The first strip.

So here's the first comic featuring Milo the Cloud. I'll be posting more as I finish them, and I'll likely collect them all on the website once I get that finished. Till then, here's the first one. Milo meets Nimbo. At least the comic version of Nimbo. The book version is going to be a bit more huge and imposing. I like this version for the strip though. He's just kinda silent, and grumpy.

Still here.

So, I'm doing something really stupid and I'm writing a novel. In a month. I decided to do NaNoWriMo this year, even though I had no freaking clue what I was going to write about when I started. Still don't really, even though I'm a little over 10,000 words in. NaNoWriMo, for those who don't know, is National Novel Writing Month, in which a slew of people attempt to write 50,000 words during the month of November.

I actually sold a Milo this weekend, along with a DIY Milo sans face. I'm gonna talk to a buddy of mine about setting up an online shop within the next couple weeks, and I'll also work up the nerve to go into Rotofugi and bring in some of the little clouds, to see if they want to sell them.

Things are good, and busy. I've had a bunch of gigs lately, along with actually feeling quite settled into the apartment. Here's to busy-ness, and being able to do things that one loves to do.

And here's a picture of our halloween party.

Movin' on up!

To the west side...er...yeah.

So I'm now moved! I'm living with my lady in Ukrainian Village now, and the place is starting to look mostly unpacked kinda sorta. I'm really looking forward to having my office done, and having a place to work. I'm sure my girlfriend is looking forward to not having my art stuff all over the living room when I'm gearing up for a craft show. Thinking I'm gonna go grab a drafting table this weekend. My hope is to find something that can double as a flat worktable for pouring Milos and sculpting new toy prototypes as well.

Things have been so crazy with the move, and getting stuff settled in (in addition to spending a week and a half flat on my back due to that eeeevil flu bug that's going around, Captain Trips anyone?)

So, I'm looking forward to getting back into Milo-world very soon, and sharing that with you all. And since I don't have any pictures of me on this blog yet, I figured I'd share this favorite from our recent trip to Venezia. We saw these huddled guys on the side of a church and decided to huddle with them in fear of whatever stone menace was gunning for them. I love this snap.

Ignorance is...

This year, for only the second time in my life, I left the apple pie-ness of the U.S. and went to another country where the hot-dog is considered the root of all evil, but they'll happily serve you a slice of grey loaf containing recognizeable pig nuts/faces/bones. I loved my time in Italy, but damn if that loaf didn't make me long for the completely generic pink of absolutely processed meat.

And that of course leads me to think about what that longing means. It's basically a longing for ignorance, because I'm wishing I could eat all the parts of the pig/cow/manatee that are in a hotdog, without knowing they're in there. Without a reminder in the form of a bone I have to pick out, I'm able to pretend it's a hotdog from the hotdog tree in Hebrew National Park.

Obviously that's not ideal.

But it's also, I think, how most people survive in the world. If we look too closely at things as they are, we have a tendency to become depressed by them. Spend an hour with the evening news and you'll see what I mean. But if we don't look closely, we gloss over things that we need to fix. Ignore at your peril the religious right, and gasp in shock when you find they've distorted our society's constitution to suit their own desires. Ignore at your peril the fact that corn subsidies have dictated the use of high fructose corn syrup in just about 90 percent of products on the shelf in your grocery store. (statistics TOTALLY made up to prove a point, YOU AREN'T PAYING ATTENTION!! You don't know if it's true or if it's just somebody saying something on the internet to prove a point. Go find out!!)

The point is, that grey Italian loaf of pig brain/colon/eyesocket is what you're eating when you chow down at the ballpark, it's just way less grindy, and it's way more remindy. Today, ask yourself what else you need reminding about. And while you're at it, remind yourself that you need not be depressed by the things you're paying more attention to. You can actually choose something different and make the attention into a positive one. For my own part, I'm choosing (after the soda that's on my desk right now) to drink only a single cherry coke a week at the movies, if I go, and to not eat another hot dog until next summer. Attention, meet INtention.

Happy Pigloaf to you, my friends, and on a personal note, I ask you to take a peek at the ingredients list on that package of hotdogs that the GOP is trying to sell you from Alaska. From what I can see, she comes complete with pork barrel spending, religious intolerance, and a big steaming pile of bullshit. But I may just have bit down on a bone that the processing plant didn't catch.

Here comes the sun...

This little guy is a character in the Milo book, and I just felt like posting him here today. It's the sun, and he's a mover and a shaker in Milo's world. I'm sure I'll do a sun toy at some point, but I need to get the first true batch of Milo toys out first. Gonna contact the Rotos soon, so I can see about getting some Milos in their store.

