Sky Ape is the title character of a

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

series. He is an ape who wears a jetpack and fights crime.

History

Sky Ape was created by boyhood friends from different neighborhoods in the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts area. Phil Amara and Michael Russo were from

East Boston East Boston, nicknamed Eastie, is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts annexed by the city of Boston in 1637. Neighboring communities include Winthrop, Revere, and Chelsea. It is separated from the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown and do ...

, while Tim McCarney was from

West Roxbury West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts bordered by Roslindale and Jamaica Plain to the northeast, the town of Brookline to the north, the cities and towns of Newton and Needham to the northwest and the town of Dedham to the ...

. They wanted to do a story about a gorilla with a jetpack that would rather do peoples taxes than fight crime. An artist search began, and eventually ended with

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

-native Richard Jenkins. Jenkins has been the artist and co-creator on the series from the first published page to the last (with guest artists Shannon Gallant and Paul Corrigan helping Jenkins for only one stint). The series was first published by

Slave Labor Graphics Slave Labor Graphics (SLG) is an independent American comic book publisher, well known for publishing darkly humorous, offbeat comics. Creators associated with SLG over the years include Evan Dorkin, Roman Dirge, Sarah Dyer, Woodrow Phoenix, Jhon ...

and publisher

Dan Vado Dan Vado (born September 9, 1959) Miller, John Jackson"Comics Industry Birthdays" , ''Comics Buyer's Guide'', June 10, 2005. Accessed February 1, 2011. is an American comic book publisher and writer, and a fixture of the independent comics communit ...

. The series lasted four issues under SLG (including a trade paperback edition). After languishing for several months without a publisher, Sky Ape was picked up by Larry Young and AiT/PlanetLar publishing. AiT first re-published the original SLG series is one squarebound collection with a cover design by graphic designer Amy Arendts. Next, in 2001, AiT published a second paperback entitled ''Sky Ape: Waiting for Crime''. In 2003, a third volume called ''Sky Ape: All the Heroes'' followed. The creators then became overworked with side projects and parted ways. They rejoined in 2005 for a final saddlestitched one-shot called ''Sky Ape: King of Girls''. Each Sky Ape comic has also included guest art by comic creators such as Alex Maleev, Craig Thompson, Pop Mhan, Mark Martin, Ben Stenbeck, Jack Pollock, Mark Schultz, Guy Davis, and many others.

Style

The humor in Sky Ape is reminiscent of the old Adam West

Batman (TV series) ''Batman'' is an American live action television series, based on the DC Comics character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Bruce Wayne / Batman and Burt Ward as Dick Grayson / Robin – two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City ...

and

The Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was conc ...

TV series. But the major influence is

Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became known ...

, as evidenced by the onslaught of nonsequiturs in the book. The series heavily uses media references as part of its gags. The collection garnered praise from Entertainment Weekly. Sky Ape has also become discussed on blog sites, using phrases like "Suck factor is high!" becoming somewhat of a minor mantra.MagicDog Blog on Sky Ape
/ref> The property is currently in development in Hollywood by Kickstart Entertainment as television animation.{{Citation needed, date=February 2007

Notes

External links

AIT/Planetlar Sky Ape Page

Animal superheroes Slave Labor Graphics titles AiT/Planet Lar titles Gorilla characters in comics Comics about animals Surreal comedy comics Humor comics 2001 comics debuts