Monkey Squad One #5. Pages 4 & 5.

I'm pretty sure this is the most nerd-culture references I have ever done in such a concentrated area. So many references that I give you...

The Page 4 Reference Reference Breakdown!

Panel 1: Stephen Hawking.

Panel 2: Doc Emmett Brown.

Panel 3: The Costco from Idiocracy

Panel 4: The Cosmic Treadmill in the Flash Museum 

And then as the mini-comic review site OpticalSloth.com put it, "Things devolve a bit into a Star Wars parody from there" (read the whole review here: http://www.opticalsloth.com/?p=17233)

That brings us to the introduction of A.U.N.T..

We met A.U.N.T. Brandy way back in Issue #2 (if you wanna see it: http://www.monkeysquadone.com/2011/12/monkey-squad-one-2-pages-2-3.html) and I've commented before that I made all women in my real life villains in my comic. This shit right here does not help my situation.

My real life Aunt Stacy is my mom's younger sister. She was once married to the real life Uncle Travis that the MS1 character U.N.C.L.E. Travis is based on.

"Aunt JuJu"  is what my nephews and nieces called my big sister Julie when they were babies. A.U.N.T. JuJu is based on Julie (who is real life Brendan's mom).

My other big sister Tabitha (real life Connor, Logan, Olivia and Madelyn's mom) was always called "Tab" and later "Tabba". When she was pregnant from 1999- 2007 I started calling her "Tabba the Hutt" and I thought it was hilarious to have her be an actual Hutt in the comic.

But I guess some people are over Star Wars gags.

A.U.N.T. Brandy had a hair & costume update since the last time we saw her. Goggles, 2 belts and Taskmaster boots? Yeah, buddy.

Page 5 also marks the first time I drew cleavage in the entire series.

Boobies rule.

NEXT WEEK: Guess who's in the pit?

Thanks for reading!

Monkey Squad One #5. Pages 2 & 3.

I'm kinda in a hurry tonight, kids.

Gonna try & make it quick...

This issue was my 1st attempt at a running monologue. It's not my favorite thing ever but there's a couple of peanuts in this poop.

U.N.C.L.E. Doug makes reference to N.E.P.H.E.W., which WILL come up later, a sneaksuit [like in Metal Gear Solid] and credits himself with the "Cloverfield incident" which is a reference to that awesome movie.

The title of the issue, "Welcome To The Monkey House" is the name of a Kurt Vonnegut short story collection. That's my BOY right there.

And now, it's my pleasure to unveil the finished cover to the upcoming Monkey Squad One #10!!!!!!!

Fuck yeah, it's awesome! I'm glad you think so too!!!

Monkey Squad One #5. Cover, P.I.P., Page 1.

ISSUE #5, Y'ALL!

Pretty excited to be posting this era of MS1. 

I'm not nearly as embarrassed of this art as I was at the previous issues.

I was happy to be through my first story-arc and dedicated to getting to a zombie-arc, but I had a few loose ends from the 1st 4 issues to tie up. I decided on a 2 part story-arc because some of my favorite comic stories are 2 parters and I wanted to give it a try.

 The cover was a last minute addition. Originally, I intended to use the back cover as the cover (it's the background of this blog at the time I posted this) but I pussed-out in the end because it was non-traditional and I thought it would confuse "readers".

Which is even funnier now, because these days, I'll do whatever the fuck I want in MS1 because it's mine and I'm a fucking genius.

Lemme wrap this up:

Yeah, that's a Superman II gag.

General Starr is played by my dad, Doug Michel. I'm a Junior.

U.N.C.L.E. Travis is still a dick.

NEXT WEEK!

Issue #5 continues with more headbutting than ever before!

TO READ THE ENTIRE ISSUE:
Scroll down and click "newer post" & you'll get to the next page!

Monkey Squad One #4. Bonus Features.

CONCEPT ART & STORYBOARDS!

 This was my first attempt at the new costumes that debuted in Issue #3. They're pretty much identical to the costumes I went with. I guess this isn't really an Issue #4 Special Feature but gimmie a fuckin' break.

Page 8 storyboards. The dialogue is different in both panels than what ended up in the issue. I had plenty of better examples of that kind of stuff but the scanner didn't want to have anything to do with my faded sketches from 2 years ago.

DELETED SCENE!

From left to right: Logan, Connor, Brendan.

Circa Christmas 2009.

 In Monkey Squad One #4, the team travels to several alternate Earths. When I was writing this issue I wrote a scene that would involve sticking word balloons on the above pictures (and some others I can't find) and call it "Real-Life Earth."

Kind of like Bendis did in JINX.

 I soon found out that producing a scene like that was far beyond my skill level and abandoned that shit for more poop jokes.

If any of my nephews knew that I put the above pictures on the internet, they'd be totally embarrassed. So, to make up for it, here's some more recent pictures of:

Brendan                                           Connor                                                 Logan

 ALTERNATE ENDING!

This was the original last page of Issue #4. It lacked all kinds of drama.

The 2nd attempt was better all around.

Also, the Next Issue box touts "The Search For U.N.C.L.E. Doug" which was changed to the much snappier "Family First"

Snappier than a motherfucker.

The gray color on the page is from when I first tried the markers I started using in 2011. I wanted to see how they worked on my art but didn't want to risk anything I'd use. So, fortunately for all of us, I never throw anything away...  

 COMING SOON!

Fuck Yeah I drew that!

The world of self -published, super-hero mini-comics is about to get it's asshole punched right in the face when Monkey Squad One #10 is finished in July 2012!

If you don't email me at monkeysquadmailbox@gmail.com for your very own copy, you're fucking up.

NEXT WEEK!

MONKEY SQUAD ONE #5 BEGINS!