Monkey

Before there was Ecchan, I went through a number of different characters trying to come up with a good theme. One of my favorite concept characters before we came up with Ecchan was this monkey.

Monkey is a character I have been drawing ever since I was a little kid. In fact, I think the first monkey cartoon I ever did dates back to when I was in 5th or 6th grade, and he had a few precursors before then. He has evolved a little bit over the years, but the general look has stayed the same.

We ultimately decided not to go with Monkey and I went on to develop Ecchan, but before we went that route I wrote up two Monkey comics, which never got printed. They would never have seen the light of day if not for this blog, so I’m glad I can post them here and Monkey can get just a little bit of viewership.

Monkey #1

Panel 2:「ゴミ袋に名前を書くなんて・・・！　日本はおかしいよ！」
“Why do I have to write my name on the trash bags? Japan is strange…”
Panel 3:「確かに嫌だよねえ。でも、ちゃんと理由があるんだよ。」
“It really is a pain… but there’s actually a good reason for it.”
Panel 4:「それって、きっと変な理由なんじゃないの？」
“Well, it must be a pretty strange reason, right?”

Monkey #2

Panel 2: 「こんなに細かいんだろう？」「このゴミ箱１つじゃ足りないわね」
“Why are the trash rules so complicated?” “This one little trash can isn’t big enough.”
Panel 3:「このゴミ箱すてきだと思わない？」
“Don’t you think this trash can is nice?”
Panel 4:「買っていい？」日本のゴミ箱メーカーは儲かってるんだろうな。。。」
“Shall we buy it?” “Japanese trash can makers must be really do really well for themselves…”