Introducing Carlos Cabaleiro

This is one of the things I’ve been working on for awhile but with all the site hiccups it didn’t start until now.  I don’t art well.  I’ll skip all the self-deprecating jokes and just acknowledge that as a fact.  I do happen to know Carlos Cabaleiro who can art.  Now because I like to do things like pay my bills, feed my family, and other things like that I can’t hire someone full time to art for me.  Trust me, I sometimes day dream of that.  I’d be all like, “You!  Draw me Modok jumping rope!”  And then someone would ask if it was single or double Dutch.  Of course that should have been obvious by the way I asked the question so I’d have to yell and throw things at people’s heads.  Someone would cry, I'd apologize even though everyone involved knew I didn't mean it.  But eventually after my request I’d have art of Modok jumping rope.  Holy shit that went off the rails.

So anyway.  Once a week in addition to the day’s topic it will include art by Carlos.  At the bottom of that article will link to a ebay auction for the piece of art in question.  That way if you like the art we used that day, you can own it.  I get art.  You get art.  Carlos gets monies.  I think it works out well for everyone but I wanted to be completely transparent with what was happening and why.  As an example of things to come the image above can be found on ebay by clicking HERE.  We'll try to keep the images tied into what is going on that week.  If everyone is excited about Avengers, that's probably what picture is going up. 

Carlos is the artist for a creator owned comic A BULLET FOR YOU with writer R. Thomas Favino and the penciller/inker for CLOUDWRANGLER COMICS' MAJOR HOLMES and CAPTAIN WATSON.  Carlos is regular contributor for the top trading card companies: Topps (Star Wars), Upper Deck (Marvel) and Cryptozoic Entertainment (DC). His artwork has been featured on sets for Rittenhouse Archives, Breygent Marketing, and Pastime Cards.  He also has a website, www.carloscabaleiro.com.

The Hiatus

This took a few times to actually write.  I had to balance what I needed to say and how much information I really wanted to throw out into the open.  So That F’ing Monkey all but closed up in May of last year.  Even before that posts started skipping days.  That was a pretty big departure for me, considering I was posting something five days a week with almost no interruption.  So what happened?

Back in October of 2013 my mother was diagnosed with Leukemia.    She had already beat breast cancer and we were sure it would be a hard road, but this would be beaten too.  Obviously by the tone of this that didn’t happen and she passed about three weeks ago.  That’s a pretty significant period of time where I didn’t feel all that creative for large chunks of it.  I dreaded even simple things like telling people about a new song or new videogame coming out.  So the month I was going to take off stretched further and further out.

My mother was a huge part in shaping who I became.  She indulged every superhero and Star Wars obsession I had.  She bought me my first D&D boxed set and defended my hobby during the time when the general public was sure rolling funny dice would lead to Satanism.  She didn’t flinch the night I came home from my first Gwar show covered in fake blood.  Since the birth of my son I don’t think I have gone more than three days without talking to her.  I am very lucky to have an amazing group of friends and family in my life.

The good thing is I have lots of things stockpiled to talk about.  I fell off the Lego wagon big time during the hiatus, so expect to see a lot of that.  I finally gave up on weekly comics and switched fully to trades.  I was also in the middle of some cool changes to the site, that I have to work on getting running again.  There are a lot of cobwebs here for me to dust off.  That F’ing Monkey is back to regular updates, so I hope to see everyone again soon.

It's Quiet...too Quiet

Hey everyone.  I am still alive.  I know it's been a little while since I've updated.  That actually isn't changing any time soon either.  That F'ing Monkey is going on break until August 25th.  Things have slowed down on the site a lot since last November when I get things back on track I want to make sure I can keep a steady update schedule.  There is a lot of crazy life stuff going on behind the scenes, but that will get better in time.  If this break causes you to go into Ken O withdrawls you can still check me out on Twitter @FingMonkeyKenO. 

Incoming Holidays!!

We are quickly getting to the end of the year.  With that brings all the normal holiday craziness.  I’ll be rushing to finish everything I need to accomplish at my real job so I can take some time off.  Next week should be pretty normal but after that updates will get more sporadic.  After all I have to start getting things ready for Christmas, New Years, and All Swine’s Day.  If you’re new to the site, there will be more about our favorite holiday next week. 

I also wanted to thank anyone who commented here, sent emails, or texts about the family situation going on here.  Without going into too much detail; things are headed in a positive direction.  The situation is far from over but it’s better. 

