Mall Monkeys is a webcomic about the “mall adventures” of a group of misfit teenagers.The first comic was published on the 18th of July 2002.
Mall Monkeys is always bizarre, and often wanders into the surreal. Mall Monkeys is, in my opinion, very funny. Note that the humour is often sexual and probably offensive to some. It is a daily full colour comic, and almost always has four square panels in this configuration:
1 2
3 4
The art has improved somewhat from the beginning, and now makes use of computer generated effects. Photographs are sometimes used in the the comic to create realistic effects. For instance, this was used to create a realistic fireball when the mall was blown up (which has happened at least twice).
Mall Monkeys was created by Eric Drobile, Keith Smith, and Rob Weyman. Eric, Keith, and Rob sometimes appear in the strip. They are usually seen plotting the scripts out or being insulted by other cast members. Eric does all of the drawing, and has written and one third to one half of the strips. Rob and Keith wrote the rest.
The cast is:
- Akira - Looks like Kaneda from the movie Akira. He is the Mall’s token Asian character, and is “always running around the mall enforcing ASIAN PRIDE”.
- Aldornia - A goth, with a genuine gothic name. Listens to Stabbing Westward and writes depressing poetry. Discovered the hard way that being a goth is not any defence against vampire attacks. Was first shown as having Tourette's syndrome, but this seems to have vanished.
- Brad - One of the most important characters, a phreak/punk. Friend to Raymond and boyfriend to Pink. Has 8 million Slipknot tags on his bookbag, and green hair with a randomly shaved patch in it. Worships Hot Topic
- Chad - Minor character. An inefficient drug dealer.
- Fakeem - Token black character. Supports the East Side. His catchphrase is “blacktastic”.
- Filbton - Fat, bald geek. Listens to the Final Fantasy soundtracks. He likes Akira, just because he is Asian. Plays his Gameboy Advance continuously.
- Jamerz - The AOL luser. She talks only in chatroom abbreviations. Wears a pink AOL t-shirt all the time.
- Jasmin - Token Indian character. Works as a “Data Collection Specialist (aka annoying survey chick)” to pay off her debts to Harvard. Gets no respect.
- Katie - McDonalds employee. Hates her life and everything else apart from the mall. Once committed suicide by choking herself to death on Bulbasaur Happy Meal toys. She has since been seen alive.
- Lester - Compulsive thief. “He's really a nice guy, until he maxes out your credit card”.
- Mikey - Wannabe skater. The brother of Nicholai.
- Missy - Mall slut. She is on a mission to have sex with all men. Also works at Pacific Sunwear.
- Mitch - Lame Hot Topic raver.
- Nicholai - World class skater, and the coolest guy on Earth. Mikey’s older brother. Tony Hawk has 11 restraining orders on him.
- Pink - Phreak. Brad’s girlfriend. Sometimes said to be a descendant of Quasimodo, but she is a very nice girl. Unless you ask about her anchor tattoo.
- Raymond - Phreak, and generally nice guy. Friend to all Mall Monkeys, especially phellow phreak Brad. Is emo when Lester steals his trench coat.
- Sarge - Mallficer. Doesn’t take his job seriously (would you?). Spends his time chasing hot women in the mall and hassling phreaks and other misfits.
- Tom - Dangerously stupid, sexually confused, jock who is lost in the mall.
- The Triplets - Three nearly identical trendies. They wander the mall looking for people less fashionable then them (i.e. everyone) to mock. They seek to attain total style.
Mall Monkeys achieves a rating of 4/5 on 256's Webcomic Rating System
Mall Monkeys can be found at:
http://mallmonkeys.com/
Update: Mall Monkeys has now ended and is currently offline - 2004 February 18.