I got tired of focusing on SuperMilo all the time, so I’ve introduced this surprise chapter into the comic’s outline. We’ll be focusing on Stripes and some other characters within SuperMilo’s world for the next few weeks.

Stripes, who is very deep and artistic, is a cat who thinks he’s a beatnik. Seeing as how the beat generation was around back in, oh, say the 1940′s I think, Stripes feels alone in the world. He is in fact not a true beatnik and from his poetry he may realize this. Jack Kerouac was the first beatnik but he did not ask or attempt to start the beat generation. Jack Kerouac was once quoted as saying he was not a beatnik – he was Catholic. People followed in his footsteps – but did it wrong. They created a new image for what a beatnik was but still claimed to be following Kerouac’s example. The pop-culture then turned beatniks into a heavy stereotype, leaving people of today with the mental image you see in panel #1 instead of who the beatniks, or Jack Kerouac, really were. Yes, the stereotype may glitter like gold, but it rejects the mold that Kerouac set and his would be followers, who never truly followed him, have been stolen away by false imagery and idealism of what it is to be a part of the beat generation. And today there are no true beatniks around anymore. They have, however, changed with the times. In the 1960′s and 70′s we were met with the newest beat generation, the hippies. Maybe today also has people sharing this same spirit?

The three characters you see making today’s punchline are some of my favorite superhero parody characters that I’ve created. From left to right, we have: 1) Arachnerd (A.K.A. Spiderman), 2) The Black Gnat (A.K.A. Batman the Dark Knight), and most obvious of all 3) Colonel U.S. (A.K.A. Captain America). I love Arachnerd and Black Gnat and created them as far back as 2007, but Colonel U.S. (which can be either “United States” or “Uncle Sam”) was a character I created specifically and only for this story arc. Why? Well, originally, none of these characters were to appear here. That’s why this comic was late; it took me forever to decide on who would appear. Originally two Flash parodies of mine, a grandson Flash and an old and decrepit grandfather Flash, were to provide this dialogue. But as I was writing for “Grampa” I soon realized that, although different, he was too much like Brock Heasley’s Swifty of Superfogeys. I didn’t want anyone to think I was stealing material. So much did it remind me of Swifty that I actually considered asking Brock if I could cameo Captain Spectacular and Swifty here! But in the end I thought these three characters here were the best idea.

Hope you enjoyed this commentary!

This isn’t from Heroes Con you’re seeing today, no sir. I’m showing you older fan art I got from waaaay back during my animation college days. One of my classmates, Liz, draws the Milo and Will characters in an anime/manga style.

I met at Heroes Con earlier this month Jay Gobble, a friend I know from his days of working at two local comic shops. He had picked up my book unknown to me several months ago and had done several drawings of SuperMilo, including this one that he did during the convention. Jay is a local artist like myself working for his own company “Vanguards of Comics.” He is putting out a trade in 2011 that will celebrate 10 years of his comic book series. You can learn more about Vanguards of Comics at www.myspace.com/vanguardofcomics. Thanks, Jay!

During Heroes Convention I passed out a lot of copies of my SuperMilo issue 1 book to editors, publishers, marketers, and people who worked on similar books who I consistently read and keep up with. I gave an issue of SuperMilo to every present member of Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog (except Matt Hermes who was unable to come this year). Paul Kaminski drew this quick sketch for me. Thanks, Paul!

This is strips #25 and #26 combined because it reads better this way.

Anyway, I inked the last panel with a brush pen. I’ve been told that inking with the brush is difficult but extremely rewarding – and it’s true! I love inking with a brush! It gives me more control over how I ink and allows me to ink faster and more fluidly.

In other news, Yes! Weekly, a local newspaper, has asked me to interview for an interview for an artist profile that will appear in their next paper. I’ll let you all know if that works out and everything.

Hello, all!

Today on SuperMilo the girl character Annie gets a little payback, har har. Stay tuned for next time when we see the full version of today’s strip and next week when we’ll see some fan art from this year’s Heroes Con!

Hey!

This is Will! I just figured out how to log in and upload a comic! Wow… Well, you see, Tom uploaded all of the previous strips through my account since he’s in charge of managing the website, but today I finally got my hands on the log in URL to do it myself. It feels great having a home site for the comic! Anyway, enjoy today’s strip!

Note: “Helium Dreams” would also make an awesome name for a music band.

Hey everyone!  Don’t forget that May 1st is Free Comic Book Day!  Go to the Free Comic Book Day website to see if your local comic shop is participating!  Come By and see Will and I at Classic Comics, off of Lowes Foods Dr. in Lewisville NC, promoting The Misadventures SuperMilo!  We hope to see you Saturday!

Huzzah!

What, ho?!? Another update? So soon?! Yes! I now have consistently updated – 2 times in a row! It’s a miracle!

Anyway, I’ve been very busy, but it couldn’t hold back anymore and stayed up a couple of nights to get a couple strips done. I lettered my comic today instead of just using a computer font. I plan on doing that from now on as there are advantages to lettering one’s self. For example, the text can stretch and stuff easier to fit what I want them to. Second of all, I won’t get into any copyright trouble if I accidentally used some Font I have to pay royalties or etc on. Third of all, it’s what the pros often do, so why go the easy route and type my text? Ha ha… And if I mess up I am fortunately able to draw the text in digitally after I do the inking on paper.

It’s simple, but what do you think?

Yeah, it’s the first one SuperMilo isn’t shown in too! And this girl character – she’s not an important character and we won’t see her very much after this short story, so I’ll tell you that the character’s unofficial name is Annie. I based her hair and skin colors after a cartoon-styled self-portrait that Annie at JediAnnSolo.deviantart.com did (thank you, it was helpful), so I did her the honor of naming the character after her.

In other news, I may start drawing the new main series of “The Misadventures of SuperMilo” soon, but no idea when you all will see it yet. Hope you’re looking forward to it, though!

Hey! Sorry for the lack of updates, but I’ve been VERY busy. I’ve got college, a girlfriend, trying to find work that pays (this comic doesn’t), ministry, you know the drill. Life. It’s like Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park referring to the Chaos Theory: “Life will find a way.” To screw you. lol

Joking, now what do you think of today’s comic? Someone commented that maybe I should go with cell shading (I think?) instead of using gradients everywhere, so I am – except I’m still using gradients for the backgrounds, etc and cell shading the characters. Why? That’s what a lot of good cartoons do – Batman the Animated Series, SpongeBob, Teen Titans, etc. So I think I’d like to see what happens if I emulate it.