''Monkeyman and O'Brien'' is an American

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

creator-owned In the United States, creator ownership in comics is an arrangement in which the comic book creator retains full ownership of the material, regardless of whether the work is self-publishing, self-published or published by a corporate publisher. I ...

comics series created by artist Arthur Adams in 1993, which follows the adventures of Ann O'Brien, the daughter of a missing scientist, and Axwell Tiberius (the titular "Monkeyman", a super-intelligent

gorilla Gorillas are primarily herbivorous, terrestrial great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or five su ...

-like being from another dimension. The series was published from 1993 to 1999 by

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...

in various types of installments including short features in anthologies, backup stories in other series, a three issue

limited series In the field of comic books, and particularly in the United States, a limited series is a comics series with a predetermined number of issues. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is finite and determined ...

, a two issue crossover

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used i ...

(with the

WildStorm Wildstorm Productions (stylized as WildStorm) is an American comic book imprint. Originally founded as an independent company established by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi to publish through Image Comics, Wildstorm became a publishing imprint of DC C ...

team Gen¹³, published by

Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...

) and a

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

in the promotional newspaper '' Dark Horse Extra''. In 1997, a trade paperback collection of four issues (the three issue limited series and a special consisting of the '' Hellboy: Seed of Destruction'' backups) was published.

Publication history

Ann O'Brien was created by writer/artist

Art Adams Arthur Adams (born April 5, 1963) is an American comics artist, comic book artist and writer. He first broke into the American comic book industry with the 1985 Marvel Comics miniseries ''Longshot (Marvel Comics), Longshot''. His subsequent in ...

, who conceived of ''Monkeyman & O'Brien'' as series that would enable him to draw monsters similar to the classic movie monsters that he enjoyed in his youth, like

Godzilla is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', that debuted in the eponymous 1954 film, directed and co-written by Ishirō Honda. The character has since become an international pop culture icon, appearing in various media: 33 Japanese films p ...

King Kong King Kong, also referred to simply as Kong, is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. The character has since become an international pop culture icon,Erb, Cynthia, 1998, ''Tracking Kin ...

and the

Universal Monsters The Universal Monsters (also known as Universal Classic Monsters and Universal Studios Monsters) is a media franchise comprising various horror film series distributed by Universal Pictures. It consists of different horror creature characters o ...

.George Khoury and Eric Nolen-Weathington. ''Modern Masters Volume Six: Arthur Adams'', 2006, TwoMorrows Publishing.Cooke, Jon B
"The Art of Arthur Adams"
Reprinted from ''Comic Book Artist'' #17, November 15, 2001DeAngelo, Danny (November/December 1997). "Art Adams: King of the Monster Artists". ''G-Fan''. pp. 22 - 25. The series stars Ann O'Brien, the daughter of a missing scientist whom Adams named in tribute to

Fay Wray Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian-American actress best known for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film ''King Kong''. Through an acting career that spanned nearly six decades, Wray attained international r ...

's character, Ann Darrow, from ''

'' and that film's special effects creator

Willis O'Brien Willis Harold O'Brien (March 2, 1886 – November 8, 1962), known as Obie O'Brien, was an American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer, who according to ASIFA-Hollywood "was responsible for some of the best-known im ...

; and Axwell Tiberius (also known as "Monkeyman"), a super-intelligent

-like being that Adams conceived as "the Reed Richards of the gorilla world".George Khoury and Eric Nolen-Weathington. ''Modern Masters Volume Six: Arthur Adams'', 2006, TwoMorrows Publishing. The series debuted in ''

Dark Horse Presents ''Dark Horse Presents'' was a comic book published by Dark Horse Comics from 1986 in comics, 1986. Their first published series, it was their flagship title until its September 2000 in comics, 2000 cancellation. The second incarnation was publishe ...

'' #80 (December 1993) in a story titled "A Monkeyman & O'Brien Adventure: Tortorus". She next appeared in a backup story entitled "Who Are Monkeyman and O'Brien?" in

Mike Mignola Michael Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comic book writer best known for creating ''Hellboy'' for Dark Horse Comics, part of a Hellboy Universe, shared universe of titles including ''B.P.R.D.'', ''Abe Sapien'', ''Lobster Johns ...