I did end up downloading Starbound.  It’s a dangerous, dangerous game.  I’m pretty sure once it finished installing someone snuck into my house and knocked me unconscious.  When I came to hours had passed and my little monkey person was hanging out in the underground house I had built out of cobblestone blocks.  I can see myself losing a lot of time to this one.  I think I need to check out another planet though; my starting one is inhabited by extremely aggressive, fire-breathing birds. 

F’ing Updates

Halloween is right around the corner.  I’m sure there are tons of people frantically searching for that last minute Halloween costume.  Don’t look here; I’ve been planning my costume for months.  But there are some things going on that will be affecting That F’ing Monkey and I wanted to talk about them before they happen.
 

First off I’ll be spending this Saturday at the Spooky Empires convention.  This horror convention is full of all those wonderful horror actors like Bill Moseley and Doug Bradley.  I’m going because Ricou Browning and Julie Adams from Creature From the Black Lagoon are going to be there.  I’ve talked about my love for that movie numerous times so I’m really excited to see them.  I have no idea why George “the Animal” Steele is going to be there, but I’m excited to see him too!

I am going to be without internet for a large portion of next week.  This was pretty last minute so I haven’t been building a backlog of articles to run while I’m away.  So there may not be any updates the week of Halloween.  I’m going to do what I can but I can’t promise anything at this time. This is only for that week, after that we’ll be back to normal.

Stories for the Boy

That F’ing Monkey had its 900^th update this week; it almost had its last.  This happens quite a bit actually.  I look to the numerous bookshelves in my room and find myself crushed by jealousy.  This website started as a writing exercise, became a failed money maker, and then…  Well I don’t know anymore.  Very rarely am I actually creating anything, usually I’m just reacting to something that is already out there.  At some point I’d like to be able to place a book in my son’s hands and say “this is the book that your father wrote.” 

Now I have a finished novel that I haven’t done anything with in over a year.  I do want to polish it once more and see about getting it published.  This is not the book I want to share with my son as he grows up though; a detective investigating snuff films isn’t the kind of family bonding I’m going for.  There are other ideas though, characters that have lived in my head for years that are dying to be written about.  Some of them are original and others are table top role playing game characters that still haunt my thoughts long after their games have ended. 

I’m no Tolkien and I’m not comparing myself to him, but I want to create a world that is unique to my own stories.  As he grows up I want to tell my son stories of heroism, victoires, sacrifices, and betrayals.  Bedtime stories wouldn’t be pulled from someone else’s book, but directly from my stories.  I’ve been thinking a lot about this and it’s likely you’ll see more about this as I start to plot things out.  Character backgrounds, races, creatures, cities, and things like that might start popping up more and more.  My son is only a year and a half old, so I have some time to get my shit together before he starts understanding the stories I tell him.  Besides right now he only wants to look at pictures of cars.

Attack of the Real Life

This may come as a shock, but That F'ing Monkey doesn't pay the bills.  It would be awesome if it did, but as of right now I have to do other things to make money.  My real life job is going to be insane for the next couple of days.  Because of that I can't guarantee that there will be updates the rest of the week.  I will try my best to get some content up, but I will most likely miss most of the week.

3 F’ing Years

Today marks the third anniversary of That F’ing Monkey.  It’s become such a part of my everyday life that I have a hard time remember when I wasn’t writing for it.   I wanted to thank everyone who checks the site daily, weekly, or monthly.  To the people I harassed to start reading to the people who stumbled upon it for themselves; thank you.  Thanks to the people who like us on Facebook or have started following the Twitter account.

I think we did some pretty good things this past year.  We took some chances and I’m already planning for the next year.  Running a site like this is always filled with highs and lows.  I think our first webcomic only amused about 5 people (that’s including Brandon and myself).  I doubt it will be back.  I think our Podcasts showed a lot of potential.  They were also a lot of work for Brandon.  I believe they will be back.  I’m currently working on something else; it’s not like anything else we’ve done.  It’ll be a few more months before we’re ready for that reveal though.

Again, thanks to everyone who visits That F’ing Monkey.  It means a lot to us to know that someone is reading what we put out there.  

Blog Update

There was some site strangeness this morning, but I believe it has cleared up by now.  I figured since it was a strange day anyway I’d take some time to update everyone on what is going on with That F’ing Monkey.

First things first, Kid Largo will be returning.  I think I’ve got the problem I was having with the updated filters figured out.  That solution involves putting the strips together on the PC I like working on, sending them to a pc that still has the older filters on them, and then finishing on the better PC.  I want to test this before I commit, so I’d expect them to really start running again in May if everything goes well.

