Stan Lee Presents Bun Toon Countdown 2011 #4! Yay!

Before we continue with the pulse  pounding countdown of the Top Five Bun Toons (and the Five No One Loved) of 2011 ,  let’s take a moment to salute the living legend himself, true believers, on this, his 89th birthday…..STAN LEE!

Stan Lee, pictured here in a moment of confusion, attempting to grab Robert Downey's man-boobs.

Stan Lee needs no introduction:  He created Batman, King Arthur and James Bond, as well as writing the original plot for Gilgamesh.  As curator of the Hobo Art Museum in San Francisco, Lee helped introduce America to the great whittlers of the 20th Century, and as a philanthropist, Stan Lee  established the first School for Bombast, on the campus of Yale University in 1973.

Stan Lee, in a moment of confusion, attempting to grab Hugh Jackman's man-boobs

Stan Lee’s famous nickname “The Man” has inspired others in the comics biz to adopt a similar nomenclature in tribute, including artist Steve Rude “the Dude”, writer/artist Ty “the Guy” Templeton, and letterer Emma “Not a Fella” Campanella.   Famous baseball player Stan The Man Musial was so inspired, he began using the nickname long before before Stan Lee did.

Always willing to adapt to the times, Stan Lee attempts to grab this lady's girl-boobs.

Ahh, enough of the silly… I kid around with the boobie grabbing and the whittling museum, but it’s all done with buckets of love.  Without Stan, there’s a vast wasteland of Richie Rich digests and Lois Lane Annuals and that’s the comix biz.   But Stan gave us Spider-Man and the Hulk and The Fantastic Four and so many others that no one could count ’em all up without a handbook.  He reached into the hearts of kids and adults on every continent, probably everywhere that civilization exists, and spread out little pulp paper bits of joy that changed the world, and every last one of us working in the field wish we could grow up to BE him.

Happy 89th Birthday, Living Legend!   You’re a real life hero to all of us.

I'm pretty sure he's rubbing this guy's nipple.

NOW BACK TO THE 2011 COUNTDOWN!   First a TOP FIVE BUN TOON-

By one of those cosmic coincidences that only the Watcher truly understands, the Number #4 Bun Toon on the 2011 hit parade features none other than the Birthday Boy himself.   It comes from February, and it asked the most magical “What if…?” of all.

Clearly, making fun of American comic books does fairly well on this blog, getting thousands and thousands of hits.  Making fun of Belgian comics has a different result.  When you consider the huge hoards of Belgians roaming the internet looking for suitable comic-based entertainment, the Bun Toon below should have done better.  But well…c’est la vie.

Maybe people were thrown by the French, who knows?  As the saying goes in Paris, “Il fait froid ce matin, et ma auto ne marche pas”.  Now that Tintin is a huge movie star, perhaps this toon will get some attention.   Maybe then, I’ll be as big as Stan Lee.

A boy can dream.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Come back tomorrow for the strangest Bun Toons of all….

Click here to be taken to the complete and utter history of Bun Toons online, since 2010!

And…don’t forget, today is the day that the legendary banned Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1 sees print. Okay, it saw print when it first came out. In Ireland. Everywhere else it got pulped. And okay Kyle Baker’s story (the reason for the ban) has been printed and reprinted and then a couple times after that. But yayy!! Now ALL the pages are in print and there’s a few drawn by Ty Templeton.

Get it today at your Local Comics Store!!

Asterix and Tintin Bun Toons. YAY!

Et maitenant, les toons de bun!

Bun Toons presents the greatest Belgian team-up since that Jean Claude Van Damme movie where he played his own evil twin brother…It’s

Oh, those irrepressible French barbarians!

Back to the drawing table or they don’t feed me and the wife and kids.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your Asterix Comic Book Moment:

Yup, it’s real.  Asterix and Obelix guest starred in Action #579

————————————————————————————

CLICK HERE or on the IMAGE ABOVE for LAST WEEK’S BUN TOON.

We hit the moon. Metaphorically, of course.

Let's fall in love. Why shouldn't we?

It’s about a quarter of a million miles to the moon (it’s exactly 221,463 miles if you’re being a dick about it).  I remember that number from when I was a kid and people were driving and golfing on our heavenly neighbor all the time, so it was in the news.

Well, over the weekend, we had our quarter-millionth blog hit and we’re blushingly amused by it that.  The number made me think of the moon, so there’s your metaphor – if miles = blog hits.

Couldn't have done it without space cows and Hoverboy!

I’m not foolish enough to think it means we’ve had a quarter million readers.  I’m aware it’s a few thousand who’ve come back a couple of times, and a few thousand more who had enough after one visit…and it took months and months of that sort of traffic to build the number- but it’s still a fun milestone to pass, especially when one considers I’ve fruitlessly wasted that many man-hours of other people’s potential productivity with my frothy bon-mots.   I’m just doing my part to slow the economy and contribute to the complete breakdown of our system.

 

Above: The Ty-bunny of Anarchy in one of my many other guises. TRY to be a productive member of society after you've fallen into its distractingly seductive gaze...

