Monkey Man 1

Photo of original Monkey Man (2013) front cover

***Monkey Man*** is the first comic issue in the series illustrated and written by Jonathan Martinez. *Monkey Man* was published by Jonathan Martinez and Willy Bros on September 2013. *Monkey Man* was the first comic to start Stage I. The sequel *Monkey Man 2: A Jungle Sequel* was later released between the years 2013 and 2014.

*Monkey Man* received two editions with the first edition being a renewed version of the original *Monkey Man* in 2017/2018. The second was a special colorized *5th Anniversary Edition* of the renewed version and it was released in 2018.

## Plot

Monkey Man and his partner/best friend Sherman, were assigned on a mission to an abandoned warehouse, there they encountered a robot with advanced technology. Fighting the robot resulted in the death of Sherman and the robot fleeing the scene. Monkey Man couldn't believe that he just witness the death of friend and soon after became very sadden.

Three weeks after the Sherman’s death, Monkey Man, a tiger called Tiger, escaped from one of Big City's zoos and caused damage to the city. Soon after his escape, Monkey Man put Tiger right back to his cage.

Three days later, Dr. Doodle attacked the city with his giant Lizard Bot mech. Monkey Man took action and destroyed the doctor’s robot. With Dr. Doodle arrested, Monkey Man was appointed the rank of Police Fighter by Sheriff.

## Development

Jonathan Martinez created *Monkey Man* in his school when he was in the third grade. *Monkey Man* has original characters, but it inspired by Dav Pilkey's, *Dog Man.*

### Style

Martinez decided to make the comic issue in an unique style with multiple tiny boxes using pencil.

### Willy Bros

Sometime in the middle of the creation of the comic, one of Jonathan's third grade peers, A wanted to supervise and distribute the project, creating the Willy Bros pact. Jonathan thought about distributing the comic to his class, but eventually denounced the idea and left the comic private. Jonathan finished the comic in about a day or two and showed it A, and he was very pleased by it.

Soon after, they agreed to make a sequel and Jonathan started working on it. On the back cover of the first issue, they was a confirmation of a release date on October 2nd.

## Characters

* Monkey Man
* Sherman
* Dr. Doodle
* Tiger
* Sheriff
* Truck Guy

## Editions

### Renewed Edition

Due to the disappearance of the original comic, a renewed edition was made. Luckily, the Jonathan had the original story memorized and started creating *Monkey Man: Renewed* in late 2017 and it was eventually released between late 2017 to early 2018. Several years later on May 27, 2022, Jonathan, rediscovered the original 2013 *Monkey Man* comic while searching through some boxes.

### 5th Anniversary Edition

Another edition of the comic was made for the series 5th anniversary. This edition was based on the renewd edition of *Monkey Man,* but it was colorized making it the first colorized issue in the series. The special comic issue was called the *Monkey Man:* *5th Anniversary Edition* and was released on September 2018.

### Changes

Jonathan knew the basic outline of the story but didn't remember every single detail. Both updated editions have the same changes for what happens in the story. Martinez states that all of the editions including the original and the updated editions of the comic are considered canon, and both tell the same story but from different points of views (just like how many ancient cultures such as the Native Americans passed down stories by oral tradition but there are a few differences in how much the stories have been passed down, but they don't change the overall narrative).

Original:

* Sherman and Monkey Man get injured by an explosion, eventually Sherman dies from his injures in a hospital
* Monkey Man's arms get replaced by Sherman's arms
* Sheriff has a different appearance
* Tiger has no stripes
* Truck Guy doesn't appear

Important story changes will be listed below

Updated:

* Sherman and Monkey Man fight a robot and only Monkey Man gets injured.
* Sherman gets killed by the robot's lazer
* Monkey Man is saddened by the death of Sherman
* Sheriff's appearance is changed
* Tiger has strips
* Truck Guy appears