Monkey Squad One #9. Pages 5 & 6.

Page 5 was one of those pages where my plans were bigger than the page could accommodate.

There was supposed to be a panel that showed Monkey Force One attacking and dismantling the rocket in mid-air.

That shit ended up being really hard to draw.

So I rewrote the scene and looking at the page now, I can't believe I ever thought I could squeeze more in there.

Rich Powers has been a good friend of mine since the turn of the century. We both spent our 20's smoking weed behind the same grocery store & had a pretty good time doing it. When the idea struck to include "The Fraud" into this story-arc, I instantly knew there'd be a role for Rich.

So, essentially, page 6 is a page that includes comic-book versions of me & 3 of my best friends talking shit & dicking around in the zombie apocalypse.

Which, right there is every reason to make comics.

Northwest Plaza was a mall in St. Louis County where you could go to get shot at.

"I'm trying to use the phone" IS, in fact, stolen from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.

And "We're getting the band back together" is obviously from Tommy Chong in, Far Out Man.

NEXT WEEK!

THE BOYS SUIT UP!

Monkey Squad One #9. Pages 2, 3 & 4!

DUDE!

This is absolutely one of my favorite sequences in the entire series.

Regular readers know that you typically get 2 pages a week, but I couldn't split this sequence up!

The bit on page 3 where The Terrible Teenager says the stuff about how exposing yourself will change everything was totally thrown in after the art was all finished. The plan originally was for Dr. Metropolis to throw Monkey Force One into the air towards the incoming nuke with no explanation or commands at all. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that this sequence DID change everything. Dr. Metropolis has super-strength. How he got his power(s)(?) remains to be seen.

Mainly because I haven't figured it out yet.

The line about making it up as you go along was significant to me because in this issue, more than ever, I was writing new & better dialogue on the page as opposed to just using what I had written in the script. I'm pretty sure that this was the issue that I started writing much looser scripts as far as dialogue is concerned.

I'll probably mention that at least once an issue from here on out because I do it more every issue.

Right now I'm wrapping up the Annual #2 & I'd say I made up 90% of the dialogue on the spot!

NEXT WEEK!

RICH POWERS!

Monkey Squad One #9. Cover, P.I.P. & Page 1.

Dude! Issue Nine!

This issue is, as it is said, "all gravy" in my opinion.

I did all the heavy lifting in #7 & #8 and this issue ended up being a ton of fun to make.

I finished this issue in April of 2012, about 6 months after I started this blog & a few months after I joined Twitter. Just to give you a frame of reference.

I remember having doubts about the cover image.

This was always my vision but I was worried that I was settling on my first idea, so I tried a bunch of different stuff before ending up back where I started.

I did the thing where I trusted my comic instincts!

It's one of my favorite MS1 covers!

NEXT WEEK!

We find out who's had super powers the whole time!


To Read An Entire Issue:
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Monkey Squad One #8. Special Features.

This was the flier I made up for this issue. I have a Dawn Of The Dead movie poster in my living room & when I decided to do this zombie story, I knew I wanted to incorporate that image into this comic somewhere...

On a side note, this was my last flier.

I kinda lost interest.

So the following are the standard issue script pages I include in every Special Features segment. Starting with the cover and including the page where Logan gets bit.

As usual, the dialogue here is completely different than what ends up on the page. 

This is the first sketch I ever did of Cletus Whiteheart. I wasn't exactly sure what his role was going to be in the story and it looks like I was working out some plot points on the page.

It must have been early on in the script development for #7 because I remember losing Trik Eeze's diamond jet pretty early. I also think it's funny that I once again almost wrote a scene that included a newscast.

Because I hate newscasts in comics.

This is a picture of Cletus in real life.

Try not to look up his shorts

NEXT WEEK:

ISSUE NINE BEGINS!!!!