Code Monkey Save World – Kickstarter’s Best
Jonathon Coulton’s music is an instantly notable part of modern nerd culture. ‘Still Alive’ is one of the most recognizable songs to come from a video game in the last decade – start singing a lyric and there’s not many gamers who couldn’t finish it for you. Personally, I knew the song by heart before I’d even touched Portal! JoCo’s songs have excellent, nerd-appealing lyrics, self-contained stories about everything from crappy days at work to holiday greetings from captives held on the alien world of Chiron Beta Prime. Awesomely, JoCo has gotten together with awesome and suitably creative comic book writer Greg Pak (Superman/Batman, Red Skull, X-men: Phoenix – Warsong) to bringing the stories of these songs into a cohesive and hilarious universe.
Isn’t it enough to know that I ruined a pony, making a gift for you?
Code Monkey Save the World was a huge Kickstarter and one I happily backed out of love for JoCo, Greg Pak and excellent ideas. The Kickstarter really took off, funding for $340,270 with an original goal of only $39,00o) and was backed for quite a few stretch goals, including a brand-spanking new acoustic JoCo album and a children’s story, The Princess Who Saved Herself. Code Monkey’s first issue comes out to the general public this week on Comixology (which I’m so happy exists, making projects like this so much easier to publish and access) and I couldn’t recommend it more, especially if you’re already a fan of JoCo or Pak’s work.
The eponymous Code Monkey (from, of course, ‘Code Monkey’) is Charles, a coder working the boring daily grind of goddamn login pages at SCM Industries, a rather obviously evil corporation. On the day Charles finally begins to make small talk with the office-girl of his dreams, alien invaders from Chiron Beta Prime attack and begin enslaving the office’s corporate drones…and the office-girl, Matilde. Led by a beautiful, ruthless space pirate, Laura the Robo Queen, the space-slavers kidnapped Matilde and spare Charles due to being a less than productive monkey. Still under contract with SCM, Charles is eventually snapped up by the evil mastermind behind SCM Industries, The Skullcrusher (‘Welcome to Skullcrusher Mountain,’ ‘Future Soon’) who wants the Code Monkey’s help defeating Laura the Robo Queen. The Robo Queen that Skullcrusher may be deeply, deeply in love with.
We’re not unreasonable, I mean, no one’s gonna eat your eyes.
The first issue of Code Monkey Save the World is mostly set up for the rest of the series, but it’s incredibly fun set up. Pak’s snappy and well-paced dialog brings the characters to life and Takeashi Miyazawa’s artwork is bright and expressive. I love how so many JoCo favorites are brought together and woven into an entertaining, genuinely funny story. Character designs are really top-notch, with even simple characters like the so-far unnamed office-girl looking distinct, appealing and interesting. The jokes are genuinely funny, the ridiculous premise works out smoothly and it left me waiting eagerly for the issue.
Issue two should be available this week for Kickstarter backers, which means issue two won’t take long at all to hit Comixology. That’s the other thing I really like about this project – Code Monkey Save World is a great demonstration of a Kickstarter done right. The stretch goals were interesting and rewarding (I’m really looking forward to The Princess Who Saved Herself – I specifically donated to try and get that goal funded), the team has been great about communicating and planning. I’m really excited to read more of Code Monkey Save the World (and to get my adorable Code Monkey mug, brand new Jonathon Coulton song and hard cover trade!).
You can (and should) buy your digital copy of Code Monkey Save the World on Comixology for the low low price of $2.99 and your endless loyalty to Skullcrusher Mountain Industries.
