Since its inception MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN has captured the fancy of many comics fans -- fans who can't seem to wait much longer for this dynamic duo to explode from the pages of their own comic.
Now the wait is over! In July Dark Horse is releasing the all-new adventures of MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN, along with ART ADAMS' CREATURE FEATURES, a trade paperback reprinting all of Adams' classic monster comic material.
Michael Gilman caught up with Adams one morning for a discussion of these books and why there's been such a long wait between MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN stories.
Michael Gilman: You've got two projects coming out in July from Dark Horse, ART ADAMS' CREATURE FEATURES and the long-anticipated MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN.
Art Adams: That's right.
Gilman: In keeping with the spirit of things, let's start with
CREATURE FEATURES. What's happening here?
Adams: CREATURE FEATURES reprints my GODZILLA COLOR SPECIAL from... who knows how many years ago now... and THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON... also from some time ago. There will also be a four-page story that I did for NEGATIVE BURN, one of the ALAN MOORE'S SONGBOOKs where Alan Moore had written and actually taped a bunch of songs. That story is just his lyrics and a drawing of a monster that looks kind of like Godzilla smashing stuff. There are also two MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN 4-pagers that have also been printed elsewhere, so it's a big book of reprints and stuff.
Gilman: How big is this big book?
Adams: I believe it's a full 100 pages.
Gilman: Wow. That's a lot of featured creatures. Are you doing a new cover for it?
Adams: Yes, in fact that's what I'm working on right now. My editor, Lynn Adair, said, "Seeing as how it's called ART ADAMS' CREATURE FEATURES, you should be prominently featured on the cover."
Gilman: That certainly makes sense.
Adams: I guess it does, but I'm finding it's difficult to come up with a cover where I feel that I fit in. But I'll see what I can do.
Gilman: How did the two MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN stories work their way
into this volume?
Adams: Dark Horse and I were talking about what could go into CREATURE FEATURES and we decided the stories would fit right in. First, Monkeyman is pretty much inspired directly from King Kong -- not to mention Ann O'Brien. Some in the audience may be able to figure out where her name, Ann Darrow O'Brien, comes from. Second, the inspiration behind the stories is Marvel comic books from the late '50s and early '60s. So heck -- monsters are everywhere in the book and there were monsters in each of those little four-pagers, so it's CREATURE FEATURES. And hell! Monkeyman is a giant gorilla, so it all worked out.
Gilman: Where do these two MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN stories come from? Are they new?
Adams: No. One was originally printed in a Dark Horse SAN DIEGO COMICON COMIC and one was in a DARK HORSE TIP SHEET. They were both "try-outs" for MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN.
Gilman: Those were originally in black-and-white. Will they be colored?
Adams: Yes. Laura Allred -- my new colorist -- will be coloring them.
Gilman: How'd you strike upon this idea for MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN?
Adams: I got a call from Erik Larsen asking if I was interested in creating my own characters and making a comic book out of it. I told him I had never made up anything for myself so I didn't know if I could. Half an hour later I had MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN.
Gilman: How long ago was this?
Adams: Quite some time ago... about three or four years ago.
Gilman: That would have been about the time Image formed. Was this a casting call, so to speak?
Adams: Hmmm... could be... Anyway I'd done some stuff with Dark Horse and I was very happy working with the people there so I decided to stick with Dark Horse.
Gilman: For the benefit of those that may not know, what's the premise behind MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN?
Adams: Well, Monkeyman is a ten-foot tall scientific whiz from another dimension that has been pulled into Ann Darrow's world by some machine that her father -- who has disappeared mysteriously -- had created, and they have adventures and stuff. They fight monsters.
Gilman: We've seen the back-up stories in Mike Mignola's HELLBOY
series...
Adams:...and that's been collected as well.
Gilman: Right. Besides the two stories being reprinted in CREATURE FEATURES, is that all we've seen of these two?
Adams: No. There have been two other MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN short stories, both of which appeared in DARK HORSE PRESENTS; one in #80, a ten-page story, and the other in #100 (#5), which was eight pages in length.
Gilman: Any chance if these being reprinted sometime, somewhere?
Adams: Possibly. I need to do some more short stories first though.
Gilman: What happens in this new miniseries? How long is it?
