Just Be

Angry Like Kevin Smith...but not quite so famous? Read on...

2010-02-15T07:39:00.001-06:00

Here's the run-down, really fast, because I don't know that everybody who reads this (all ten of you) will necessarily be up on this particular news bite. Kevin Smith, the director of Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy, was booted off a Southwest flight this weekend for being "too fat for the sky," as it was so aptly put by one of his twitter followers. The resulting shit-storm by Kevin, via twitter, was a thing to behold. He came down hard and fast on Southwest, causing the company to apologize by way of the poor sap who has to run the @southwest twitter feed, and via their blog, which I won't bother linking to; it hasn't worked for me once since I started trying to view it.

As I listened to Kevin's podcast, the Smodcast, it was really nagging at me. What do you do if you get royally gnawed on by the corporate machine, but you don't happen to have 1,651,646 followers on twitter?

I'm not exactly sure, but it really bugged me all night, and I thought I'd try something. What if you could use a twitter hashtag, that little # that makes people know you're talking about something that others might want to talk about as well, and people would take up your cause, and re-tweet that mother, so that the corporate douchebags might take a little notice of your tiny twitter account with all of 18 followers?

That's why I'm taking this absolutely longform attempt at creating such a hashtag.

#MadLikeKev

If you've just been screwed over by the man, if some corporate douchebag just made you cry like a fat man thrown off a plane (I know, Kev, you didn't cry, but that girl sitting next to you wanted to, and I don't want to pick on her. I know you can take it), then maybe we can find a little help in Kev's army, and bring some light to places where there needs a laser-powered spot-light.

And maybe only ten of you will read this, and it'll die right here, but this was really eating at me all night, so I had to try. Tweet this mother of a blogpost, and let's get started. Let's do it for that girl sitting next to Kevin on that second Southwest flight. Let's do it for her, whatever her name is.

So I stapled together that first one. Staples are NOT seams.

2010-02-12T23:38:00.000-06:00

These are the first two attempts at turning Hank, into what I'm calling Pocket Plush. The final will be a limited edition red suede, with possible later editions done in something a little more felt-ish. (and cheaper)

I'm happy with the way he's turning out. The first one is really horrible, but it was really just a way for me to see what something like this might look like. I've got his string down pretty solidly, I think. It's raffia wrapped heavy gauge wire, and it stands him up very nicely. It also means that you'll be able to wrap him around your desk-lamp or the neck of your least favorite Munny. There are some tweaks I'll do to the final pattern, I think, but overall the image is there.

In other news, it's Valentine's day and you don't have a date. I'm not judging. I'm just saying maybe you should stop hanging around the water fountain, filling up your Hello Kitty water bottle, and pick up a Milo Pocket Art instead. All the good Valentines include one. Even the LATE Valentines. And man, are you late.

Me, I'm totally not late. I got mega reservations for tomorrow night. Dinner, dance, and a swank hotel. I love me some Valentine's day. Give your sweetie a squeeze, and if you ain't got a sweetie, then go squeeze a stranger. Just don't blame me if you get slapped after.

The Ease of Starting Something...

2010-01-26T10:05:00.000-06:00

I was struck again last night at how easy it's become to Start Something. I use caps because it's one of the themes I've been wrapping my brain around lately. How do you Start Something that others will find value in, and how do you get those people who would find value in it to know that it's there?

My main source of experience in this at the moment is obviously Milo, and I'm having some luck there in getting eyes on the site, and getting folks to know what's going on in Milo's world. But this weekend I was asked for some help in getting an online presence for someone, and not in creative circles, but just in terms of a landing place on the web so that they might try some online advertising. You need a place for the clicks to go, if you're going to be paying for clicks, and you have to have at least some bare bones information out there if you want the possibility of anyone finding you and what you can do for them.

So, for 14 bucks, I put up a free-hosted Godaddy.com site for Dan's Construction Services. It's not slick, and it's not flash-animated, but it's definitely not ugly. So, for 14 bucks for a year, I got up a real honest to goodness web presence that has the capability of growing into something that IS at least a little slick, even if it does have a Godaddy advert at the top, and for a little more, we might make it even slicker.

We can do some youtube videos for them, or a photogallery of the kinds of jobs they do. There's so much possibility. And that's really what I'm talking about here. I spent a little more money on Milo, but ultimately it isn't that much. I've recouped the cost in selling Milo Pocket Art, and it's now in the black.

