Monkeys Might Puke #1

Posted: Wednesday, May 31, 2006
By: Steve Saville

Cover of Monkeys Might Puke #1 Creator(s): Dan Lester
Publishers: Self Published
From: UK
Price: £1(UK)

There lives in Leeds [England] a young man [Dan Lester] with a problem [monkeys].

I can only assume that this problem is the result of some past traumatic experience involving Dan and a monkey [or monkeys] but as far as I know Leeds is not famous for its wild or trauma inducing simians.

Whatever the reason Dan has seen fit to not only name his comic after our distant relatives but also have a first strip that culminates in a combination of BBQ sauce and monkey.

Monkeys Might Puke is basic in its presentation, a simply drawn Bruce Lee gag on the cover and another simply drawn gag featuring Daredevil on the back. Within is more of the same. The art is dominated by thin lines and caricatures that often nod towards Beavis and Butthead in appearance [the same could be sad about the subject matter].

Rudimentary art aside this collection of self contained and on-going strips does contain a fair swag of genuine laughs [for mature audiences that is]. Take the contemporary spoof on Jack and the Beanstalk for example; here the consumption of the magic beans by one of the two male characters induces a Viagra type reaction, so you should be able to guess what the "beanstalk" is. Later in the story Mrs Giant uses a passing space shuttle as a marital aid "Houston we have a problem."

As I said plenty of laughs for mature audiences.

The opening, and main, story is a Star Trek styled spoof titled Junkies in Space it is based around a space bound quest for drugs and has plenty of promise for future development.

In general though it is the single page and one-off strips that have the most impact. They tend to be sharper in focus and therefore more effective than the longer comics. The match flicking strip being a prime example of "sick" humour at its best whereas the final comic complete with talking owl lamp and main character who has a block of cheese for a head tends to wander a bit and lack the sharpness present elsewhere.

Overall this 24 pager is an unpretentious laugh. It is fairly grubby in a University capping stunt way rather than a grubby man in a dirty raincoat way, if you know what I mean. Harmless.

In a Word: Tree-swinging.



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