Adams: It's a three-issue miniseries. I know that no one else understands it, but to make things easier on everyone it's being called a miniseries. It's not really a miniseries. It's a continuing series that I'm doing as fast as I can! [laughs] So the first three issues will be out and then there will be a couple months off and I hope the next two will be out.
Gilman: Is it going to be like other Dark Horse series where the first story-arc is numbered 1-3 and then the next story starts over with issue #1?
Adams: I don't want to do that. I prefer the idea that there will only ever be one issue #1 and the series will continue on from there. But I'll talk to my friends at Dark Horse and if they tell me that I couldn't be more crazy to do that then maybe we'll reconsider.
Gilman: So there's no clever subtitle.
Adams: No. And each issue is an individual issue. The first issue is "Attack of the Shrewmanoid", the second issue is "Invasion of the Frogladytes", the third issue is "Into the Terminus" where they go to another dimension... and fight monsters, strangely enough.
Gilman: The Shrewmanoid, huh? What's his deal?
Adams: I don't want to give away too much, but he's got a very high opinion of himself and he wants everyone else to share that.
Gilman: What's wrong with that?
Adams: He may be pushing it a little further than he ought to, but everyone has their problems.
Gilman: You have many rabid fans out there. Will there be more MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN?
Adams: I have plans for this thing to go on forever... and at the rate I'm doing it, it probably will go on forever. That should be, what... 5 more issues? [laughs]
Gilman: [laughs] So why's it taking so long? I know it's a sensitive topic, but I think it's important.
Adams: It's not! Well, I guess on some days it is, but I just don't know. I really have no idea. I have worked faster in the past -- a lot faster. It could have something to do with the fact that I'm still not that comfortable with writing for myself yet, although I think I'm getting better at it. And I'm inking myself. In the old days I would have been doing one job -- penciling -- where now I'm doing three. Excuses, excuses. I admit it; I'm just lazy.
Gilman: Any other details about MONKEYMAN & O'BRIEN's adventures you care to reveal?
Adams: Let's see... In "Invasion of the Frogladytes", they repel an invasion of sentient frog-people. That's kind of fun. Issue #3 will feature the return of the Shrewmanoid...
Gilman: You just can't keep a good villain down.
Adams: He's an awful lot of fun to draw.
Gilman: You seem to like drawing the big guys. Is he a big guy?
Adams: No, no. He's only two-and-a-half feet tall.
Gilman: Ah. A Napoleon Complex.
Adams: Mmm. Could be...
Gilman: Will we ever get to see Axewell Tiberius' home dimension?
Adams: It's not impossible. I have ideas for that, but that's something that will be in the distant future of the series. However Monkeyman's main opponent is a character called Gorilldozer, which is a severed gorilla head on a gigantic robot body. So there's one character from Monkeyman's homeworld. And I have ideas to bring others to Earth... but we'll see.
Gilman: In the first series there was Oniko, Ann O'Brien's evil sister. What's going on with her?
Adams: She'll be back in issue #4.
Gilman: If I remember correctly, she was a Japanese woman. Is she the adopted daughter of Professor O'Brien?
Adams: No, it turns out Professor O'Brien was about 65 when Ann was born. He's got something like a dozen daughters all over the world and they'll show up as time goes by.
Gilman: So he's one of those kind of guys!
Adams: No, not exactly. Unfortunately all of his wives or significant others have met with very tragic ends and he's vastly wealthy so all of his daughters are well taken care of. He's not a bad guy, things just never seem to work out for him.
Gilman: But his financial situation seems to work out just fine.
Adams: He's vastly wealthy and that explains why there's all kinds of cool things that I can make up without ever having to look for reference.
Gilman: [laughs] Well that is convenient. Are we ever going to see Professor O'Brien again?
Adams: I have plans for that, yes.
Gilman: It certainly sounds like you have all the bases covered. One last thing, revisiting an earlier point: people not in the know are curious as to whom Ann Darrow O'Brien is named after. Many people I know speculate it's Geof Darrow.
Adams: Not at all. That's what a lot of people think and it couldn't be more wrong. Geof is my friend and a swell guy but I did not name my character after him. Fay Wray's character in KING KONG was Ann Darrow and, of course, the animator of KING KONG was Willis O'Brien.
Gilman: That seems to straighten everything out.
Adams: That's me. I'm nothing if not thorough. Oh wait... Maybe that's not me. Never mind.