Brian Monge is a poet, children’s book author, and graphic novel writer. He began his writing career in 2017. He began by writing short stories and later moved on to poetry; an art form he never expected to become passionate about. Monge devoted himself every night to reading great poets such as Pablo Neruda, Jack Frost, Langston Hughes, Charles Bukowski, and many more. He would read every night and then write poetry to improve on the art of cadencing and storytelling. As each night passed, he discovered the power poetry and writing had for conveying expression and emotions with precision. Never afraid to push himself, Monge challenged himself to tell complex stories through poetry.
Since a kid, Monge had a huge passion for Christmas. And as Christmas was approaching in 2019, he challenged himself to write a children’s Christmas book, one where each story was written in verses that rhymed. After 5 months of brainstorming and constructing his stories, he was finally satisfied enough to reach out to illustrators. Monge then met the great and amazing, Alejandro Mesa, from Colombia, and together, they both collaborated and completed “Christmas Adventures”. A year later, Monge published “Christmas Adventures” in Spanish; “Aventuras Navideñas”.
As the end of 2019 was fast approaching, Monge decided to come up with a Christmas story unlike any other. He locked himself in his office, sticking posted notes on the wall, filling up pages of his journal, spending hours and hours on rhyming, and then, finally after 4 months, he completed, “The Christmas Bandits”, which he divided into four acts. At the same time, Monge had found a passion for comics. He fell in love with the art of illustration and storytelling and how the two mediums if put together well, could deliver an amazing experience to the readers. Then, the idea to make “The Christmas Bandits” into a graphic novel was born.
While working on “Gold and the Finer Things”, (The book of collected poetry that included “The Christmas Bandits”) he pondered on the idea of hiring an illustrator to create a cover page for a few of his poems. The main poem he wanted a cover for was “The Christmas Bandits”, which was about four raccoons helping Santa whoop some ass on Christmas Eve. He then reached out to an illustrator that agreed to do a cover page for that poem. Monge never went through with that idea.
During the Summer of 2020, Monge’s love for comics grew even more. He started familiarizing himself with writers and illustrators in the comic book industry. It wasn’t until he ran into the name, “Ariel Olivetti” (a professional illustrator that had worked with Marvel and DC comics over 20 years), that he realized that it was the same illustrator he had contacted just months earlier to create a cover illustrated page for the “Christmas Bandits”. So in December of 2020, Monge took a chance and reached out to Olivetti about collaborating and doing a Christmas graphic novel. And after pitching his crazy idea to Olivetti, Olivetti loved the idea and agreed to join the project.
In December 2021, Monge attended Los Angeles Comic-Con as an exhibitor, where he sold many of his books and met Rob Liefeld.
Monge is currently working on two graphic novels which are expected to be out at the end of 2022.