A Sussex cartoonist and web company have both hit the big time with the latest pop phenomenon.
Jamie Hewlett, from Worthing, and Brighton-based Getfrank helped create animated chart toppers Gorillaz, who have been taking on the traditional music industry from the web.
Gorillaz have taken the concept of prefabricated bands and cartoon pop wonders to a new level.
Fictional band members, 2D, Murdoc, Russel and Noodle are web creations designed for development on the internet.
The dark characters were drawn by Jamie, who created the infamous Tank Girl comics from his Sussex bedsit in the Eighties.
The group's anarchic sound was generated by Blur frontman Damon Albarn.
They have just had their first hit, hip-hop dub track Clint Eastwood, which reached No.4 in the UK singles chart.
The web site home of the band, the first successful virtual musicians, was generated by Getfrank.
Creative director Andrew Seel said: "We have built an environment where the Gorillaz exist. It's a realistic world where people can go and see the band's living space and have a look at what they are up to.
"You can visit each band member's room, read their email and see what they have been playing on their computer. There is a jukebox to play all the band's music and works in progress scattered around the rooms.
"The fans are playing a major part in fuelling the interest in the site. The have really bought into the idea and are talking about them as if they are real."
Albarn and Hewlett have tried to further perpetuate the Gorillaz myth by logging on regularly to reply to email under the guise of their animated egos.
The site had 300,000 visitors in April and last week the New Musical Express Online Music Awards heralded it as the best online marketing campaign of the year.
Director of operations, Gary Stevenson, said: "We knew we wanted to be involved from the minute we heard about the project, which was about the same time we were setting up Getfrank in January 2000. We had to beat off five competitors to win the contract.
"We got it because we understood the idea was about creating the brand online and we had plenty of ideas on how to do it well. Then we had to sign secrecy agreements so we couldn't say anything about what was going on. But it has been worth the wait."
Gorillaz began to take form in the Nineties when Hewlett and Albarn shared a flat together in London.
The band name was chosen after they realised they had the same birth year, 1968 - the Chinese year of the monkey.
An echo of one of pop's first squeaky-clean prefabricated acts, was probably not an image the subversive pair were looking for. The twisted Gorillaz have proved to be a whole new story.
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