Boom! Comics-On Tees Vol. 4 Is Here!

Here’s the back story for the next comics-on tees series, which we just released today. Comics-On Tees Vol. 4 Monkey Around was written by Chris Roberson with artwork by Mike Allred, Colleen Coover, Chris Samnee, and Francesco Francavilla. And you can always check out Vol. 1, 2, and 3 here! Buy your favorite for $24, or better yet, buy the whole series for $79.

Monkey Around Issue 1, Vol. 4 by Mike Allred
Front: We see a "mad scientist" type (lab coat, goggles) standing in front of a chalkboard on which three empty squares are drawn in a row, surrounded by formulae and notes. The scientist is facing the board and shouting with triumph that he has finally found the secret of the universe, and created a device capable of travelling to other layers of reality — comic books! In another balloon, he says something about the need to be careful, as any disruption or interference could lead to disaster! Behind him is a lab bench where a metal belt-like device is draped, and there is a lab monkey reaching up Curious-George-style to touch the belt.

Back: Same shot and point of view as the front, only here the scientist has turned around and is saying "Did you hear something?" and the monkey is now wearing the belt and has a crazy assortment of stuff on him: lipstick marks of a kiss on his cheek, some parts of a superhero costume (mask slung down around his neck, or a cape, or something like that), and in one hand maybe what looks like a toy train. The monkey is trying very hard not to look suspicious.

Monkey Around, Issue 2, Vol. 4 by Colleen Coover
Front: A scene that resembles the covers to old romance comics or an issue of Archie, with a guy in the foreground looking forlorn with his hand on his chin, a thought balloon over his head saying "She only had eyes for me, until HE came to town." In the background, we see a girl skipping along holding hands with the monkey, who is wearing a sweater vest or something equally twee (and, of course, wearing the belt).

Back: On the back, we see the monkey and the girl sitting at a malt shop table, drinking from the same glass with two straws, and outside the window behind them we see the guy looking anguished.

Monkey Around, Issue 3, Vol. 4 by Chris Samnee
Front: We see a superhero and his sidekick swinging over a cityscape on ropes, a caped crusader and his laughing daredevil of a sidekick. But instead of his costume being based on, let's say a "bat" for example, this superhero is monkey-themed. Like Adam West if he'd started in "Monkey-Man", instead. And his sidekick, dressed in coloful tights, cape, mask, and little pixie shoes, is the monkey from shirt 1.

Back: We see a millionaire playboy in ascot and smoking jacket, sitting in a chair in his sumptuous study. He's just looking up and reacting to the monkey that has come crashing through the window, and saying something like "That's it! I shall become... a MONKEY."

Monkey Around, Issue 4, Vol. 4 by Francesco Francavilla
Front: A scene that could be from a 50s monster comic or a Japanese kaiju flick, with a guy in the foreground shouting for people to run for their lives. In the middle ground we see people running in terror, and towering over it all is the monkey, here standing at least fifty feet tall.

Back: We see a guy with a pipe clutched between his teeth with his arms around a girl with a big bouffant hairdo, and an army general standing nearby, and the body of the monkey lying on the ground in the near distance, one hand hand over his stomach, the other on the ground holding a train, and piles of banana peels all around. There's a word balloon about how the monster seemed to calm down when he found that trainload of bananas, and seems to have eaten himself into a nap. But who is the REAL monster here, anyway, or something like that.