Monty (comic strip)

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Monty
Monty
Author(s)	Jim Meddick
Website	http://www.comics.com/comics/monty/index.html
Current status / schedule	Running
Launch date	1985, as Robotman
Syndicate(s)	United Feature Syndicate
Genre(s)	Humor

Monty (formerly Robotman) is the title of an ongoing American comic strip created, written and illustrated by cartoonist Jim Meddick.

[edit] Robotman Comic

The comic strip began life as Robotman in 1985. It originally depicted the exploits of a small robot who believed he was an extraterrestrial visiting Earth, living with the ordinary "Milde" family. In the 1990s, Robotman left the Milde family and began living with a geeky inventor named Monty.

Robotman's origin was later retconned to having been designed and built by Monty and given false memories of being an alien.

[edit] Robotman's Evolution

Jim Meddick created Robotman for United Feature Syndicate around a toy character. The design of the character was already established and Meddick created the family setting and the other characters. As the strip progressed the design of Robotman changed considerably as Meddick's style evolved.

During contract negotiations, the syndicate approached Meddick with a request to change the name of the strip to Monty and to de-emphasize and remove the Robotman character from the strip. This was due to an ongoing difficulty in marketing the strip with the name Robotman. ^[1]

The Robotman character was gradually phased out of the strip through a farewell storyline and the series continued as Monty in April 2001. Robotman's farewell included a return to outer space to live with his love interest, a female robot.

[edit] Storylines

The comic strip spoofs suburbia, trashes tacky TV shows and offers absurdist commentary on everything from hosing down spider monkeys to the latest conspiracy theory. Monty Montahue, brainy, bumbling bachelor who's unlucky in work and love, is the star of the strip. Monty lampoons a wide range of topics.

Explains Meddick, "I've tried to create the comic strip equivalent of Monty Python's Flying Circus. The name 'Monty' is a nod to the influence that show had on my humor. In my cartoon just about anything can happen — this way, the ideas and characters always stay fresh."^[2]

[edit] Characters

• Monty Montahue is the protagonist and titular character. He is an odd, optimistic nerd who often comes up with strange inventions and works odd jobs. Monty was introduced to the Robotman strip in the 1990's. In 1996, it was revealed that Monty was brainwashed of his past life as a government scientist, when he invented Robotman. Monty is typically depicted as socially awkward, having poor dress skills and has a prominent nose but no chin. He takes on various (often very nerdy) hobbies and daily occupations, regularly failing because of a mix of goofiness and excessive self-confidence.

• Dave-7, formerly known as Mr. Pi, is an alien from Rigel and serves as Monty's straight man. Dave-7 lives with Monty. He is very logical and deeply involved in studying sciences such as quantum mechanics. There are occasionally ominous references to his race's plans to take over the earth. Nothing has, as yet, come of them. The closest they ever got was to the moon. Then Chimpy got his hands on Dave-7's fleet-command-device, thinking it was a videogame and annihilated the entire fleet.

• Fleshy, is a skinny and hairless housecat resembling the Pink Panther cartoon character. Fleshy is remarkable for his being the complete opposite of feline attitudes: he is goofy, fearful, unable to catch even the most innocuous of butterflies. He has a son, who was abducted (and then returned) by the same aliens that took Robotman.

• Moondog is the only true friend of Monty. He's a chronic beer drinker, and his house is one of the biggest centers of entropy in the world. He lives with a cynical parrot named Pilsner.

• Pilsner is Moondog's apparently intelligent parrot, but he still hasn't managed to understand that the other parrot he sees in the mirror is himself.

• Loco Ohno is Monty's on-again, (and currently) off-again girlfriend, a parody of Yoko Ono. She is cynical and artistic, very different from the optimistic and technology-minded Monty. She is a devoted feminist, often finding men being the root of evil.

• Chimpy is a talking chimpanzee. Chimpy constantly attempts to demonstrate his superiority to (or at least parity with) human intelligence and culture, but in fact is not particularly bright. Like using a circular saw as a hammer. He has appeared less frequently in recent strips.

• Gretchen is a coffee waitress whom Monty has a crush on. She, however, does not return the feelings to him. She's a friend and is currently single.

• Doc in April '07, a time traveler from the year 2525 came to visit earth, winding up living with Monty for a short period of time. Doc has a lack of understanding of today's modern world, and believes Monty and Moondog are 'savages.' When it was time for Doc to return home, his gear broke down, trapping him in this time. (Recently a representative of the time-travel organization appeared, reassuring Doc that he would be returned home shortly, although when the representative returned to the future, he accidentally wound up in the Paleozoic)

[edit] Books

Despite the strips' popularity, very few collections of Robotman or Monty comic strips have been published:

• Robotman Takes Off: 1986 by Topper Books. (Out of Print)
• Robotman: The Untold Story 1988 by Topper Books. (Out of Print)
• Cyberpunktrek: With Robotman and his Evil Twin Bruce 1990 by Topper Books. (Out of Print)
• Primary Crullers: A Robotman Book 1997 by Andrews McMeel Publishing. (Out of Print)
• The Prehistoric Robotman 2003 by Plan 9 Publishing.

[edit] Plot milestones

• Patrick Stewart, the actor who portrayed Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek, once tried to kidnap Fleshy. It appears Stewart was his former owner. Eventually Monty manages to take Fleshy back, thanks to his abilities in race walking.
• While attempting to emulate Spider-Man, Monty instead was bitten by a radioactive ladybug and became Ladybugman, whose superpowers include ladybug senses (the ability to sense when and where rainbows will form, which caterpillars are aggressive, when a leprechaun is lying, and when somebody is crabby and needs a nap), a hard shell, the ability to sew, the ability to instill guilt in others, the ability to flutter through the air, and the ability to emit a malodorous fluid ("Actually... he's always had that ability" - Dave-7).

[edit] Notable Spoofs

• A two-week spoof of Lord of the Rings: Monty's "Lord of the Thing".
• In March 2006, a two-week spoof of the television series Lost, where Monty found himself shipwrecked on the island. In this spoof, Monty discovers that the Others are actually the castaways from Gilligan's Island.^[3]
• Following a transporter accident, Robotman and Mr. Spock exchanged ears. This had to be rectified by the Vulcan Ear meld.
• After assuring Monty that he would be unaffected by the Y2k bug, Robotman became a Theodore Roosevelt-like character.

[edit] Other Cartoons Named Monty

• Monty was also the name of an earlier short-lived comic strip syndicated in 1983 and 1984 by Dave Cochran^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] References

• Strickler, Dave. Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index. Cambria, CA: Comics Access, 1995. ISBN 0-9700077-0-1.
• Unofficial Robotman & Monty Archive