Monkey vs. Robot
August 30th, 2002by James Kochalka
ISBN: 18918830155
Its got monkeys and robots in it, what’s not to like?
This book is a single story, not a collection of strips. lt has very few words in it, as these monkeys don’t actually talk and the robots have little to say. The story, such as it is, is a nature vs. industrial manufacturing kind of thing.
The visuals are fun, playful, and sucked me right in. (Okay, I’ll admit it: the monkeys were really cute. But they did remind me of that Get Fuzzy comic strip where Bucky says monkeys look delicious.) The book is square, and the panel convention is four to a page for a grid, but Kochalka plays with that a bit. I would say it is printed in straightforward black and white, but it isn’t, it is dark green and white. This worked well: the look wasn’t quite as stark as it would have been, and it was set in a jungle, after all. Kochalka’s drawing style is clean and bold; I liked how he used shadow and perspective.
Bottom line: light, entertaining, with cool monkeys.
