That Darn Yarn

Sock Monkey

by Tony Millionaire

By popular demand, Eisner Award-winner Tony Millionaire returns to bring you another charming adventure. Here is a book that contains two stories in one. On the right-hand side is a story about a sock monkey getting his foot snagged on a tack as he's going down the stairs. As he rambles around Ann Louise's Victorian house, he unravels. On the left-hand page is a story about Ann Louise finding a ball of yarn and beginning to knit a sock monkey. The stories merge as the book unfolds and the adventure develops.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Picture Books, Comics

40 pages, Hardcover

First published May 10, 2005

About the author

Tony Millionaire was born in Boston and grew up in Gloucester, Massachusetts, by the sea. He attended the Massachusetts College of Art for three and three quarters of a year and resigned.

He writes and draws the ongoing adventures of Sock Monkey, published by Dark Horse Comics since 1998.

He is the creator of the syndicated comic strip, Maakies, which has run in weekly newspapers across the country begininning with The NY Press in 1994 and has been collected by Fantagraphics, who also published his graphic novels, Billy Hazelnuts and Billy Hazelnuts and the Crazy Bird.

His work has garnered him five Eisner Awards, three Harvey Awards, and an Ignatz Award.

His comic strip Maakies was adapted to the small screen in 1998 for SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and in 2008 as THE DRINKY CROW SHOW for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, which is now in repeats and available at www.adultswim.com.

His illustrations appear in publications around the globe including THE BELIEVER, THE NEW YORKER and THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. He illustrated many record covers including THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS “Then; The Earlier Years,” JON SPENCER’S “Going Way Out With Heavy Trash,” JOLIE HOLLAND’S “Pint of Blood,” and ELVIS COSTELLO’S “Secret, Profane and Sugarcane,” and recently ELVIS COSTELLO’S “National Ransom,” to be released in the US in November.

He now lives in Pasadena, CA. with his wife, the actress Becky Thyre and their two daughters.

Reviews

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wanna mess with your kids' heads? (In a good way, I mean...) Get this book. Teach your kids about ontological paradoxes and causal loops. My four-year-old likes this book because she likes the girl and the talking stuffed crow and the monkey sliding down the bannister. My nine-year-old likes it because attempting to process the closed loop send his brain spiraling into weird places. I like it for all the above reasons, plus the artwork has a subtly sinister edge to it that made me feel like the reason this loop exists is Not A Good One.

[Patrice Sartor · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the left side of the book is story, illustrated with black and white drawings, about a girl and a stuffed toy crow, and her plans to knit a sock monkey toy for her brother. The right side of the book features color drawings, mostly of a sock monkey and what happens to it. I do enjoy monkeys, including sock monkeys, though I thought the pictures and the story were just okay. I give it three stars due to the nifty mechanic of two-stories-in-one, and how they connect at the end.

[Krystle · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son loves sock monkeys and received this and another TM book as a birthday gift. Due to the paper pages, these are bedtime storytime only books, but today he insisted on reading them. Cute little story (and educational) and beautiful illustrations.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rye delivery puts this in J741.5973 instead of Easy Fiction.

[Lara's]

Synopsis :
Review :
Critical Reviews :

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Crow watch your language!