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CONTACT: Mary Anne Grimes United Feature Syndicate Linda Kuczwaj Newspaper Enterprise Association 212-293-8626
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“Monty” Turns 20: The Comic Strip by Jim Meddick Celebrates Two Decades of Quirkiness
NEW YORK, Feb. 14 — Monty, the offbeat comic strip by Jim Meddick that spoofs suburbia, sci-fi, tacky TV shows and conspiracy theories with equal enthusiasm, celebrates 20 years on comics pages this month. First distributed by Newspaper Enterprise Association on February 18, 1985, Monty has become a cult favorite among comics readers worldwide. The strip’s skewed sensibility has earned it a fanatical following on the Web (at www.comics.com) and on newspaper comics pages on six continents.
“As a boy, I had just two overwhelming ambitions,” says Jim Meddick. “One was to become an internationally syndicated newspaper cartoonist. The other was to become a charter member of the ‘Banana Splits’ club. So, for me, this is a big year. After 20 successful years of Monty, I consider my dream of cartooning largely fulfilled. And after collecting just four more box tops of Count Chocula, I soon anticipate receiving my ‘Banana Splits’ membership certificate and decal booklet.”
The Monty comic strip (formerly titled “Robotman”) offers absurdist commentary on pop culture and contemporary life. Monty Montahue is at the center of the strip’s outrageous story lines. A brainy, bumbling bachelor who’s unlucky in work and in love, Monty shares his home with Fleshy, a hairless cat, and Mr. Pi, a super-logical extraterrestrial. The wacky cast of characters is rounded out by Moondog, Monty’s beer-guzzling buddy; Loco Ohno, Monty’s crazy ex-girlfriend; and Pilsner the parrot.
200 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK•NEW YORK 10016 A Scripps Howard Company 212.293.8500 Meddick is a former political cartoonist for Newspaper Enterprise Association, a job he started shortly after graduating from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., in 1983. While in college, he won the Chicago Tribune Student Cartoonist Contest for his strip “Paperback Writer.”
Newspaper Enterprise Association and United Feature Syndicate are divisions of United Media, the information and entertainment company that develops and markets 150 comic strips and editorial features worldwide, including Peanuts, Dilbert, Get Fuzzy, Miss Manners, Nat Hentoff and Sense & Sensitivity by Harriette Cole. United Media (www.comics.com) is a wholly owned subsidiary of The E.W. Scripps Company.
# # # 021405 NOTE TO EDITORS AND ART DIRECTORS: Please use this art to accompany a story on the 20th anniversary of the comic strip Monty by Jim Meddick.
For more information, please call Linda Kuczwaj at 212-293-8627 or 800-221-4816, or e-mail [email protected].
United Feature Syndicate Newspaper Enterprise Association MONTY: © Jim Meddick / Dist. by A Scripps Howard Company www.comics.com Newspaper Enterprise Association, Inc.