Inspiration is a lot like lightning. It can strike randomly, it hits you hard, and when it does, it’s pretty electrifying. Well, inspiration struck Gavin McCumiskey when he was listening to a radio interview with William Sliney. It didn’t take long until he had the idea to start Green Monkey Comics, an up-and-coming independent publisher coming out of Ireland. Paired with the support of his wife, Jill, and a team of seriously talented artists, Mr. McCumiskey and GMC (Green Monkey Comics) have already shown great potential with their first release: Innocent Tales #1. (Read the FTN review here!)
On a personal note of opinion, Innocent Tales is definitely an ambitious project, but it accomplished two things for me. For one thing, I can’t wait to see Gavin write out bigger stories with multi-faceted characters and development; and secondly, he has some really talented artists working for him. Innocent Tales is a book done completely in black and white, which I’m usually not a huge fan of, but with this team of artists, IT (Innocent Tales) pulls it off beautifully.
Anthony O’Neill is an amazingly talented artist that worked on IT’s first short story, Saviour. It’s a tale about a boy living in an abusive home with a tragic past haunting him every day. While the story left me wanting something bigger (which is NOT a bad thing), the art in it was nothing short of incredible. O’Neill has worked for Abandoned Comics, Uproar Comics, and has even worked with Mark Millar! He’s definitely set the bar high for himself with Saviour, and I’m excited to see where he goes from here. A portal to O’Neill’s work can be found here.
Ger Hankey is the man behind the art on Innocent Tales’ Monkfight. It’s an anti-coming of age tale about a young fighter journeying to challenge and defeat the Kung-fu Grandmaster. Again, I would LOVE to see this story panned out into something much bigger. With the skills of an artist like Hankey, I feel like a tale of the trials and tribulations of our young warrior in his journey to become the best. Ger’s work can be found here.
Steven Richards drew the third short, Homeless. At first, the abstract nature of the art in this book wasn’t my favorite, but after a second read and a real glimpse at it, I began to really enjoy it. Steven has and is working on numerous books of his own, and I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us. You can find his work here.
Gavin McCumiskey and the team he has put together at GMC has me really excited. With the right amount of drive and vision, these guys are going to do amazing things, and with the addition of artist Ruairi Coleman, I’m pumped to see what Innocent Tales #2 (and beyond) is going to bring us. With a writer really coming into his own and a team of crack artists drawing his visions, McCumiskey and company have not only captured their lightning in a bottle, but they’re going to ride it to great success!
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
Nerd Comments