The Creators:
Bob Salley (Salvagers. Writer for Source Point Press)
Brian Hawkins (America’s Kingdom. Angelica Reigns: The Faith)
Chris Fenoglio (X-Files: Origins – IDW)
Daniel Farrand (Untold)
Ed Jimenez (Unit 44 – Alterna Comics)
HDE (Lou Scannon – Attic Studios. Salvagers – Source Point Press)
Hus Ozkan (Hellraiser: Beastiary – BOOM! Studios. Five Ghosts: ‘Sleepwalking’ – Image)
James Erik Hodson (Topps Star Wars Sketch Cards. Chad the Fat Kid)
James E. Roche (Wretches. IF Anthology – Alterna Comics)
Jose Jacaro (Grimm Fairy Tales – Zenescope. Outlaw Territory Vol. 2 – Image)
Josh Jensen (Snarl – Insane Comics)
Kelly Bender (Snarl – Insane Comics. Cyberforce: Artifacts – Top Cow)
Kriss Madd (Untold. Voda)
Kristoff Harris (Respite – Headshrinkers Press. Charl13)
Madeleine Holly-Rosing (Boston Metaphysical Society)
Nic Touris (The Fear Diaries – Alterna Comics. Franklin and Ghost – Rats & Crows Publishing)
Rob Andersin (WrittenSins.com. Jaxx the Andersin)
Russell Nohelty (Katrina Hates Dead Shit. Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter – Wannabe Press)
Stan Yak (The Boxmasters – Source Point Press. Skeleton Inspectors – SPB Comics)
Anthologies with large creator lists like this can be quite the undertaking, getting together three or four creators to make one book is one thing, but getting together nearly twenty indie creators to do eight stand alone stories for an anthology is a totally different story. Most of the time anthologies are already established artist teams at least and at best their already created stories that are pulled together for the anthology, however, The 4th Monkey isn’t like other anthologies. The 4th Monkey started as an idea; “each team will be creating a story about something that is near and dear to their hearts.” Every one of these creators have a vested interest in the stories that their telling and truly care about the issue they cover. These creators bring a passion for every topic covered and they truly want to make a difference. Part of the passion these creators show will be more than just the stories they tell it will also be shown at the end of each story where they highlight each issue with graphs and statistics as well as pointing the reader to ways they can help.
Topics of this anthology cover, suicide, poaching, politicization, bullying, betrayal, water pollution, Pesticides, and alcoholism. All heady topics and I’m willing to bet they strike a chord on one or more levels with most readers. I know I can relate to most, if not all of these issues presented, and at the least I can understand how they’re important to people. I truly feel that the great power that comes with being a comic book artist comes with great responsibility and The 4th Monkey is a prime example of the responsibility being taken serious.
4th Monkey is in production as we speak and the Kickstarter is live so go give it a look!