I'm obviously not saying that all you need to do is throw up a website and all of a sudden you'll have 14,000 followers and people building cults around you. But, it's so easy to build something, and if you're excited about truly building it, the excitement shows. People will find it. And maybe it'll take advertising to get them to find it, but THAT's not that expensive anymore either. I'm going to look into it soon. Because I think I'm ready for that.

What are you ready for?

Go Home and Practice.

2010-01-23T22:00:00.000-06:00

There are memories from childhood that make the hairs on your arms stand up and dance, in the best of ways. This song, and specifically a few scenes from this video, do that for me. The drum fill at 2:50 is the kind of instantaneous magic (combined with the overall fun of the cut) that can bring me out of even the deepest funk. I remember seeing this video and thinking that there could be no better fun than dancing on top of a soundboard with two buddies, and that dancing while trading hats must be genius level awesomeness that only the British could have come up with.

Looking at it now, I'm struck by the fun again, but I'm also struck by how much Andy Summers reminds me of Harpo Marx, something that I'm sure was intentional on his part. He makes a couple of faces that are pure Harpo, and even the dancing and camaraderie is very Marx Brothers. It's still as fun a clip as I remember it, but having sat outside Wrigley Field and listened to these three guys a couple years ago, it's also interesting to think about where they were when this video was made.

It's at this point that Sting is thinking about solo stuff, and the band is at each others' throats quite a bit of the time. Soon after this the band will split, and the world will wish for years and years that they hadn't. Having heard these songs on the radio as a small kid, when they were brand new, I loved the Police, but I grew up and became a musician in a world where the band no longer existed except in history and on vinyl/CD/magnetic tape. (my tape recordings were so worn out that I think I have a warped sense of what key these songs should be in).

It's also pretty cool to listen to this as I'm finally starting to enjoy practicing for the first time in my life. I've always had a really bad practice ethic. I just hate it. I've started to play guitar so many times, and after a few days just decided that life was too hectic, and I'd do it some other time. But for the absolute first time today I found myself studying ii/V/I chord progressions because I wanted to, not because some teacher told me it was what I needed to do. I've started really enjoying picking up the ukulele and practicing. I'm not saying I'm any good yet, but I can see a time when I could be good. I've always been a good singer. Never had to practice much at it, and so I got by. But this is something I DO have to practice at and I actually find that I love doing so.

So what does that have to do with The Police or with this video? Only that I learned "So Lonely" today, and I can play it badly. But I am very certain that I will eventually be able to play it so well that I can do so while dancing on the soundboard, or trading hats with Andy Summers. And that'll be a fun day.

We all hate practice in general, but for some reason I'm thinking that I just really needed to find an instrument that made me smile despite being bad at it, and not minding so much that it was going to take a while to be better. It's just great fun to suck at this for a while, because every time I pick it up I really do get a little better. And I keep picking it up. That's the key.

Could just be because it's not very heavy though... Happy Saturday night, everybody.

Slurmy/Lou update

2009-12-12T17:39:00.000-06:00

Just a quick post before I head out to a post thanksgiving turkey party (one of the best kinds of parties) and NOT head to a gig that was canceled yesterday (meh). Here's a bit of what I did today, aside from make stuffing. Did a bit of painting on the Slurmy project. I'm happy with Slurmy. Just not all that happy with Lou at the moment. Turns out the details I cut into the piece were not exactly how I want it to be painted, so it's going to take some more work. Which is fine. No big. I dig the big goofy grin on this worm. Gonna paint some segments on him next. Likely tomorrow while my wife is studying.

Enjoy the weekend, everybody.

Brain Dump

2009-12-10T22:32:00.001-06:00

This is going to be largely a post for me to sort out some possible venues for merchandise. I've gotten a couple leads from surfing the websites of other folks who are doing this stuff, and so I'm posting them here so I don't forget them. If it's of use to anyone else, that's great. I'm not endorsing these folks, because I haven't done business with them. Just collecting data right now.

ModButtons.com Just what it says. They do custom buttons and magnets. Thinking I might do 4 or 5 designs, and sell them in packs.