Just in case you're curious, I finally decided to draw each face by hand. I solved the bleeding problem with using Sharpies. I think it had something to do with the liberal job I was doing with the clear coat. Too much paint all at once = bleedy face. Doing the face with a brush ended up being way more hassle than it was worth, and far too inaccurate for my taste, so the Sharpie seems the route to go.

The book is coming along nicely, and I'm particularly happy with this line from Milo's conversation with the river:

"That's a really lovely thought, Milo, and I'm sure you'd take good care of these fish. But the belly of a cloud isn't so swimmable, and a fish gotta swim."

Have a good day, all. Enjoy the sun if it's out where you live. He sure was smiling on me when I took my break today.

Platinum Cure!

Last night I mixed up a little bit of Brush on, platinum-cure silicone to test, and see if I could make a good mask for painting. I think this is gonna do it. This stuff is so tough, I can see it being thin enough, and still strong enough to do the job. I think I'll mix up a bit more tonight and do another coat, and maybe start in on a new mold. But at the very least, I can see having a good enough mask by Wednesday to try a new paint test. I also got some Krylon Fusion spraypaint, which I hope will do me better in the happy-paint-love department.

Moving along. This first batch of Milos will not all be identical, because the original mold was so varied, and the amount of sanding necessary also made them varied, but they'll all still be pretty darn cute, I'd say. So, if nothing else, this Milo v 0.1 is incredibly home-made and collectible??? Maybe this version goes to friends and family, and the few folks who write in and say they WANT the experimental first batch.

Roadblocks

It's sometimes good when you hit stumbling blocks, because it makes you realize just how excited you are about something. Right now, I'm huffing and puffing because the painting just isn't happening the way I'd like. It's maddening to have a bunch of clouds just waiting to be painted, but unable to really do much because the painting I've done already looks so bad. I've never done any kind of spray painting before, and I need to get some practice with making it look just right. Plus, I thought I was done sanding, but I'm obviously not. So, I bought some different paint, because even the color isn't right out of the can, and we'll see how that goes.

Then comes the other hurdle: masking. I have yet to find the perfect way to mask out the face and have it look decent. I'm sure I'll hit upon it, but it hasn't happened yet. It's cool. It doesn't have to be perfect right now. I'm still experimenting and I haven't released it to the public, or taken any orders from stores. It's still bubbling, just not boiling yet. So I'm enjoying it now. Enjoying this anticipation and enjoying the feeling of knowing that I have something that people will dig once it's done.

If you've got anything you're bubbling about, I'd love to hear it. Hit me up with a comment, and link me to your steaming pots.

Best,
Sean

Milo The Cloud is Online!

I've just registered MiloTheCloud.com and put up a placeholder site which will be up there until I can get some mojo working on building the actual site. All of that hinges on actually finishing the toy in some fashion and getting some packaging happening as well. I just did some spray painting last night and this morning before I left for work, so hopefully tonight I'll be on track to get the faces painted on, with some clear-coating going on over the weekend. I'm happy so far with them, but I think I could be happier. Very likely I'll make a new mold once I get these guys painted and looking good. The process of getting them to where they are was way too intensive. There were so many tiny imperfections in them that I had to spend an inordinate amount of time sanding and buffing before I could ever get to painting them. Tags of plastic that were just too huge to ignore and holes that were there in the original cast that got added to each copy and consequently into the original five piece mold. I was too hasty in making that mold, because my enthusiasm was bigger than my patience at that moment. I wanted to see a ton of these guys and I wanted it FAST.



So, even though I posted this picture already at the old blog I figure it doesn't hurt to show it here for those who didn't see it there. This was the first batch, the ones that were full of pin like holes in the back that had to be sanded out of every cast I've made so far. They're cute, and the sanded versions look good, but the next batch will be as clean as I can get the new mold to be. I expect to sand a bit, because they'll need it to take the paint, but not like this.

Forget Perfection.

This is a first post. It won't be perfect. As a writer you want everything to fall into place and for it all to work. This is a blog. It's not the great American novel. Norman Mailer claimed before his death that the great American novel is a myth and won't ever happen anyway. That's another debate for another time.

We post to throw something out there. To call out into the gap between souls and feel the whispering voice of our own creation remind us who we are. We post for the same reason that we get up in the morning. We post because we seek the greatest vision of our selves, not in some egocentric way. But in the same way that we seek connection with a friend over a cup of coffee in a cafe, or by holding the door for a stranger coming in behind us out of the rain. We post because we need to declare that this is who we are, in this moment. Not tomorrow, or the next day, or even last week. This is who I choose to be this forever-tinged, multi-hued instant.

Take me in your arms. Wrap me in the silence of eternity. Make fun of me if it makes you happy. Join me in a song if you feel it welling up inside. I am with you. You and me, and we are all together.

...

Or something like that. (apolos to John, for lifting that last bit)