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Monkey vs Robot


The NZA

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monkeyrobot.jpg

 

This one's a really fun, rather short and seemingly childish tale of the struggle between nature & technology. The art is very simple & very fitting, and the tone...ill say this: youll finish it in less than 15 minutes, but re-read it a lot & want to share it. I look forward to picking up Monkey Vs Robot & The Crystal of Power, the next one. Here's some more hype on it, just wanted to get it out there.

 

An exciting action-packed rumble-in-the-jungle! ... A factory of self-replicating robots is stripping the jungle of its natural resources, threatening the territory of a colony of nearby monkeys. A series of encounters between the two groups quickly escalates into all out war. For all the book's humorous and charming appearance, beneath this entertaining veneer runs a stirring examination of the dual nature of existence, the dichotomy within the human mind, and our profound effect on the ecological environment. A modern day fable for adults and kids alike based on the age-old struggle between nature and technology. Definitely Kochalka's most significant and universally accessible work to date!

 

From Publishers Weekly

Cartoonist and musician Kochalka strikes again, this time with a very simply illustrated black and white pictorial narrative about a battle between a monkey community and a self-run robot factory encroaching on the monkeys' unspoiled forest domain. The robot factory seems to operate all by itself, spitting out parts that self-assembleAa robot fits itself with a newly minted head and declares, "The future is now," echoing years of Wired magazine headlines. The territorial but sensitive little monkeys spend their time making music and chasing butterflies until the waste material from the robot factory contaminates their forest playground. The robots are equally ticked off after finding monkey poop near the carcass of a robot comrade, done in by the outraged monkeys. In the end, the monkey/robot war destroys the factory and the forest, too. But interpreting Kochalka's witty, charming little fable as a social-political metaphor for the struggle between man (or monkey) and machine probably reads too much into itAnot to mention taking all the fun out of it.

 

$10.47 at Amazon with free shipping if your order's over $30

 

$15 from its label Top Shelf - get it free if you buy 2 other books from them; I recommend "Blankets"

 

Info on Blankets, one of Top Shelf's other really great indie books

 

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Hah..that's the one Gaiman mentioned in his review of "Blankets" (check this thread, might really be up your alley, man); never heard of it. I started watching Ebay auctions of Acme Novely Library, this one here goes for $20 but is that all the books of the series, and is it worth it? If youve got a chance, id love to see a thread on the Acme Novelty Library line, heard nothin but good bout that one.

But yeah, Monkey vs Robot is very enjoyable, check it out if you can.

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