Brunetto T-Shirts Custom T-Shirts. The pricing looks good here. Ariana Osborne used them to make the T-shirts for Diesel Sweeties. I have to read Diesel Sweeties again. I haven't read that in a while.

Also, (and here, I am endorsing) if you haven't been reading Ariana, of late, she's been on about POD, and has some really good thoughts on it. Even if she is a bit of a meany about it. But that's okay. A lot of us need a meany to kick us in our collective buttock and remind us what it means to GET EXCITED AND MAKE THINGS (Thanks, Matt Jones).

New Shipping Design

2009-12-08T11:24:00.000-06:00

Last night I did a little work on the shipping design for the Milo Pocket Art. I think it's pretty nifty, and wanted to share it with you guys. The bottom of the box, I'll let be a mystery until you get one in the mail. It's nothing much. Just a fun bit of copy that I'll likely change up every now and again. I sent out a box last week, and at the last minute I drew Milo on there all excited that he was going in the mail, and then I thought it might be cool to have that be a ready made label that I could just pop an address into when I got a sale.

So. There it is. Learning and changing as we go. Think next time I'll make copies and print out labels as I go, because the inkjet ink runs with moisture, and thus I had to tape this one up with strapping tape so it doesn't bleed. Kind of makes it less cool, but I can't redo this one today. Have to get him in the mail.

Back On the Air

2009-12-01T09:42:00.002-06:00

I'm back. This blog is reactivated. I decided that I like having the comic separate from the blog, even if I decide to pull in an RSS feed to the comic page. Just feels better having two separate entities. Because not all of this is going to be Milo related.

So, this is a tiny sculpt I did this weekend, of everyone's favorite migratory secret agent. I'm doing it for a collaboration with the creator of http://www.flickr.com/photos/zook360/3512851994/sizes/o/in/set-72157617685683269/ Slurmy, the artist known as Zook. (Sorry it took me so long to get on the stick, man.) The scale is pretty tiny to do all that detailed a sculpt of Lou(with my not-so-mad skillz), but it's going to be a cool first crack at it. It's got my mouth watering for a bigger version that I have planned. Picture Lou bristling with guns.

For those that are seeing this blog for the first time, please go check out http://www.milothecloud.com .and if you're coming at this from the designer vinyl scene, then check out the Milo Pocket Art in the store: http://www.milothecloud.bigcartel.com

floating on the breeze...

2009-03-30T16:35:00.000-05:00

So, this'll be the last post here. I'm gonna leave it up for a while, because some people may not know about it, and I want to catch the stragglers up to speed. I've moved everything over to MiloTheCloud.com and the blog exists there too. The reasoning was that I really hated all the clicking one has to do on blogger. Click to see the full size, scroll through and THEN click to find comics from the past. I've moved to Wordpress and specifically Comicpress which gives a fully customizable setup that's made for webcomics. So you'll be able to scroll easily through all the archives, and look through the blog posts separately if you want to read them.

So, there it is. Goodbye blogger, and hello MiloTheCloud.com. Follow me there, and add your name to my email list, so you'll get newsletters on merch and other happenings.

Milo Comic Strip #17

2009-03-26T23:31:00.001-05:00

Click for big-osity.

The colors are not as good on this as I'd like. Photoshop always drains the color out when you convert to jpg. Anybody who knows the magic of how to keep that from happening, I'm all ears.

Hank finally gets the drop on the little guy. I'm sure this will end in tears, or possibly shreds of rubber all over the ground. But not for a while yet. Probably it'll get worse before it gets better. Maybe for years.

Nailing down a cloud (or at least asking him to sit still for a second)

2009-03-24T16:47:00.000-05:00

So I’m doing this exercise, because I’m building the Milothecloud.com website architecture, and the first steps (in a tutorial I was checking out) involve defining exactly why you’re doing this thing. Which is something that I’ve never actually sat down and considered. I mean, I just draw the comics because I enjoy doing them, and I’m doing the book because I love the story, and I made the first toys because I wanted to see if I could. But the sitting down and defining is a really good thing to do, whatever you happen to be taking on, because it makes you consider if you actually want to do this thing at all. Looking at it in black and white makes you go, “hmmm. That’s pretty big. Do I really want that? Am I prepared to do all of that?” The even better thing right now is that I’m answering, “Hell yes I do!” I’m going to need help with it, and that’s maybe where I’ll have some problems (because I’m a dreamer, and not that good a delegator) but the thought of that doesn’t fill me with dread or make me want to stop. It makes me say, “I don’t know how I’ll do that, but I can learn.”

