Reviewed by Brian Domingos

It's one of the most original books I've read. THE ADVENTURES OF SOCK MONKEY, that is. Rendered completely in black and white by award-winning creator Tony Millionaire, SOCK MONKEY follows the adventures of a stuffed chimp named Uncle Gabby and his friend, the faux crow, Mr. Crow. The two characters, completely aware of their artificial existence, rejoice in life, enjoying a good tea party and in Mr. Crow's case, a good slug of whiskey.

The trade offers the first two volumes of the series, four parts total, and has a few bonus strips at the end.

At first glance, it's hard to see what is so great about the book. The drawings look to be rather crude, but after taking a closer look, it's obvious how much time Millionaire puts into every panel. While Gabby and Crow aren't the most detailed figures, the attention to background structures is nearly unchallenged in comics today. Most of the stories take place in lavish homes and Millionaire doesn't skimp on the particulars. Every little detail is there, from shrubs, to the hundreds of thousands of shingles and bricks, to the specific wicker chairs at the tea party.

The stories themselves are very entertaining. We've got Gabby and Crow and their adventures in the castle hanging in the clouds (a beautiful, full size chandelier, in actuality); their trip to unite a shrunken head with his friends in Borneo; their mix-matching of a widowed mouse with a ravenous bat; and a meeting with one of those magical gnomes that live in house clocks.

The storytelling is dead on: perfect set-ups to jokes and clever quips exchanged between these two scurvy dogs. The dialogue is some of the wittiest I've read in a comic, and the characters have distinct personalities, from the over-curious Gabby, to the latently-alcoholic Crow. (The best part, too, was reading some of the voices with accents. Mr. Crow, for example, read great with a British accent. It really made it that much funnier.)

And though the language is smart, there's plenty of destruction for all those action fans. Gabby and Crow do leave quite a few messes in the wake of their fun.

I really can't think of any reason that you shouldn't read SOCK MONKEY. Great artwork, funny-as-hell stories and four issues for ten bucks. Does it get much better than that? No. It really doesn't.

Go get Tony Millionaire's THE ADVENTURES OF SOCK MONKEY.

Now.

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Brian Domingos regularly contributes to PopImage. He can be reached for comment at Bjdg2@aol.com.

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