Flash Friday will remain an on again an off again feature.  But I do have some things planned for the next couple weeks.

You may have noticed more reviews on the site.  We’ve been getting sent comp copies of things.  I will always include if we were given the preview copy in the review, which just seems to be the right thing to do.  I also don’t believe in scoring reviews.  Once you put a number to it anything else you’ve said becomes meaningless, so my reviews will remain to just be about my thoughts.  Considering we only update once a day there are actually some review opportunities we’ve passed up.   

I’m a father.  We are quickly approaching my son’s first birthday.  This site is not going to fill up with pictures of my son.  It will feature a little more content about me being a father and trying to raise my son to appreciate the geeky things I do.  Things like, when and how to introduce Star War or how do I teach my child that Flash is the best superhero?  Important things like that.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for the day.  We’re all fine here now, thank you.  How are you?

That F’ing Monkey Ranks 92

 I remember my first time I visited New Orleans.  I was in the Air Force at the time and feeling pretty full of myself.  One of the pan handlers walked up to me and challenged me to riddle in exchange for a few dollars.  In my youthful hubris, I was sure this homeless person couldn’t outsmart me.  And just like that I was out five dollars.  It wasn’t all for naught though, knowledge of that hustle helped me save Brandon a couple bucks a few years later in Atlanta.  So what does all this have to do with today’s topic and why does That F’ing Monkey rank at 92?

Last month I received an email saying that someone wanted to use That F’ing Monkey in an infographic about the top comic blogs to follow in 2013.  The internet is full of some pretty cool looking infographics and we’ve even reposted a number of the alcohol related ones.  My “Flash Field Guides” even ended up on a few different websites.  I envisioned this stylish picture with lots of crazy facts everywhere.  Deep down I knew we aren’t the first place you’re looking for comic news.  We don’t get the press releases from Marvel and DC.  Instead we talk about the things we love.  Things you might have missed. 

When the infographic appeared in my inbox my heart sank.  It was as exactly as advertised, a list of comic websites with That F’ing Monkey listed on it.  Instead of a stylish image with a handful of websites on it, it was 100 website headers crammed together on a super long image.  The fault is all mine, I didn’t ask questions.  I agreed almost instantly.  I couldn’t help but think I had been swindled just like I was back on the streets of New Orleans.  I am a man of my word though, and I’m running the monster image.  Because I’m not destroying the flow of my front page you’ll have to click the break to see it.

Overloaded

That F'ing Monkey is taking the rest of the week off.  Mandatory overtime in my real job has stretched me kind of thin.  We'll be back next week with our normal mixture of Comics, Games, and Booze.

Blog, Blog, Bloggity Blog

We really haven’t had a Blog update in a while. Last month I made some pretty big changes to the layout. If you haven’t noticed we now have new buttons at the top of the blog. I wanted to make it easy to find information about Brandon and I, make it easy to contact us, and easy to buy are awesome T-Shirts. The new layout also lets us post larger pictures and videos at their full size. It took me a little bit to get used to, but I’m pretty happy with it.


There is also a button for our web comic The Ballad of Kid Largo. Outside of Brandon, I’ve gotten very little feedback on it, so I hope people are enjoying it. We’ll be running it at least until the end of November. Pushing the site in new directions is a big part of my current vision. I don’t expect for everything to work out, but I want to try. So on top of comic strip we’re going to be releasing a podcast either at the end of November or the start of December.

Please remember that we are on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ThatFingMonkey and I’m on Twitter at https://twitter.com/FingMonkeyKenO. Thanks to everyone who visits That F’ing Monkey. We are trying to make the site better and add new things to keep you entertained, so please make sure to mention us to your friends.

Under Construction

Hey everyone the blog is going to be changing today. The first changed has already happened, you may have noticed that the center area of the blog expanded. You may have noticed that the blog got wider. When I started trying to post full comic strips I realize just how cramped the space we were working with was. So today I’m going to be working on finding better ways to use the space we have.


If you are on the website today I’d expect it to change multiple times. There will be some trial and error. I’m sure at some point I’ll make a change that I hate and quickly rush back to an earlier version. Things should stabilize by the end of the day and hopefully we’ll be providing you a more streamlined version of That F’ing Monkey. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to read and comment. We have great things coming up, I promise.

That F’ing Monkey is taking a break

Happy Flash Friday everyone! There isn’t much of a Flash Friday today unfortunately and that’s what we’re going to be talking about. Right now Brandon is in the middle of some things that are keeping him away from the website until he gets settled again. Late this week real life dropped some bombs on me as well. I’ll make it all work, but I can’t say it is making me feel very creative.