The thing that made me want to write this down was that I was thinking of who my audiences are, and the thought of the kinds of people that might dig what I’m doing made me realize that there’s something very cool about the age that we live in. Because of Twitter and blogs and message boards about random interests that are shared by niche groups of people around the world, it’s a very interesting time to be a small-time creator starting out. The fact that every time I post one of the Milo strips on http://www.sulliedreputation.deviantart.com someone favs it, or adds me to their watch list, means that the strips are enhancing someone’s life, even if only in a small way. And because of that, people will start to find it, and because of that, they’ll start to find the other things I’m doing, and planning to do on MiloTheCloud.com.

I’m very excited, and I’m glad if you’re lurking out there. Hit me up on twitter http://twitter.com/SeanArcher, or drop Milo a message on the digsby widget and let me know if there’s something that you’d love to see that you haven’t seen yet. I’m not promising it’ll sync with what I’m planning, but I promise to listen. At least until the haters show up and start griping about how there isn’t enough helium in Hank’s body to lift a teddy bear. I’ll have you know it’s super-helium, and the bear is made of a space-age polymer that weighs next to nothing. Your child won’t even know he’s holding a bear!!

Anyway, if you’ve read that whole thing, then cheers to you, and I hope that you enjoy the ride.

Sean

Milo Comic Strip #16

2009-03-23T23:28:00.001-05:00

click for bigness.

This look on Milo's face is something that cracks me and my lady up when we do it to each other. Best used when feigning indignant astonishment and pain. Milo's pain is real though. As is Hank's utter disregard and slight amusement at Milo's distress.

Milo Comic Strip #15

2009-03-20T02:10:00.001-05:00

Click to embiggen, (I think, although, it might actually be as big as it'll get right here. I don't know, it's 2 a.m. and I'm only posting this because I set myself these stupid deadlines and I'm trying desperately to keep them and also plan a wedding).

I don't really want this to become a political cartoon, but sometimes you just gotta say something, and Lou is a good voiceless voice. I figure he'll sell his services to the highest bidder, even though he'd probably do it all for free just to prove he can.

Have a nice Friday. I plan to go for a walk.

2009-03-16T08:29:00.000-05:00

Click to embiggen.

The end of the storyline. With a healthy dose of truth about balloons. Ingrates, all of them.

No comic today.

2009-03-12T11:41:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately the scans I did today (which I was going to work on at lunch and on my break) are corrupted. I tried something different and tried to scan straight to a .psd and it didn't work. I went to open them just now and it told me that Photoshop couldn't open them because they weren't valid photoshop documents.

Which is kinda lame.
Sorry, folks.

Not comics...

2009-03-10T13:54:00.000-05:00

This is something I happened across, and wanted to share with those who come here. It's about 9 minutes long, and it's worth watching. Very cool, and touching.

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

Milo Comic Strip #13

2009-03-09T23:26:00.001-05:00

Click to embiggen.

For some reason this one took me for-freakin'-ever. Hope you enjoy. I like the middle Hank, myself. Self-righteous little balloon. Sleep now.

Milo Comic Strip #12

2009-03-05T19:21:00.001-06:00

Click the comic for full size.

Here's Eva. She looks a bit overwhelmed to be meeting the boys. As well she should be.
Not gonna say much on this one. I could have worked for hours more on it, and not felt like it was done. But I want these to come out in as timely a manner as I can, so I let go of it.

Enjoy.

Milo Comic Strip #11

2009-03-02T22:56:00.001-06:00

Click the comic for full size.

Better late than never, huh? I'm doing my best to keep to my Monday and Thursday upload. This is technically still Monday, though it's stretching it well into Monday night. (11 pm central standard time). I'm very happy with the sketches I've been doing on Eva, who I think I'll be able to introduce to you folks on the next strip, which'll be a full pager. Want to introduce her in a cool way. Till then, Lou deadlifting a blender.

Milo comic number ten

2009-02-26T11:57:00.001-06:00

Click the comic for full size.

