Galan and Giles

In 1998, a bunch of animators in New York got together during lunch breaks and evenings and decided that they were growing bored of drawing characters owned by Disney, Nickelodeon or MTV (the three big employers of young animators at that moment in NYC.) Our own Pat Giles was working on a web comic that he had just self-published with some college mates “The Big Problem With Marshall.” It seemed like everyone in the group had a similar project on their drawing table dying to see the light of day. Giles became a nagging catalyst for organizing all the frustrated ambition. The result was a breakthrough anthology of comics called “Monkeysuit.” It sold really well for an independent, selling out two print runs, and at a $9.95 cover price that was no small achievement. (We found some copies on sale on AMAZON) The reviews were raves, and it was the beginning of bigger things for the group.

One of the lead editorial voices on the book was Chris McCulloch (AKA Jackson Publick, although not known by this yet; McCulloch would go one to create “Venture Bros.” for Adult Swim). He was already an accomplished cartoonist, working on comics and storyboarding the TV Series “The Tick.” McCulloch convinced his friend and “Tick” creator Ben Edlund to contribute a story, marking a return to comics after a long hiatus. Bill Presing was a young kid in the group at the time, and blew everyone away with his comic “Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher,” which was co-created and written by another kid in the group Matt Peters. Not only would REX STEELE go on to be the subject of an Oscar winning animated short for best student film, Presing would end up at the Harvard for Animators, PIXAR. No slouch himself Matt Peters would go on to be a very sought after Storyboard artist, most recently working on Disney XD’s “AVENGERS” series and Adult Swim's "SUPERJAIL."

Another editor on the book, Miguel Martinez-Joffre, fresh off of directing the psychedelic segment of the “Beavis and Butthead” movie, contributed “Kamikaze Joe,” about a time traveling caveman pilot. He also created the iconic cover image of a man in a monkey suit holding a plunger, wearing fishnet stockings and a birthday hat. The character would become the symbol for what had become a small company, Monkeysuit Press.

Since it was 1998 and the internet was beginning to boom the team jumped in head first with a groundbreaking website. Mike Foran (Now an animation director for Saatchi & Saatchi) built a pioneering flash based website that attracted thousands of monthly visitors. Again, since this was a small press independent, the stats were impressive. Foran also contributed the stunningly illustrated and silently told “Rover.”

Rounding out the group were animation director and MTV Animation veteran Willy Hartland built bizarre comics on post it notes; the brilliant character designer for Disney’s DOUG and studious musician Jonathan Royce contributed the incredible “Keef and Bruno;” and last but certainly not least, Prentis Rollins created a poignant tale about racism. Rollins was the real comics veteran in the group, as an inker for the entire run of “Hardware,” he would go on to be one of Marvel and DC’s hottest inkers (Supergirl, JLA, X-MEN, Green Lantern Corps., among others)

Since the book went so well, and everyone was having fun, a couple of bucks were made (and no money was lost) a sequel was almost immediately plotted. More on that book in a later installment!