Don’t worry; I’m not quitting or anything. I am just going to take some time off. I need to focus on some things that needs taken care of, and hopefully I’ll come back feeling recharged. New updates to That F’ing Monkey will return September 18th.

F’ing Vacation

No Hangover Thursday today, That F’ing Monkey is going on vacation! Brandon and I are on our way to the home of deep dish pizza and Italian Beef sandwiches. The site will be updated Friday (It’s a non-Flash Friday) and Saturday, but after that don’t expect anything new until Wednesday.

On Saturday we’ll be at Games Day checking out all the Warhammer-ness that is going on there. If you’re going to Games Day, make sure you let us know. Next week I’m sure we’ll be sharing all the highlights of the convention.

Thoughts on 2 Years

Yesterday was the two year anniversary of That F’ing Monkey. My post about it was pretty short, but it still managed to be longer than the site’s first post. A lot of the first year was a hot mess, there are still things that I’m proud I wrote; but it took awhile for me to get comfortable with the format. I think our second year was much better handled. At times I’d say we almost look professional.

When I started everything, I was only updating Tuesday through Saturday. It wasn’t until Brandon joined that we moved to a Monday through Saturday posting schedule. Still we’ve put up some pretty good numbers, today is our 581st post. That’s even more impressive when I started the whole thing as a writing exercise and I wasn’t sure that I’d even keep it up for a month.

The first time I really felt like I wasn’t talking to myself was after Shark Week and I wrote about copepods. The site is still getting traffic because of that. It is the fifth most visited article on That F’ing Monkey. The day after writing it, I wrote about Blacksad. That is the fourth most viewed page on the site. I was on fire in August of 2010. The third most viewed post is about Harry Potter, but I really think that is just because of image searches for Mad Eye Moody. Diablo 3 Beta Access is the second most viewed, although now that the game is out that will start to drop. The most viewed article on the site? Flash Friday: Angry Birds in Space. I’m as surprised as you are.

I’m probably most proud of the movie articles that were written for when I was away. Beside the awesome Michael May stepping in for us, I thought the stuff Brandon and I were putting out was a step above our normal day to day posts. I was also really proud of the interviews that came out of Heroes. Heck, I’m proud that the people who read the site is slowly increasing every month. So here is to the next year, may it be even better than the last.

2 Years of That F'ing Monkey

Today marks the two year anniversary of That F’ing Monkey.  I have a lot to say about the past two years, but I’m putting that off for tomorrow. 

I had the day off today, so I got to spend it with my wife and son.  I do want to thank everyone who comes here regularly.  It doesn’t matter if you come here daily, weekly, or once a month; I appreciate any time you spend here.  Because if it wasn’t for you, I’d just be talking to myself.

April 2012 Update

Hey everyone! Every couple of months I take a break from the regular updates and talk about what is happening here at That F’ing Monkey. Brandon and I are still working on some podcast issues, although I think progress is coming along pretty well. We’ve tested our recordings and done a ton of brainstorming for content format. I hate to say we’re probably still a couple months off, but this is something that is going to happen.

The big news of course is that I’m in full baby watch mode. So I’ve got my overnight bag packed and I’m just waiting for the big day. Here is the amazing part; I actually planned ahead and That F’ing Monkey is ready too. There will be site updates while I’m gone! They are going to be a little different than what you’re used to seeing, but I’m very proud of what is going to be going up on the site.

The NHL playoffs are coming. That means playoff beards are coming. If you are planning on getting scraggily to support your team, please click the “contact us” button on the website. If we get some interested people I’ll probably do a round by round photo update like we did last year. The road to the play offs has been intense, make sure you check out Saturday’s Penguin and Flyer game; I have a feeling it is going to be brutal.

As always I appreciate anyone who takes time to visit here and read the strangeness that comes out of my head. Thank you all.

Sick Day

Something happened to my sinuses today.  I've got a nast headache and have become a snot factory.  That and a crazy work load... 

Yup, all you get is this picture.  Bonus points if you get which song it is from.

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam

Hey everyone, if you've been keeping an out out on our comment section you may have noticed a lot of responses that don't make any sense.  Usually there is a line of gibberish and then a link to another website.  Yup, we've been overrun with Spam. 

We try to make it very easy for you to leave us comments.  Putting more restrictions on that would decrease the Spam, but would decrease how easy it is for you to reply.  So for the time being we are keeping things the way they are right now.  If you do see one of these Spam comments before I can delete them, please don't click on them.  It only encourages them.