's 1994 series '' Hellboy: Seed of Destruction''. The character made further appearances in several short stories in ''Dark Horse Presents'' (#100-5; #118–119), a three book

titled ''Monkeyman and O'Brien'' (1996), and a crossover miniseries '' Gen 13/Monkeyman and O'Brien'' (1998). The character's last published appearance was in 1999 in a comic strip in '' Dark Horse Extra'', a newspaper style comics fanzine. When the series opens, one of the experimental machines in O'Brien's lab is accidentally activated by Ann, teleported from another dimension Tiberius. The same accident also bathes Ann in a mysterious radiation which caused her grow to seven feet tall and endowed her with superhuman strength, endurance and speed. Axewell quickly became Ann's friend and the two went on to face numerous

Silver Age The Ages of Man are the historical stages of human existence according to Greek mythology and its subsequent interpretatio romana, Roman interpretation. Both Hesiod and Ovid offered accounts of the successive ages of humanity, which tend to pr ...

–style threats including the "Shrewmanoid" and the "Froglodytes". The duo also encountered the

super-team Gen¹³. In the last ''Monkeyman and O'Brien'' stories published to date, humorous situations arise between the pair such as O'Brien growing to colossal size after being hit by one of Monkeyman's experimental devices. Monkeyman's brother Nonny O'Brien also features in the series.

Villains

* Akiko Oki, O'Brien's friend and assistant. She shares the vast O'Brien estate, sets up appointments, and takes on any non-science- or law-related task that O'Brien assigns. Before the arrival of Tiberius she was O'Brien's closest companion, regularly joining her for workouts or sharing new clothes. * Shrewmanoid (First appearance: ''Babe 2'' #1

994 Year 994 ( CMXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * September 15 – Battle of the Orontes: Fatimid forces, under Turkish general Manjutakin (also the governor ...

, a mysterious handyman and lumberjack who encountered alien technology that transformed him into a giant, anthropomorphic shrew. The transformation left the Shrewmanoid with all of his intelligence, albeit deranged, and he moved swiftly to become a supervillain. He can command subterranean monsters to do his bidding but has exhibited no other special powers. The Shrewmanoid is convinced that he is a supremely evolved being: Indeed, he believed this even before his transformation. After he saw news reports of a San Francisco scientist transforming into a seven-foot-tall superhero he led an army of monsters to San Francisco to capture her. He failed and was sucked into another dimension, "The Negative Zone," where he fended for himself until Monkeyman and O'Brien arrived there on an exploratory mission. They rescued him in order to imprison him on Earth, but after the Shrewmanoid professed his love for O'Brien and she rejected him, he bit her and escaped. As of the last ''Monkeyman and O'Brien'' story the Shrewmanoid was still at large. He appeared again in John Byrne's 1994 ''Babe 2'' in which he unsuccessfully attempts to capture the titular amazonian hero. * Froglodytes (First appearance: ''Monkeyman and O'Brien'' #2

996 Year 996 ( CMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Japan * February - Chotoku Incident: Fujiwara no Korechika and Takaie shoot an arrow at Retired Emperor Kazan. * 2 March: Emperor ...

, a race of world-conquering, intelligent frogs. One of their ships was plotting an attack on Earth and scouring the planet for threats when they found Axewell Tiberius. They teleported him into their custody, but O'Brien arrived with him and the two of them sabotaged the Froglodytes' plan. As O'Brien distracted the creatures and mangled their control room, Tiberius sent a false alarm to the rest of the fleet, convincing them that the Earth was already under attack from giant insects. The Froglodytes fled after that message.

Cancelled adaptation

On January 1, 2000, it was revealed that producer

Jeff Kline Jeff Kline is an American film and television writer-producer and former television executive. He has been involved in more than 40 animated and live-action series and pilots, and he has received multiple Emmy nominations and wins. Early lif ...

was awaiting a pick-up order from the Fox Kids Network for a cel-animated ''Monkeyman and O'Brien'' series. While the production had gotten as far as scripting (with significant input from creator Art Adams), the show was ultimately never produced.

References

{{reflist

External links

''Monkeyman and O'Brien'' comic strip from ''Dark Horse Extra'' animated by Dark Horse for a website promotion in 2000.

Cover image of ''Darkhorse Presents'' #80 at darkhorse.com
Characters created by Art Adams Comics characters introduced in 1993 Dark Horse Comics titles Fictional scientists in comics Gorilla characters in comics