Furious Fist of the Drunken Monkey #1Review by Christopher T. Peel
Published by Imperium Comics
Being a writer for a superhero spoof comic book myself I'm always on the look out for new humor titles. When I first saw this one it caught my eye but I put it back on the shelf thinking it was some kind of martial art spoof and no one makes fun of kung fu. What the hell was I thinking? I must have had malaria that day or something.
I finally picked up a copy a few weeks later only to realize that it had nothing to do with martial arts and that Rich Stahnke can bring the funny. The story starts with the drunken monkey himself, Chip, getting fired from his job at Wonderburger for offering a special item, not on the menu, to a customer with huge tracks of land. While Chip is walking home a UFO crash lands in front him. Chip finds a dying alien, named Lla-Mont, who is trying to warn him about the Warlords and about the power of his ring. Chip takes Lla-Mont's ring (sound familiar?) as he lays there saying "something about the power company." Chip's best friend, a talking toad named Al, accompanies him on his misadventures. Al, a scientist caught in a radioactive blast that put his brain into the body of a toad he was trying to save, is the brains behind the duo. After a rude awakening stolen from a scene in Happy Gilmore (some say stolen, I say homage) they stumble on the villainous Gene Gnome, a garden gnome with a penchant toward world domination, and his Homo-Animals, (yes, Homo-Animals) "the best of both man and beast" reeking havoc in downtown Bigg City.
During the m'lée the ring turns into a gauntlet giving Chip super-simian powers. And just when you think the day is saved, Peep-Peep, warlord of the Woo-Woo, shows up with what my dad would've called a mean on hungry. The art is nothing spectacular but fits well with the genre. It's Rich Stahnke's writing that really stands out. Furious Fist of the Drunken Monkey is originality blended with predictable tripe, the essential combination of any good spoof. Included in the book is some filler material consisting of three, equally funny, single-page stories and a background on the creation of the character. This book has it all from spoofs of Green Lantern, The Hulk, and The X-Men to obscure Simpsons references. And with villains like the Gene Gnome, and Peep-Peep, warlord of the Woo-Woo, this one has me eagerly awaiting the next installment.
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