Monkeys with Machineguns are featured prominently in the premier issue of Murky Depths, out September 2007 and available for pre-order now.

Not only can you feast your eyes on the Murky Depth's team re-mix of MWM classic "The Other Woman", but also enjoy plumbing the Murky Depths of the monkeys themselves with our first published interview!

I've just finished uploading a massive preview of the whole range of MWM comics onto the new Bristol Preview website (http://bristol2007.monkeyswithmachineguns.com).

Click the link, then hit "The Tour" to check it out.

From Silver Bullet Comicbooks: http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/fool/111895984691582.htm

Monkeys with Machine Guns sounds as though it should be an anthropomorphic book, but it isn’t. With a title like that though there was obviously no way I wasn’t going to buy it – the choosing of the name alone should win an award for marketing.

This is an anthology title featuring five slightly macabre stories by the writer Chris Lynch. There’s a very black sense of humour at play here, but also a sense of the poignant and a masterful ability to manipulate the reader’s emotions. There’s real skill and (not to sound too pretentious but I can’t think of another way to put it) real craft on display. The middle story in particular was heart achingly sad.

Art is mostly supplied by Stu.art (which I assume is a pseudonym) and is pleasingly chunky. Presented in stark black and white, with nothing so indecisive as shades of grey Stu.art’s pages are reminiscent of Dave McKean’s linework, although there’s a slightly more raw quality which really works with the brutalist writing from Lynch.

Sitting in the middle of the book though, almost as a sorbet to clear the reader’s palette, is a six page story illustrated by Dark Smith (another pseudonym I suspect) which visually couldn’t be more different. Smith employs a much finer line, and leaves whole areas of the panel empty, presenting a more delicately structured panel, suggestive of Mobieus in may ways. Once again the art is perfectly suited to the script, and whoever decided which artist should handle the art chores on which story was either an editing genius or a really really lucky git.

Monkeys with Machine Guns (which so far as I can tell is the name of both the publishing house and the comic itself) oozes confidence at you. It’s every bit as slick as ballsy as something like Blair Witch, with the twists in the tale packing a real emotional punch. Like all good horror, Lynch also has something to say amidst the chills, making this a thought, as well as fear, provoking read.