Milestones matter.   It’s like suddenly realizing you’ve had your tenth child, or spent your twenty-fifth year behind bars.  I’ll never forget those days either.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your  Comic Book Moon Moment:

This masterpiece was one of the first comics I ever saw. Take that, people whose first comic book had Dazzler in it.

Wizard World Toronto, a little convention art, and the GREATEST CON SKETCH OF ALL TIME!

Uncle Ty's Convention Sketches. Ready in just FIVE MINUTES

I just got back from Wizard World Toronto, and boy, are my arms not tired.

Not because I live in Toronto (and the flight back wouldn’t affect my shoulders, get it?)  but because I spent the weekend, not sketching particularly much.  No more than thirty  sketches over a three day weekend, and at a big convention, I usually do fifty on the Saturday alone!   At first I

One of my less embarrassing con sketches of Kara Zor-el.

thought it was me…did I have a piece of meatloaf hanging off my face?  Did I wear my misanthropy on my sleeve too obviously, or was it the whiff of urine on my street clothes?

No, it was happening to almost everyone at Toronto Wizard Con, (other than Dale Keown and Richard Pace, who seemed to have a crowd around for a while on Saturday, and Adi Granov, who had a minor crowd on Friday).  The attendance was thin, and mostly wrestling fans there to see the Iron Sheik and his pals.  It’s always a bad sign when you start doing sketches for the other con guests or dealers because neither they, nor you, have anything else to do for the next ten minutes.

Too bad… The Wizard folks were nice to us.  LOVELY volunteers, good people…they set up my bootcamp lesson/con panel and promoted it (surprisingly well attended, thank you), and were handing out the water and smiles.   It was Wizard’s first big convention in Toronto, and I was rooting for them.  Let’s hope there’s a few tweaks

Fans love Batgirl. And a lot of fans like her bum. I do what I'm requested...

and fixes before next year rolls around, and the thing rivals San Diego in the future.

The low point came on Saturday when some douche-twerp couldn’t resist the demon on the shoulder telling him to pull a fire alarm.  It emptied out the convention center in the middle of Saturday afternoon—taking nearly an hour to sort out whether we were burning up in a fire, or doing the world’s biggest HOKEY POKEY.   Not everyone came back when it was over.   Hats off the perished souls of Wizard Con Toronto, 2010—you will be remembered.

Highlights include:   being seated next to Gail Simone and Her Mysterious Husband, with Dave Ross to my left, and Kent (Planet of the Apes) Burles to my right.  With things a tad slow, I got to hang with the legendary Gail Simone and Her Mysterious Husband, and  got to see Dave Ross’s new pencils for an amazing Star Wars comic he’s working on, and  laugh with the always

A very non-Adventures style Joker. Dig that crazy haircut.

charmingly French Canadian, Yanick Paquette, and drool over piles of just gorgeous AGENTS of ATLAS original art by my buddy Leonard Kirk.   Len is one of those illustrators I’m openly jealous of, partly because he does THE best convention sketches on the planet

The rule with me at a con is, you get the sketch for free, but it’s done in five minutes.  That way, everyone who wants one gets one, and I give back a little for the fans.  You guys deserve it.  But we artists rarely get to see our con sketches after we let you have ‘em.   About one out of ten, I pull one off that I wish I could hold onto…it captured just the right gleam in Joker’s eye, or the right gesture as Robin jumps off a building.  I sometimes ask if the fan could scan it for me and send me a copy when they get home, but after twenty years of doing this, I have less

Must...eat....brains...unless....there's....donuts....

than a dozen scans of con sketches to show you, and hardly the best of the best.

Zombie Homer is the only one from this year,  as I used to think my BONGO contract forbids sketching the Simpsons, but Ken Wheaton (fellow toiler in Springfield) informs me, I can doodle inside published Simpsons books, just not regular sketch books and on blank pieces of paper…  Ken had a PILE of copies of TREEHOUSE OF HORROR: DEAD MAN’S CHEST for people to buy, so I did more Simpsons doodles this weekend than anything else.

As promised, here’s my favorite con sketch of all time, and the recipient was lovely enough to send me one.

A once-in-a-lifetime-art team.

It was in Paris, and I was seated in between Bernie Wrightson, Neal Adams, and Scott Hampton.  A group of BATMAN artists were touring through Belgium, France and Switzerland and enjoying all the lovely sauces we got with every meal, when some Euro-fan asked if Mr. Wrightson minded inking

Another Paris sketch from '92, featuring Tintin and the original appearance of ELSEWORLDS T-SHIRT BATMAN, seen last month!

the Batman portrait/sketch I had just done for him.  Watching my meager sketch be inked by Bernie was mind blowing enough, but then watching Scott Hampton add those moody water colours, I came this close from stealing the image back for myself…I have the scan though, and I share it here with you guys…the word’s only Templeton/Wrightson/Hampton collaboration.

Neal Adams did not participate in the sketch, but I have something better from Neal…something I’ll show you guys in a future post.  I have to keep the suspense going SOMEHOW.

Ty the Guy

Oh, and PS:  This week, I’m promoting this new Simpsons collection, NOW ON SALE.  I’ve got a fun pin-up inside, and the rest of the book is okay too, I suppose, if you like hysterical comic books.

In hardcover. Kirby says: "Don't Ask! Just Buy It!"

Share: