The New Order Cometh...
Greetings, Monkey Spit readers. My name is Louis Bright-Raven. I am your new emcee here at the all-new (well, semi-new) MONKEY'S PIT.
As you can see, this site has undergone a massive change in its format. Long time readers and supporters of this site are probably wondering just what in tarnation happened. It's a long, convoluted tale, but I'm here to tell it.
MONKEY SPIT was the brainchild of Jim MacQuarrie and Craig Kemper. It was meant as an entertainment site featuring parody works about comic books, life, the universe and everything. And it was a Good Thing. Unfortunately, not everyone thought so.
Craig and Jim's FOURTH WALL parody cartoon had apparently gotten them into some trouble with the legal department over at DC Comics recently. DC Comics sent a "Cease & Desist" letter to Monkey Spit about the Fourth Wall cartoons because the column lampooned their characters nearly twice as often as Marvel's, and because Paul Levitz was personally offended by Craig & Jim's caricature of him in the 8/9/02 strip. Normally this would not have deterred the intrepid duo, but recently Jim MacQuarrie received a phone call at his employer's from DC's Legal Department. The specific details are not for discussion here, but it caused some major issues for Jim at work, and this situation helped him decide to give up the FOURTH WALL and RANT-MAN pieces, nearly destroying the heart of this site. There is more about that here in an interview with Jim and Craig where they say their farewell to you fans.
Also contributing to this decision was Craig's destiny with the trifecta of fatherhood, some other business related concerns with Craig over the aforementioned "cease & desist" actions from DC, and other personal family issues for Jim. They will, of course, remain here at the site as contributors whenever they can muster the time. They remain the heart and soul of this site.
As for how I came to owning this site. Well, it so happens that I've been trying to rebuild my studio site, Constellation Studios, after some issues with past web designers. Jim and I came to an agreement on that, during which he mentioned his woes to me about MONKEY SPIT and how he was going to shut it down. He was battered and heartbroken. I didn't want to see the other members of this fine site be shut out and not have any outlet for their creativity, so in conjunction with working on my site, I paid Jim and Craig for the domain name and to take this site over.
Very little of MONKEY SPIT will have changed, other than the name and a few other minor cosmetic changes. I will be replacing RANT-MAN with my own column, QUOTH THE RAVEN. The FOURTH WALL I may also take over, if I have the time. Everything else has remained the same, and I've even added a new Comics News section with the latest in comics industry- and I assure you, folks, that nobody covers the news of the comics industry the way we do.
So why change the name? I don't know. I guess I'd rather be in a pit that belongs to a monkey than have any kind of spit all over me. Wouldn't you? ;-)
So please take a look at the new MONKEY'S PIT and enjoy! We look forward to your comments.
Sincerely,
Louis Bright-Raven |
