Why do comics authors like monkeys so much?

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Wed May 01, 2002 12:56 pm

There's a long history of comics that involve monkeys- especially talking monkeys. Why is this? Can anyone tell me?

Randy · Post by **Randy** » Wed May 01, 2002 1:11 pm

I think that monkey is a funny word! ::throws banana::

Charlton Heston · Post by **Charlton Heston** » Wed May 01, 2002 2:31 pm

DAMN TALKING MONKEYS!

GOD DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

Dr. Zaius is a sissy.

Randy · Post by **Randy** » Wed May 01, 2002 3:03 pm

I want some Grape Ape!!! (wait, he isn't a monkey....)

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Wed May 01, 2002 3:18 pm

Ha! Charlton Heston rocks! To see his inner magic. click here.

Edited to change link. (Decided to add it into my digital image gallery.)

Randy · Post by **Randy** » Wed May 01, 2002 3:29 pm

It looks groovy Greg!

Fortunato · Post by **Fortunato** » Thu May 02, 2002 1:32 am

dude, that heston IS cool. Kinda makes me want to join the NRA.

Tim Mallos · Post by **Tim Mallos** » Thu May 02, 2002 9:53 am

Monkeys are fun to draw and veeeeery flexible. They hang from things. They swing, jump, lope, and have great expressive brow ridges. And they carry the world of human emotions much more easily than, say, a chicken.

Mostly, I think it's cuz they're fun to draw.

Tim

Post by **Scott McCloud** » Thu May 02, 2002 11:45 am

Funny thing is, I've gotten about six monkey-related suggestions. And not all from the same reader.

By the way, in case anyone is curious, there've been 2281 title suggestions so far!

Tailsteak · Post by **Tailsteak** » Thu May 02, 2002 11:50 am

So...uh... I guess you don't need any more then.

...I see.

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Thu May 02, 2002 12:07 pm

Well he said he's got 2281 suggestions. He didn't say he's got 2281 good suggestions...

Dr. Empirical · Post by **Dr. Empirical** » Thu May 02, 2002 12:39 pm

...by adding monkeys! Well, except porn. Maybe.

Just last week I was watching videos of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet- an old TV show from the '50s based on the Heinlein novel. In one episode. a chimp got loose in the spacecraft and started monkeying with the controls.

It was the best episode I ever saw!

Rip Tanion · Post by **Rip Tanion** » Thu May 02, 2002 4:11 pm

Fortunato wrote:dude, that heston IS cool. Kinda makes me want to join the NRA.

Charlton Heston wants everyone to be able to carry a fire arm...with the exception of gorillas on horseback.

Post by **Scott McCloud** » Thu May 02, 2002 4:27 pm

So...uh... I guess you don't need any more then.

...I see.

Hell, no! Bring 'em on! The more the merrier. I'm just getting started.

(And like Greg says, they're not all good suggestions, by a long-shot.)

Nathan P. · Post by **Nathan P.** » Thu May 02, 2002 8:58 pm

I know that not all of my few suggestions are any good(if any), but I'm glad to have the opportunity of making a suggestion. By the way, monkeys are great for comics. The work of Frank Cho is proof.

Jack Masters · Post by **Jack Masters** » Fri May 03, 2002 12:29 pm

I prefer penguins, personally. They're more minimalist, and they change posture less from scene to scene.

Rip Tanion · Post by **Rip Tanion** » Fri May 03, 2002 3:21 pm

I think comics strip artists love monkeys, for the same reason we all do; because, after all , we are all just hairless apes.

In my case especially. My friends tell me that I'm built like a gibbon. Maybe that was why I liked always going to the Primate House (second only to the House of Darkness) at the zoo. I was, as the old joke about going to the zoo goes, indeed, visiting my relatives.

Speaking of monkeys, am I the only one who has these, for lack of a better term, "primate dreams"? You know the dream, when you're running for the bus, or running for your life, and your arms reach down to the ground and aid in your locomotion, making you run faster.

MSUSpar10 · Post by **MSUSpar10** » Fri May 03, 2002 3:28 pm

Scott McCloud wrote:By the way, in case anyone is curious, there've been 2281 title suggestions so far!

Now I feel really bad. About 2000 of them are mine and still not one picked.

nihon · Post by **nihon** » Fri May 03, 2002 3:52 pm

Rip Tanion wrote: Speaking of monkeys, am I the only one who has these, for lack of a better term, "primate dreams"? You know the dream, when you're running for the bus, or running for your life, and your arms reach down to the ground and aid in your locomotion, making you run faster.

A friend of mine told me about these dreams of his.
My recurrent one instead is of lifting from ground with a little concentration. How would you call this?
GG

Alexander D. · Post by **Alexander D.** » Fri May 03, 2002 4:59 pm

Rip Tanion wrote:Speaking of monkeys, am I the only one who has these, for lack of a better term, "primate dreams"? You know the dream, when you're running for the bus, or running for your life, and your arms reach down to the ground and aid in your locomotion, making you run faster.

I had a sort of primate dream the other night. It took place in the remains of a human colony in a jungle on Mars, thousands of years in the future. Thousands of years earlier, humans had developed medical technology that made them nearly invulnerable. The problem was (as the narrator in my dream put it) when humans become invulnerable, there cease to be any evolutionary repurcussions for stupidity. So, from the moment of that last medical advance, humans quickly devolved to a sub-ape intellect. The rest of the dream consisted of watching a really goofy looking ape woman bumble around an abandoned warehouse, while being chased by a sabretooth tiger, which was endlessly frustrated by its inability to harm her.

It just ocurred to me what an amazingly cool bad comic that dream would make. I think I need to work on a script based on this idea.

Rip Tanion · Post by **Rip Tanion** » Mon May 06, 2002 1:27 am

Alexander D. wrote:The problem was (as the narrator in my dream put it)

You have narrators in your dreams? That's cool. Dude, you're crazier than I am.

rgdoucette · Post by **rgdoucette** » Wed May 08, 2002 4:55 pm

The folks at DC comics discovered that the sales jumped whenever there was a monkey or an ape on the cover. Soon, primates were so common that they had to start restricting them to one a month. True story!

InkAddict · Post by **InkAddict** » Thu May 09, 2002 10:40 am

Rip Tanion wrote:

You have narrators in your dreams? That's cool. Dude, you're crazier than I am.

I actually get most of my ideas for longer stories from my dreams

It's a bit weird, but I remember clearly dreaming in "comics" when I was younger: they were like animated versions of the comics I was reading at the time, and I even remember fantasizing (sp.?) about Little Annie Fanny in the same manner(My Dad got an album from American friends while he was in college and gave it to me when he noticed I was getting interested in Comics). Trouble is, my L.A.F. dreams where as confused as the comics Kurtzman drew (Lotsa things goin' on in the background), so I never understood the whole picture.

One of my more structured dreams is now officially Public Domain by the way

http://www.zwol.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=479

matsya · Post by **matsya** » Sat May 11, 2002 7:05 pm

I think whoever said "monkey" is a funny word hit it on the head.

Other funny animal words: "chicken" and "bee".

Which would make a Giant Robot Chicken-Bee-Monkey the funniest (and coolest) of all.

I have monkeys in my comic, too. It's called <a href="http://www.renewal.org.au/scam">The Godlings.</a>

Zwol.org

Why do comics authors like monkeys so much?

Why do comics authors like monkeys so much?

I'm Hyper!!!!

Monkeys are fun....

Suggestions

There's no entertainment form that can't be improved...

Suggestions and Monkeys

Why Monkeys?

Oh Well

Re: Why Monkeys?

Re: Why Monkeys?

Re: Why Monkeys?

Why monkeys? Becasue they sell comics.