at the Planetarium in Toronto many years ago, and still regard it as one of the great memories of my youth.  I can tell you exactly where I was when Neil Armstrong screwed up his great line about “One small step for [a] man, and one giant leap for mankind ” (watching it on a black and white TV in school).  I remember sitting by the radio waiting for updates when Apollo 13 was still up there in trouble.  I remember the Challenger explosion like it was yesterday, and it still puts a lump in my throat.   I remember meeting Marc Garneau after a lecture he gave at Ontario Place, and I remember being told that Roberta Bondar wore one of my “Prisoners of Gravity” t-shirts when she served aboard Discovery.  I might not have gotten into orbit, but one of my drawings did.

The character in the drawing is my dear friend "Commander" Rick Green, Host of "P.O.G" and one of the funniest people still trapped on Earth.

I hope you guys were okay with this commemoration of that magnificent era when American (and some Canadian) know-how literally reached for the stars.  Normally these Toons are a silly, funny bit of fluff, but today, with artist-extraordinaire  Jason Laudadio, I got indulge  my nostalgic side.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your bonus Nasa Space Craft Comic Book Moment:

Did anybody notice this is issue #121?  Damn, that’s a lot of Space Shuttle comics!

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For last week's Dog Poop based Bun Toon, click on the hearts.

For every Bun Toon ever, click on the rabbit's fluffy tail!

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Hoverboy and Hitler Cigarettes!

Today I’m skull-explodingly excited to talk to you about a lost piece of Hoverboy TV that hasn’t been seen in nearly sixty years.   Episodes of Hoverboy’s “Gay Cavalcade” puppet show from the fifties ( often misspelled as “Gay Cavelcade”) have been found by a former puppeteer for the series, named Ross Gurch.   Gurch was recently featured on an episode of the A&E show “Hoarders”, and kinescopes of  Gay Cavalcade episodes were found buried in Gurch’s house amongst jars of his urine.

Ross Gurch at the height of his career, holding his famous alter ego.

Marcus Moore, curator of the Hoverboy Museum online, is paying out-of-pocket to get the episodes digitized and put online.   This Hover-fan is giddy.

Of the the three Hoverboy puppet shows,  Gay Cavalcade was certainly in the top two.  It featured host “Uncle Orval”, a Hoverboy puppet, and a fairly racist portrait of a Native American puppet named “Chief”.  These three would get into crazy misadventures that usually taught Hoverboy a lesson about being a good citizen or whether or not it’s okay to play-wrestle with your cousin if she’s wearing a sweater.  The shows were broadcast primarily in the American Southwest with stations carrying the show in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Hawaii.  Mildly popular for a while, the Cavalcade even put out a Christmas Album in 1954 – which I actually own a copy of:

“REPENT SINNERS, LEST YE BE DAMNED” is a surprisingly catchy Christmas ditty.

The BEST (and shortest) clip in the kinescopes that Gurch found in his house is an ad for Tareyton Cigarettes done by the Cavalcade cast during a broadcast.

Back in the Fifties, you were allowed to advertise cigarettes to children.

People might remember Tareyton Cigarettes as the brand that went bankrupt due to an urban legend back in the 60’s.  A  rumor convinced people that the Tareyton company was a front for Adolph Hitler, who was living in Argentina and running a tobacco empire to finance an army to re-take Europe.   The only evidence for this was the unfortunate design of  their company mascot, “Wagner” seen on the cigarette packs themselves, but it was enough to destroy sales when the gossip got around.

Admittedly, the design choices are unfortunate.

Before the company coughed up its last lung in 1962, it was one of the main sponsors of Hoverboy’s Gay Cavalcade, and the cast dutifully did commercials for the product, just as other shows did at the same time.

This was a KID'S SHOW! Seriously!

The Flintstones did it.  Everybody did it.  It was a different era.

Go here to see this bizarre moment of children’s advertising from the fifties:  Hoverboy shilling cigarettes to kids.  Stunning, just stunning.

 

Of just press the image above to launch the video at youtube...I can't embed video on this blog, yet.

And we all thought Joe Camel was evil.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your Hoverboy Cigarettes Comic Book Moment:

The smoking zombie in the lower right of this cover caused a Senate sub-committee to label Hoverboy #3 as "subversive" and "leading to juvenile delinquency" in 1953, but the TV version of Hoverboy was ADVERTISING cigarette products without complaint at the same time. It's a crazy world, huh?

 

MORE Hoverboy Radio Excitement!

