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The Annotated Mantooth!
They say the star that burns twice as bright burns half as long; in the case of Rex Mantooth!, he burned five or six times as bright for, like, ten minutes or so. Ape Super-Spy Rex Mantooth! blazed across three stories to inexplicable critical acclaim. These blistering bits of nonsense are now lavishly collected with corrected and re-toned art, the official text, covers, essays, scripts, annotations, pinups, and more.
Featuring a foreword, a preface, an introduction, and publisher's note by some of comics' most notable luminaries and more exclusive material than anyone can possibly imagine. THE ANNOTATED MANTOOTH! is exactly like a DVD about a museum that's full of Monkey comics about stuff that 'splodes and dudes gettin' kicked.
It's like if James Bond's a gorilla and Ian Fleming was drunk the whole time he wrote James Bond. With contributions from Warren Ellis, Joe Casey, Larry Young, Robert Kirkman, and Jeremy Love.
Featuring a foreword, a preface, an introduction, and publisher's note by some of comics' most notable luminaries and more exclusive material than anyone can possibly imagine. THE ANNOTATED MANTOOTH! is exactly like a DVD about a museum that's full of Monkey comics about stuff that 'splodes and dudes gettin' kicked.
It's like if James Bond's a gorilla and Ian Fleming was drunk the whole time he wrote James Bond. With contributions from Warren Ellis, Joe Casey, Larry Young, Robert Kirkman, and Jeremy Love.
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 7, 2002
41 people want to read
About the author
Matt Fraction
1,224 books1,869 followers"How he got started in comics: In 1983, when Fraction was 7 years old and growing up in Kansas City, Mo., he became fascinated by the U.S. invasion of Grenada and created his own newspaper to explain the event. "I've always been story-driven, telling stories with pictures and words," he said.
Education and first job: Fraction never graduated from college. He stopped half a semester short of an art degree at Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri in 1998 to take a job as a Web designer and managing editor of a magazine about Internet culture.
"My mother was not happy about that," he said.
But that gig led Fraction and his co-workers to split off and launch MK12, a boutique graphic design and production firm in Kansas City that created the opening credits for the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace."
Big break: While writing and directing live-action shoots at MK12, Fraction spent his spare time writing comics and pitching his books each year to publishers at Comic-Con. Two books sold: "The Last of the Independents," published in 2003 by AiT/Planet Lar, and "Casanova," published in 2006 by Image Comics.
Fraction traveled extensively on commercial shoots. Then his wife got pregnant. So Fraction did what any rational man in his position would do -- he quit his job at MK12 to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time comic book writer.
Say what? "It was terrifying," said Fraction, who now lives in Portland, Ore. "I was married. We had a house. We had a baby coming. And I just quit my job."
Marvel hired Fraction in June 2006, thanks largely to the success of his other two comics. "I got very lucky," he half-joked. "If it hadn't worked out, I would have had to move back in with my parents.
- 2009. Alex Pham. Los Angeles Times.
Education and first job: Fraction never graduated from college. He stopped half a semester short of an art degree at Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri in 1998 to take a job as a Web designer and managing editor of a magazine about Internet culture.
"My mother was not happy about that," he said.
But that gig led Fraction and his co-workers to split off and launch MK12, a boutique graphic design and production firm in Kansas City that created the opening credits for the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace."
Big break: While writing and directing live-action shoots at MK12, Fraction spent his spare time writing comics and pitching his books each year to publishers at Comic-Con. Two books sold: "The Last of the Independents," published in 2003 by AiT/Planet Lar, and "Casanova," published in 2006 by Image Comics.
Fraction traveled extensively on commercial shoots. Then his wife got pregnant. So Fraction did what any rational man in his position would do -- he quit his job at MK12 to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time comic book writer.
Say what? "It was terrifying," said Fraction, who now lives in Portland, Ore. "I was married. We had a house. We had a baby coming. And I just quit my job."
Marvel hired Fraction in June 2006, thanks largely to the success of his other two comics. "I got very lucky," he half-joked. "If it hadn't worked out, I would have had to move back in with my parents.
- 2009. Alex Pham. Los Angeles Times.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 28, 2014
Everyone’s acting just a little too cool…
… at least the guys intro-ing this book are. Warren Ellis repeatedly reminds us that he’s in a pub and he’s drunk and fuck you, he’s in a pub while he’s writing this, and did you know he’s drunk and in a pub? Joe Casey’s intro starts with “You have no idea what kinds of drugs I had to ingest to get this introduction down on paper…” Ooo, yeah you guys are real outlaws, you “rock star” comics writers! I get it, you really wish you were the comics version of Hunter S. Thompson except you’re not pulling it off! Greg Rucka also wrote (a needless) third intro but I’ll be damned if I ever read another word by that hack so who knows what he said.
So why does one of Matt Fraction’s least known comics have three introductions? One word: padding. Take away the extras - the three introductions, the afterword from the publisher, the covers, the short story, and the annotated scripts - and you’re left with 40 pages of comics. In other words, the reason you’re buying this book - for the comic - isn’t even the length of a double-size issue.
The format of the book is: left hand page is divided into two columns, comic script and annotations; right hand page is comic said script is about. I get that this is also the hilarious joke - this is a comic not even attempting to be intellectual in the least and we’re getting all kinds of stuff you’d find in an academic book. Har har, we’re annotating a story about a gorilla in drag punching Hitler! Yeah… what a riot. And they do this the entire book. Oh, my sides...
Even though this is supposed to be the joke, I didn’t bother reading the scripts or the annotations - all that text crap isn’t why I read comics in the first place. I usually have a novel going on so if I want to read prose/text, I’ll go read that. When I pick up a comic book? It’s because I want to read comics. Those scripts that get printed on the back of anniversary editions like Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum? I don’t read those either - why read the same story twice? Same reason I didn’t read the scripts here. But I get it, it’s a funnee joke...
Mantooth is James Bond as a gorilla, which actually works out as a small collection of jokes thrown in amidst overblown action. Some jokes are kinda funny like the “hard fucking category” listed among the Nobel Prizes, or the name of the killer robot: “World’s Greatest Grandpa”; the zombie watercar visual cracked me up, and the dialogue is as screwy as you’d expect from Fraction including “hoppin’ he-cunts” and Mantooth’s battle cry, “SHIT THE BED!”.
But are they cohesive as a story? Not really. They’re a sequence of knowingly kerazy scenes that add up to a very shallow and forgettable read. Mantooth fights Bond villain, says some creative swears, wins, the end. Repeat three times. Fraction also satirises Oprah, but Bond and Oprah are pretty easy targets and not exactly difficult to mock - Oprah’s manipulative and superficial? Duh. Bond’s silly? Double duh. Your point…?
There’s an idea that to become a great writer, you have to get X number of words out of your system before you actually write something worth reading; I’d class Mantooth as one of those comics Fraction had to write in order to create the great comics he’s producing today (Hawkeye, Fantastic Four, FF, Sex Criminals).
Simply put, there’s a reason why Mantooth is one of Fraction’s least known comics: it’s gorilla crap.
… at least the guys intro-ing this book are. Warren Ellis repeatedly reminds us that he’s in a pub and he’s drunk and fuck you, he’s in a pub while he’s writing this, and did you know he’s drunk and in a pub? Joe Casey’s intro starts with “You have no idea what kinds of drugs I had to ingest to get this introduction down on paper…” Ooo, yeah you guys are real outlaws, you “rock star” comics writers! I get it, you really wish you were the comics version of Hunter S. Thompson except you’re not pulling it off! Greg Rucka also wrote (a needless) third intro but I’ll be damned if I ever read another word by that hack so who knows what he said.
So why does one of Matt Fraction’s least known comics have three introductions? One word: padding. Take away the extras - the three introductions, the afterword from the publisher, the covers, the short story, and the annotated scripts - and you’re left with 40 pages of comics. In other words, the reason you’re buying this book - for the comic - isn’t even the length of a double-size issue.
The format of the book is: left hand page is divided into two columns, comic script and annotations; right hand page is comic said script is about. I get that this is also the hilarious joke - this is a comic not even attempting to be intellectual in the least and we’re getting all kinds of stuff you’d find in an academic book. Har har, we’re annotating a story about a gorilla in drag punching Hitler! Yeah… what a riot. And they do this the entire book. Oh, my sides...
Even though this is supposed to be the joke, I didn’t bother reading the scripts or the annotations - all that text crap isn’t why I read comics in the first place. I usually have a novel going on so if I want to read prose/text, I’ll go read that. When I pick up a comic book? It’s because I want to read comics. Those scripts that get printed on the back of anniversary editions like Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum? I don’t read those either - why read the same story twice? Same reason I didn’t read the scripts here. But I get it, it’s a funnee joke...
Mantooth is James Bond as a gorilla, which actually works out as a small collection of jokes thrown in amidst overblown action. Some jokes are kinda funny like the “hard fucking category” listed among the Nobel Prizes, or the name of the killer robot: “World’s Greatest Grandpa”; the zombie watercar visual cracked me up, and the dialogue is as screwy as you’d expect from Fraction including “hoppin’ he-cunts” and Mantooth’s battle cry, “SHIT THE BED!”.
But are they cohesive as a story? Not really. They’re a sequence of knowingly kerazy scenes that add up to a very shallow and forgettable read. Mantooth fights Bond villain, says some creative swears, wins, the end. Repeat three times. Fraction also satirises Oprah, but Bond and Oprah are pretty easy targets and not exactly difficult to mock - Oprah’s manipulative and superficial? Duh. Bond’s silly? Double duh. Your point…?
There’s an idea that to become a great writer, you have to get X number of words out of your system before you actually write something worth reading; I’d class Mantooth as one of those comics Fraction had to write in order to create the great comics he’s producing today (Hawkeye, Fantastic Four, FF, Sex Criminals).
Simply put, there’s a reason why Mantooth is one of Fraction’s least known comics: it’s gorilla crap.
March 23, 2011
Quotes from this book say what I cannot:
"Shit the bed!"
"Surely we are doomed by Ultimate Big Penis Action Man America."
"Razzle Dazzle Space Sandwich!"
"You are the Bullshit Fisherman!"
"Whom among us does not want to go home and do it lots? Again, the answer can only be the Amish."
"My book is called 'The Erotic Shatner: Unlocking the Erotic Man's Erotic Duality."
"New girls always ask the same questions -- which I'll answer tomorrow, after we have you nipped, tucked, gayed-up and cranially drill-raped."
"'Sweet Mary Mother of Fuck!' Some of you will most certainly recall the brouhaha that erupted in this line, resulting in protests, the burning of effigies, the war that pitted brother against brother and Cardinal against Cardinal, and finally my excommunication from the Catholic Church."
"MotherfuSHIT!"
"Trying not to struggle much, buttmouths."
"As Rex beats up on pretty, brainwashed lesbians intent on destroying Chicago, we ourselves cannot enjoy the viscera of the external, for we are forced to confront the contradictory internal. My favorite homage to this technique would later be seen in the comics output of Joyce Carol Oates."
"'Move an inch and I will totally 'Zook your nards!' How often is it that we are allowed the opportunity to write our own epitaph? Not very, I'll tell you that. I mean, sure, we all talk about it, but who amongst us actually rolls up their sleeves and DOES it? Boys, stand on one side, will you? I'll be over here with the men."
And of course:
"Thanks to me, the world just got a whole lot stupider."
"Shit the bed!"
"Surely we are doomed by Ultimate Big Penis Action Man America."
"Razzle Dazzle Space Sandwich!"
"You are the Bullshit Fisherman!"
"Whom among us does not want to go home and do it lots? Again, the answer can only be the Amish."
"My book is called 'The Erotic Shatner: Unlocking the Erotic Man's Erotic Duality."
"New girls always ask the same questions -- which I'll answer tomorrow, after we have you nipped, tucked, gayed-up and cranially drill-raped."
"'Sweet Mary Mother of Fuck!' Some of you will most certainly recall the brouhaha that erupted in this line, resulting in protests, the burning of effigies, the war that pitted brother against brother and Cardinal against Cardinal, and finally my excommunication from the Catholic Church."
"MotherfuSHIT!"
"Trying not to struggle much, buttmouths."
"As Rex beats up on pretty, brainwashed lesbians intent on destroying Chicago, we ourselves cannot enjoy the viscera of the external, for we are forced to confront the contradictory internal. My favorite homage to this technique would later be seen in the comics output of Joyce Carol Oates."
"'Move an inch and I will totally 'Zook your nards!' How often is it that we are allowed the opportunity to write our own epitaph? Not very, I'll tell you that. I mean, sure, we all talk about it, but who amongst us actually rolls up their sleeves and DOES it? Boys, stand on one side, will you? I'll be over here with the men."
And of course:
"Thanks to me, the world just got a whole lot stupider."
August 13, 2017
This kind of reads like an over-the-top version of Hellboy. The hellboy stand-in being a secret agent Ape. There are three unconnected stories here of Mantooth's exploits.
I didn't find it funny, and that was the big problem really. I don't usually find much humour in the 'anything goes' type stories. It just seems like a big mish-mash of humorous dialogue and weird happenings. Every singe panel tries to be funny and it all ends up being very disjointed.
I didn't read all the annotations, they seemed to just be a very surface level commentary on the book by the author; similar to what you get when a director does a commentary track over a movie.
Probably the most humourous thing in this book is that the book states it contains "an introduction by Warren Ellis, a foreword by Joe Casey, a preface by Greg Rucka, and a note from the publisher Larry Young".
I didn't find it funny, and that was the big problem really. I don't usually find much humour in the 'anything goes' type stories. It just seems like a big mish-mash of humorous dialogue and weird happenings. Every singe panel tries to be funny and it all ends up being very disjointed.
I didn't read all the annotations, they seemed to just be a very surface level commentary on the book by the author; similar to what you get when a director does a commentary track over a movie.
Probably the most humourous thing in this book is that the book states it contains "an introduction by Warren Ellis, a foreword by Joe Casey, a preface by Greg Rucka, and a note from the publisher Larry Young".
May 3, 2009
O....M.....G. First comic book that made my cry. seriously. I read the introduction by Warren Ellis in the comic book store and immediately slapped it down on the counter to buy it. At home I read the forward by Joe Casey. I had to stop...it was too much. It was one of those things where I looked at the book, felt how skinny it was and knew that if I kept going, the fun and hilarity would be over too soon. I couldn't bear it. I would rather know that there is a comic book out there so hilarious, so perfect that I hadnt read yet, than have read it already and have it all be over. Needless to say, I finally succumbed and it was as if someone (I think his name is Matt Fraction) ripped out my soul and put it in this book...or less dramatically, found out all of my favorite things and put every last one of them cleverly into one comic book for all to enjoy.
January 16, 2012
The Annotated Mantooth collects the adventures of Rex Mantooth, a talking gorilla superspy. It was Matt Fraction's first published work in comics, and his first line of dialogue is a talking gorilla yelling, "Shit the bed!" He broke into the scene with a spy who fights ninja robots, lesbian commandos, and zombie Nobel laureates.
Mantooth is off the fucking wall. Each issue is only thirteen pages long since it shared space with another comic, but those thirteen pages are packed with ridiculous dialogue, hilarious captions, and plenty of explosions. And then the annotations are sometimes even funnier than the comic. That Matt Fraction, he's a funny guy. It's a book well worth picking up. Even the introductions are funny!
Mantooth is off the fucking wall. Each issue is only thirteen pages long since it shared space with another comic, but those thirteen pages are packed with ridiculous dialogue, hilarious captions, and plenty of explosions. And then the annotations are sometimes even funnier than the comic. That Matt Fraction, he's a funny guy. It's a book well worth picking up. Even the introductions are funny!
September 26, 2010
I'm glad Fraction got this out of his system allowing him to evolve into the tremendously talented writer he is. Now, typically you can't go wrong when you have a comic starring an ape, but, I dunno ... considering this is the guy that wows me month after month with the Invincible Iron Man, it fell short.
But then again, it's about a super-spy monkey.
But then again, it's about a super-spy monkey.
November 18, 2007
The back of the book says it best: "What if James Bond was a gorilla? And what if Ian Fleming was drunk the whole time he wrote 'From Russia With Love'?"
November 22, 2007
The only talking gorilla spy comic you'll ever need to read!
April 12, 2009
Frick'n hilarious, check out Matt Fraction before he was famous.
June 1, 2011
The clear progenitor of Casanova, this is crazy super-spy monkey comics. The annotations and scripts are a great extra.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews