Monkey & Bird
Enthusiastic!
Joe William’s has proven to be possibly the most enthusiastic creator allowing us to present his work here on CO2 Comics. He has taken it upon himself to comment on many blog entries here and on CO2’s facebook page as well as his own website and social networking sites.
Now he also has his wonderful wife Tina in on the act. Joe is getting the most out of being part of CO2 Comics. He once mentioned that his site was experiencing so much heavier traffic since being involved with CO2 that he redesigned it just to get more value from the newly generated visitors.
Recently Bill Cucinotta asked Joe to send me a few notes about his Monkey & Bird strip that will debut on CO2 today and the following was what he delivered:
“Gerry,
Bill suggested I give you some kind of foreword for the strip.
I made some notes. Feel free to whittle them down to something comprehensible.
Meanwhile back in the jungle… Once upon a time, when you walked into your local drugstore or newsstand, you could find a variety of comics in the spinning racks. War, Western, horror, funny animal and great literature adapted to the comic format shared space with the costumed crime-fighters of which we’re all familiar thanks to the movies based on them. Sadly, the other genres have faded from the comics business just as the spinning racks vanished from the drugstores.
Monkey & Bird is Joe Williams and Tina Garceau’s attempt to mix funny animal comics with romance comics. No, it’s not what you think. Besides, that sort of thing is illegal in some States. The characters started life as a greeting card Joe made for Tina for their second wedding anniversary. Joe bounced ideas for a continuing adventure off of Tina and the characters took on a life of their own. Notes were made; sketches were sketched and roughly a decade later the comic is making its world premier at CO2 Comics! It was either that or Joe was going to make sock puppet versions of the characters and annoy children in the park with them. (I’m going to put the card up at Willceau Illo News tomorrow. I’ll send a link.) Joe supplies the script, pencils and inks for Monkey & Bird while Tina devises the color schemes and tells Joe what isn’t funny. Monkey & Bird is the story of Mickey the Monkey and Sylvia the Bird, their lives and love in the jungle.
Thanks Gerry.
-Joe”
The next day I received this link: http://willceau.com/news/?p=261,
Hey there’s nothing left for me to do but sit back and enjoy! Except… I truly have to introduce an unsung hero amongst our ranks who until now has not received credit for stellar work.
Tina Garceau!
Mickey & Sylvia
All this time Tina has been responsible for the fantastic colors that have illuminated the comics attributed solely to Joe. Check them out on Deadline and Hot Topics. Not only will she now get credit, she will have her own creator marquee on our Creators Page where it will note that she will also provide the colors for Monkey and Bird. Tina also holds the distinction of being the first woman creator who’s work graces these web pages on CO2 Comics.
Someone call Guinness!
We are excited to find that women creators are making a dynamic impact on the current comic scene both in print and on the web. Hopefully CO2 Comics will be a place for readers to find more works by women as part of our intent to promote diversity in the comics we present regarding content, style, perspective and of course the individuality of the creators involved.
Thanks Joe and Tina for playing with us here at CO2.
We are looking forward to lots of love for and from your work!
Gerry G.