So I’ve been offline for more than a week, half because I’ve been swamped with work, and half because my computer had a minor problem with the inner workings and had to be repaired.  BAD electronics!  Bad!

I think it's fixed now, but no sudden moves...

While I was away, the magnificent Marcus Moore and the gang at HOVERBOY ARCHIVES has put up the next THRILLING installment of Hoverboy’s olde tyme radio show.

Of course, these old shows are very close to my heart as they were written and produced by my grandfather, and the grandparents of many of my friends.  This episode features the grandfather of my pal, 70s rock star BOB SEGARINI, as well as the grandfather of my son TAYLOR, who performed in the commercial segment as the deeply confused boy, “BILLY”.  It’s a seminal role in my son’s grandfather’s career, as he was only 13 at the time it was recorded.  And of course, the episodes continue to feature the grandparents of Steve (Ed the Sock) Kerzner and Liana K,  Rick Green (from History Bites, Red Green Show, The Frantics) and Rob Pincombe (from Kid vs. Kat)

We’ve also found more of those exciting HOVERBOY vs. ROBOT HITLER daily strips, and scanned ’em for your enjoyment up at the Hoverboy Museum!

Because Robot Hitler is still pretty cool, right?

Even with all this FLOOD of new Hoverboy material that we’re bringing you today,  I’m at work on a cool, secret Batman-related project that’s going to own me for the next few weeks or so and will be out next year.

But now that my computer is back, I’ll be hanging around here a little more regular-like.

Oh, and the next issue of Mad Magazine has some work in it that I did.  Go buy that when it’s out on December 22, 2010….like you just bought the Northern Guard and Strange Tales issues that came out yesterday….RIGHT?  You can see a preview page I did from the MAD DUMBEST 20 MOMENTS from 2010 issue HERE.

But first…go listen to the latest installment of the Hoverboy radio show.  It’s funny, I promise.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your comic book/radio moment of Zen.

 

Seriously? This is a real comic?

A Spectacular Discovery in the World of Super-Heroes Radio

I have been waiting for this for months now, and I’m not going to wait until Friday this week, I’m too bursting with excitement.

The Hoverboy Radio series has finally been cleaned up, remastered, restored, and is up online for your listening pleasure!  These historic radio performances from the War Years are NOT TO BE MISSED!

A Hoverboy comic strip from 1941. Like radio, only quieter.

I thought I’d never get to hear these audio dramas in my lifetime, but a box of old reel-to-reels found in a flea market in Des Moines turned out to be a treasure trove of lost Hoverboy radio shows.    They were badly damaged, but the curators of the Hoverboy Museum spent the money to get them restored, and they’re done!

Once, advertisements like this dotted the landscape.

The first episode is up online at the HOVERBOY YOU TUBE CHANNEL.   These actors spin a swell yarn, let me tell you, and there’s some fine ukulele singing near the end that makes the episode timeless.

You'll be looking at this image a lot, as there are no pictures in radio.

As many of the long time blog-readers know, my grandfather worked on this series, as the copy-writer and announcer (That’s grand-dad’s voice you’ll hear all through the episode, moving the adventure along).  You might  recognize the voice of Rick  Green’s grandfather in there, who co-wrote the episode with my grandfather and performed some of the characters.  The grandparents of both Steve (Ed-the-Sock) Kerzner and Liana K were actors for this war-era show, as well as the great grandfather of Robert Pincombe, who played Hoverboy for this early series, and Marcus Moore (co-curator of the Hoverboy Museum), whose great uncle produced and edited the whole thing.    It’s damn odd that all these grandkids turn out to be friends of mine, but I’ve chosen not to pay attention to the coincidence.

Another Olde Tyme Hoverboy toy, because the internet requires pictures to keep you youngsters paying attention.

That’s enough of my yakking.  Go listen to the first  show, and let me know what you think of our restoration work.  I think it sounds pretty good–  Like it was recorded only yesterday…

And head over to the Hoverboy Online Museum, which has been putting up NEW Hoverboy Comic Strips for weeks now, as well as other surprises.  The Bucket Rocket Ride is heading up into the sky.  HOVERBOY AWAY!

(and join the Facebook Fan Page to let these fine folks know how much you appreciate the work they’ve put in to restore these shows:)
Hoverboy |

And Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your comic book moment of zen:

Hoverboy - battling science in the months before he went on the radio!

Nepotism Thursday

Good lord, Nepotism Thursday falls on a Thursday this month.  Alert the coast guard!!

