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The Monkees were (and are) was a commercial fabrication created for a TV show that, despite the efforts of its producers, became an actual musical band…only to eventually devolve back into a synthetic entity. Patterned after the Beatles’ A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, the show -- created by Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson -- cast two former child actors with musical training (Mickey Dolenz and Davy Jones) and two musicians with comedic talent (Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith) as a quartet of aspiring rockers. (Reportedly, the show’s casting sessions saw over 400 applicants for the pseudo-band.) Calling themselves “The Monkees”, although performing as characters named after themselves, they starred in Screen Gems’ prime-time TV series of the same name, that premiered on NBC on September 12, 1966. Of course, playing the role of a band meant that they also had to actually perform music, which the boys did for their live concerts and personal appearances. (It really didn’t matter, since their music was nearly drowned out by their screaming female fans!) Although they primarily provided only vocals for THE MONKEES, their first album (which included the Top Forty mega-hit “Last Train To Clarksville”), but by their third LP, HEADQUARTERS, they eventually overthrew the stifling control of their musical producer/supervisor, Don (“Late Night Rock Concert”) Kirshner and began to write and perform their own music, much of which was quite good -- and even innovative! (Unfortunately, by that time, word had spread throughout the “serious” musical scene that the Monkees were the Milli Vanilli of their time; unfortunately, they never quite shook this inaccurate image.) After two seasons and 58 half-hour episodes (as well as two Emmy Awards), the series ended its original run on September 9, 1968, but after being moved to Saturday morning TV programming, found itself a whole new audience of fans. But the Monkees weren’t finished. Their 1968 Columbia feature film HEAD (co-written by Jack Nicholson – yes, that Jack Nicholson…while on LSD, no less!) may have been intended to destroy the group’s juvenile fan-base, but it remains a genuinely psychedelic classic, and even guest-stars Frank Zappa! The group also produced a pair of experimental TV specials, but by then it was a case of too little, too late. Although the Monkees soon withered to consist of only Dolenz and Jones, decades later (thanks to a top-rated “Pleasant Valley Sunday” marathon on MTV), they eventually re-formed (at least partially; Michael Nesmith only occasionally participated, having his own successful career as a solo musician and video producer/director) as the Monkees, with live “comeback” tours during the 1980s and 1990s. They even recorded two new CD albums, POOL IT (1987) and JUST US (1996) for Rhino Records.

Dell published a total of seventeen issues of THE MONKEES. Ironically, the final issue was a reprint of the first one.

Here’s a strange and unexpected pop-cultural side-effect of the Monkees. Believe it or not, the inclusion of the character of Ensign Chekov (portrayed by Walter Koenig) provided an unexpected link between THE MONKEES and STAR TREK! Check out this memo (from THE MAKING OF STAR TREK by Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry, Ballantine Books, pps. 249-250) from the desk of STAR TREK creator Gene Roddenberry:

DATE: September 22, 1966
TO: Joe D'Agosta
FROM: Gene Roddenberry
SUBJECT: Needed Crew Type

Keeping our teenage audience in mind, also keeping aware of current trends, let's watch for a young, irreverent, English-accent Beatle type to try on the show, possibly with an eye to him reoccurring. Like the smallish fellow who looks to be a hit on "The Monkees." Personally I find this type spirited and refreshing, and I think our episodes could use that kind of lift. Let's discuss.

(signed) Gene Roddenberry

Included in this issue of THE MONKEES are the stories and features:

• “The Monkees” in “The Abominable Snowman”, drawn by Jose Delbo. – While being heckled by their own narrative captions (the scripter’s hands even reach into the panels to help lift their Monkeemobile!), the Monkees visit the offices of promoter Petey Barnum, who hires them as “the first expedition into the Himalayas to photograph the Abominable Snowman.” After a Marx Brothers-like jet flight, the Monkees parachute onto the icy slopes of the Himalayan mountain range. There, they discover strange, snowy footprints, which lead them on a ridiculously long trek across the face of the Earth -- back to Hollywood, where they began! Talk about a bum trip!

