I haven't read the comic book, but chalk me up as an admirer of the movie, though I haven't watched it in a long while. Among other things, it's a savagely mean satire of merchandising, and the other commercial compromises artists (or at least cartoonists) are sometimes asked to make in order to make their art. And Monkeybone is literally a monkey on the back of Fraser's cartoonist, who might be trapped and unable to do anything else with his talents beyond this one character (who is clearly one aspect of his own personality). I was onboard with it. As mentioned, a good half hour or so was carved out of the movie by the studio. I vaguely remember reading at the time that Selick was not happy with that.


James