Mental Radio

Monkey Man swings from trees and wears a brightly colored costume similar to Spiderman (who served as the main inspiration for the character). It is difficult to recall more than a single issue of this hand drawn comic being produced (rendered in Dixon Ticonderoga no. 2). The cover remains burnt into my memory. Monkey Man, flatly drawn, sports tiny feet and knobby hands. He swings across the cover perhaps kicking at some unseen enemy. No words. No words yet. Monkey Man at the top of the cover. Maybe a title for that particular issue. No words for the hero or the villain.

Spiderman swung across the covers of his books. Therefore, Monkey Man must swing – and that is what monkeys do, right? – as well as he fights against his freakish opponents (modeled again on the villains from Marvel Comics – Dr. Octopus, The Vulture, The Lizard, Electro). Not much more can be said about this specific comic in that it is the product of a five year old mind. Which makes it primitive and saturated with the anxieties, fears, and substitutions upon which childhood depends.