Monkey vs. Robot

This is a painting I did a very long time ago. It’s based on this doodle that I did on a Post-It note while I was supposed to be having my brain and vocal chords stretched into taffy by a repetitive call center job. I still have the Post-It note after all these years – I keep it with my art supplies for inspiration. I remember being baffled at the time that anyone could get excited about what seemed to me to be crude, obvious, and derivative. But people got excited, and my (now ex) wife even egged me on to the point of making the painting.

I thought that the doodle was wholly derivative because it was pretty much based on James Kochalka’s “Monkey vs. Robot” song and comic book. I love the idea of comic books, but I don’t love comic books. The medium has so much potential, but for every artist like Dave McKean, Chris Ware, or Dave Cooper who realize they have the ability to create something that gives the language play of a novel, the design of a painting, and the motion of a movie, there are 10,000 more who want to draw Spider-Man punching Batman in the face while a woman with giant breasts poses beside them.

James Kochalka was one of the first comic book artists that really inspired me though. The first time I saw “Le mystère Picasso” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-ESf1hqisQ), I was blown away by the freedom of Picasso’s lines and the energy he poured into them. It was a defining moment for me – I finally realized that I didn’t have to try so hard to make something just so, that it was much more important to put expression into my lines than perfection. I had a similar experience when I found James Kochalka’s art – it’s crude, playful, simple, sometimes uneven...but it carries so much emotion and really feels like a raw extension of his brain. Sometimes it’s clearly for children, sometimes it’s clearly for adults, but the best stuff is somewhere in between. Fun trivia fact: Kochalka was recently named Vermont’s first Cartoonist Laureate.
The point of all this is that Chris Staros recently started following my art on Twitter. I don’t even really know how Twitter works (and for all I know he will read this and immediately un-follow me), but Chris Staros is the publisher of the alternative comic book company Top Shelf Productions. The company that published James Kochalka’s Monkey vs. Robot book. Seeing Staros’ name associated with my art in any way was a huge thrill for me, and a very small sign that I might be on the right track.