Years ago, Ty was approached by Brandon Kruse for an interesting project he was involved with.  Kruse had drawn some issues of Batman and Robin Adventures which Ty had written (issues 9, 12-16, 18-20, 22 and 23) so he was part of Ty’s work “family”.  The project involved doing covers and a couple of interior pages for a superhero character which would be used on a website for that character.

Ty, at the time, was up to his neck teaching at Max the Mutt Animation School, and thought of offering up some of his students to do the work.  For someone who will happily take the opportunity to write, draw, ink, colour and letter his own stuff, Ty actually loves to collaborate–and to pass work on to those he considers deserving. But Kruse was hoping to work more with Ty.

At the time, Ty was teaching our eldest how to ink, so he sent along some samples by Kellam (Templeton-Smith at the time, now using Templeton as his work name), and some colouring and lettering by me (and yes, I can spell when I letter–it’s just that we Canadians like to stick “u”s in our words for something to do–a favourite of ours which I know our neighbours to the south don’t even when they’re out and about.) The samples passed muster and the pages arrived…

All the pages were pencilled by Brandon Kruse. Ty and Kellam divided the inking evenly.  I coloured all but one of the pages (the cover for the trapped Crimson Arrow, as seen immediately above) and lettered ’em all. Ty came up with the aging techniques.

The project went by fairly quickly–but was revisited several times.  I had to make a few changes to the pages a couple of times; once because when the costume was created for the live-action video, a yellow stripe was added to the glove which hadn’t been in the original design.  And other changes came about because…well let’s just say that there used to be extra material on the top of the head of the character and leave it at that.  Basically–thank god for PhotoShop!

You can see how the finished work was used over at

The Crimson Arrow

(I didn’t do the lettering which is used on the opening home page for click-throughs.  That was in place of the dialogue lettering I had done.)

(And, for those of you who might be wondering and speculating…let’s just say that this project came well after Ty signed on as one of the three curators* of The Hoverboy Museum. )

Keiren

*Ty and Rick Green both signed on to help original curator Marcus Moore who had been struggling valiantly for years to build the museum up.

TY HERE: Ten special bonus points for whomever can tell which two covers my son inked, and which two covers I inked.  ALSO:  I coloured one of ’em, and my wife coloured the other three…for THIRTY points, which cover was my colour work.  The clock is ticking, people.  And, as always, the points are redeemable as airmiles.  All winners will receive miles and miles of air, theirs to breathe for  years to come.   By the way, the things atop the Crimson Arrow’s head were, in fact, clearly actionable pointy bat-ears.  I’m not sure why the producers thought the bat-ears were originally acceptable, and I’ll look for one of the un-altered covers to put up in a bit…it was like a neon sign blinking “SUE US!  SUE US!  SUE US!”.   But the whole things was wonderful fun, and my son’s first professional inking paycheck.  So WOO HOO Nepotism Thursdays!

Ty the Guy

Animation by Ty, Part Deux

Whoops–missed one!  Not sure how exactly I missed this** (or Ty, who had a lunch meeting with Rick Green just YESTERDAY! Something they’re thinking about doing about some old show the two of them love called…Hover something…hoverguy?  Hoverman?  Hoverboy?) but I forgot all about the opening credits for the old TVO show, Prisoners of Gravity.

(Ty did do a handful of cartoons for the first episode of Rick Green’s show, History Bites.  But the concept of the show was tweaked and after the initial episode, the focus was on the pretense that the viewer was channel-surfing and tv guide-checking at the time period of each episode: thus, no need for cartoons that were meant to seem as if they’d been taken from magazines or newspapers of the time.)

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**Heh–might have helped if I’d checked Ty’s IMDb (very incomplete) credits where they actually list him as the Title Designer for the show.  Who knew?

Keiren

Hoverboy Friday Fun

Rick Green talks Hoverboy

Ty Templeton talks Hoverboy Museum (with a guest appearance by son Taylor)

Hoverboy Away!

Hoverboy Away!

Here’s a link to a documentary Ty was a part of, on the history of Hoverboy.  And when you’ve finished with the doc, there are a few other clips.  Check out Yannick Paquette explaining how he tries to put Hoverboy in all his Marvel work.

Ugh–I don’t know what I’m doing wrong in adding this link, but for now, just copy and paste the link into your browser…

http://www.hoverboy.com/HOATB.html
I figured it out!  I love WordPress support!  Blog with WordPress.com, people, it’s the best.