• “The Monkees” in “104 Hamsters”, drawn by Jose Delbo. – While the Monkees are hiking in the woods (dressed as Boy Scouts), Peter finds a pair of wild hamsters. Adopting them as pets, they head back to their Los Angeles apartment, where they clean themselves up, preparing to play a gig. (Here’s how Mickey takes a shower!) Meanwhile, Peter keeps discovering more hamsters around their place. They show up at the venue where they’re booked, only to discover it’s a neighborhood joint called “Luigi’s Pizza Parlor And Bagel Emporium”. Mid-song, Peter suddenly takes off and races across town to the public library, where he rapidly consults a book titled HAMSTERS AND EVERYTHING YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THEM. Then he zooms back to Luigi’s, where the other Monkees are eating their pay-in-pizzas. Worried, Peter leads the group on a wacky ride (on scooters and a bicycle-built-for-four) back to their apartment, explaining that, according to the book he read, two breeding hamsters can produce one hundred thousand offspring in only a year’s time…and the two he brought home have already had three hours together! Outside their apartment, the others scoff at Peter’s outlandish claim; Davy smirks, “We may get into some pretty silly stories sometimes…but they’d never stick us with a hundred thousand hamsters…not in a million years. Not in a hundred million years…Ha ha ha ha ha!” We never see them open their door, but inside, their apartment is chock-full of grinning hamsters…and one very confused rabbit! (Believe me, after reading this story, he’s not the only one who’s confused!)

• “The Monkees” in “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No More”, drawn by Jose Delbo. – The Monkees are outraged and confused at the narrative caption that opens this story: “Suddenly, the fat man turned and drew his black pistol from his shoulder holster. ‘I’ve caught you, Agent 000. Now take that…and that…and that.’ The skinny man with the monkey on his back slumped forward over the wheel of his Ferrari, reaching for…Huh? This story?! Sorry, I guess I got carried away. But tell me one thing…What was the skinny man reaching for?” The boys are more interested in winning the gig to perform at a dance concert to be held in the Gulp Gulch Desert. They get the job and a bus speeds them to the middle of the desert and drops them off, where they immediately run into the Lone Ranger. A Native American directs them to the local hotel, but the sequence is suddenly – and inexplicably -- interrupted by a nutty self-portrait of this comic’s artist, South American cartoonist Jose Delbo! The Monkees soon learn that the dance concert they’re to perform at is actually a rain dance contest! But when they finally start playing, and the local tribesmen start dancing, not a single raindrop is detected. They finally give up and go home, not noticing that, a few feet away from them, the desert is awash in a flood-causing downpour, one that inspires a pair of buzzards to sing their rendition of “April Showers”!

• A hideous back-cover ad for “4 Irresistible Wide-Eyed Kittens In Full Color For Your Home”.

ODDBALL Factoid – Monkee Mickey Dolenz – the son of actor George Dolenz -- also appeared in another comic book series, Dell’s FOUR COLOR adaptation of CIRCUS BOY (1956 – 1958), a network TV series starring young Mickey (billed as “Mickey Braddock”) as a blonde kid named “Corky”! He also provided voiceover work for such animated TV series as THE FUNKY PHANTOM and THE TICK as well as performing (with Davy Jones) in a live adaptation for the stage of Harry Nilsson’s animated classic THE POINT!

Bonus ODDBALL Factoid – Actor Henry Corden, who played the role of the Monkees’ apartment manager, Mr. Babbit, on THE MONKEES, since 1978, has also been the primary voiceover talent portraying Fred Flintstone!

Son Of Bonus ODDBALL Factoid – The covers for two Monkees CDs issued by Rhino Records – JUST US and BARREL FULL OF MONKEES – were designed and illustrated by “Mr. Oddball Comics” himself, Scott Shaw!

For more from Scott Shaw!, visit his Web site at http://www.shawcartoons.com/.

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