I'm having a blast drawing Lou. I also like nervous hide-y Hank and his teddy. But frankly I'm as ready to get rid of the teddy as Hank is. Still have a few more strips to go with this though.

EDIT: (I just realized that the teddy-bear has the string on the wrong hand in this one. Damn you, editorial department!! You're supposed to catch these things BEFORE I post them!)

Chatting with Milo (or Hank)

2009-02-23T16:39:00.000-06:00

So I'm testing out a new thing. I've installed a Digsby widget in the page, and now you can chat with Milo. Or if I'm feeling like letting Hank have his say, I may give Hank the chat access for a while. Obviously the Hank chats will be more colorful, but I thought it'd be cool to have a bit of fun with the characters and let people chat with them if they'd like.

If it gets out of hand, or people start abusing Milo, he'll go away, so be nice. Otherwise I'll have it be Lou the Cardinal chat, and he'll just sit there logging your IP addresses and compiling a list of people upon whom to visit his chainsaw fury.

Milo's coming...

2009-02-23T11:52:00.000-06:00

I'll hopefully have something for you guys today, but it's not going to be a full strip. This weekend was all music and driving, so there was no time for comic-creation. I drove to St. Joseph, Missouri to sing in the wedding of a friend. The wedding was beautiful, and the reception a blast. I was happy to do it, and my part seemed to go over well. I sang "A Simple Song" by Leonard Bernstein, and it was such a nice space for singing. Only thing is, St. Joseph is 8 hours drive from Chicago, so I'm beat. I drove the 8 hours after working an almost full day on Friday. Left around 7:30 and got in around 3:30. Then I was too wired to sleep, because I'd been drinking caffeine to stay awake.

Needless to say, I wasn't feeling very fluffy or cloudlike. Milo had to go on the back burner this weekend. But that's cool, because I've got the next part of the multi-part story simmering. I think you'll dig it...if you've been digging it so far. And if you haven't, well, then maybe you'll start, because it's going to take a bit of a turn in a couple strips or so. Much as Lou makes me smile, he's not the whole story here.

The fun thing about doing this is that I've really started to think that I've got something that's continue-able. I've just met these characters as you have, and they're starting to really talk to me all day long. I'll see something or someone and I'll hear Milo or Hank commenting on the situation, which-while a bit unnerving-is really cool.

Anywho, might post something later tonight, if I can get my wake up enough to get my pen hand running on my lunch break. Hope everybody's Monday is as sunny and blue as mine looks.

Milo Comic Strip #9

2009-02-19T13:58:00.000-06:00

Click the comic for full size...puh-leeez.

No real story here. Just loved the idea of a tiny cardinal chasing someone with scissors. And it happens to be Hank, because he's Hank. Hope everybody has a great weekend.

Milo Comic Strip #8

2009-02-15T22:30:00.000-06:00

Click the comic for full size.

Introducing Lou, the cardinal. The new character was initially going to be a grackle, because we saw these gawky hyperactive grackles in Mexico, and I loved them. Only problem is that I couldn't capture the personality in something that has to be drawn that small. My attempts ended up looking either too cartoon-y or too UN-cartoon-y, and I just wasn't happy with them. So I completely changed tack and went for completely the opposite personality. The grackle was going to talk a mile a minute and always be in motion. Lou, the cardinal, is going to be stoic and silent.

I figure you guys are going to get enough yakking out of Hank. Enjoy the matter-of-fact calm of Lou.

Hope everybody had a great Valentine's day.

Valentine - freebie

2009-02-13T10:47:00.000-06:00

Click for the full size version.

This is just a quickie because I felt like there should be a Valentine from this crew. You know, for all the folks who end up going to the grocery store and picking up a sad batch of dyed carnations and a box of sad heart-shaped chocolates. Here's something you can print out and hand to your special someone to let them know that you cared enough to copy someone else's valentine and print it out for them. Or send it to them in an email, if you're REALLY gunning for that pole position in the Lame-o 500.

Or, you could do us all a favor and actually take twenty minutes on your lunch hour to write that person a love letter to let them know how much you care about them. Doesn't have to be on heart-shaped paper, or even have a doily fringe. Just tell them they mean the most to you.

And if you're smart, you'll copy a picture of Hank, and give it to them telling them that he's the official balloon of love this season, and that they should go check out his adventures with Milo at Milothecloud.com because that's what all the really soulful lovers are doing, and they want to be soulful lovers, don't they? No? Well, that's a shame.

Oh, sorry. I got attacked by one of those time-share a-holes while we were in Mexico, and I think it rubbed off on me a little.

Happy Valentines weekend. (that's right, spend the whole weekend, not just the day).

Milo Comic Strip #7

2009-02-12T06:53:00.000-06:00

Click for full size as usual.

In which Hank flips out, and Milo tells us something profound about being a cloud.

Milo Comic Strip #6

2009-02-09T08:02:00.000-06:00

click the comic for full size.

This is the first part of a longer storyline in which you'll meet some new characters.

Milo Comic Strip #5

2009-02-04T22:32:00.000-06:00

Click the comic for full size - as usual.

I was out walking and saw a newly formed contrail. It made me think about Milo, and then I looked a little ways off where the contrail was quickly dissipating. Well, quicker than regular clouds at any rate. I wondered to myself if contrails would make very good friends, and then I thought about all those movies in which two people fall in love only to find out that Charlize Theron is dying and Richard Gere loves Winona Ryder anyway, and Michael Keaton is going to make a movie for the baby he's put in Nicole Kidman's belly, and well, you get the picture.

My head is a strange place. But you get these comics out of the deal, so quit your moanin'.

Milo Comic Strip #4

2009-01-31T23:21:00.000-06:00

Click the comic for full size.

For some reason, the old Wild Kingdom show popped into my head the other day. The phrase, "Brought to you by Mutual of Omaha..." always made me wonder what kind of place Omaha was. In my mind it was full of lions and iguanas and marmosets.

I've never been to Omaha, but Mutual of UMAha now brings you the birth of Milo. Watch along with Jim.

Back from Mexico

2009-01-30T10:45:00.000-06:00

So I'm engaged! She said yes, and she was so surprised. I had such a hard time keeping that secret. I had the ring for over a month before I asked her. There were some moments where we'd be having a conversation and I'd be just about to say something like, "Well, don't worry about that because ... I have...a monkey...that knows just what to do with bowls like that one over there!!! NO of course I don't have an engagement ring hiding in the closet, what do you take me for????"

But I didn't. Instead I sang her a song at night on the beach, and asked her to marry me. And it was a really great moment that I'll remember forever.

And of course, while we were there we took a bunch of snaps. But someone decided to sneak his way into one of them. He's kinda fuzzy in the background, but you can see what I mean. That cloud is such a photo hog.

2009-01-27T23:54:00.000-06:00

Every cloud has one. Just a single panel tonight. More by the end of the week. Trying to see what kind of schedule I want this to settle into. I'd like it to be twice a week. I'm just not sure which days make the most sense. Might be Tuesday and Friday, or it might eventually be Monday and Thursday. Not sure yet.

Family Portrait

2009-01-14T01:03:00.000-06:00

First attempt at putting Eva together with Milo (and Hank, who insisted on being in the shot). I started just drawing Eva, and then decided to throw Milo in there to see how he looked. Obviously things aren't going to be this fleshed out all the time. A strip would take me forever if I did it this way. It's nice to see that for my money, she works with him. I just need to get some good practice in drawing her more simply and quicker with fewer lines. I'm also having a hard time conceptualizing how I'm going to establish that she's on a rooftop or a water tower or a radio tower in such a small space. The radio tower would probably be easiest to do in a small space, but it's a dilemma. Fewer lines, more simplicity. Well, anyhoo, here's the first attempt.

So Milo's getting another character.

2009-01-09T10:43:00.000-06:00

pushed around by =rammkitty-stock on deviant ART

So far I've got Hank the balloon, Nimbo the stormcloud, and the omnipresent threat of airplanes. Soon I'll be adding a very important character named Eva. She's going to be based on Rammkitty-stock's photo above. Every good comic strip has a way in for the reader. Sometimes that way in is the main character, like in Calvin and Hobbes, or in Charlie Brown. The everyman is your lead. But in something more fantastical like Milo, that's set in the sky, you need to have a foot (or at least a toe) on the ground, and that's going to be Eva. She's a slightly grumpy teenage girl who likes to climb her town's water-tower, and sometimes the radio tower, because she likes getting away from her family, and likes being closer to the sky.

Liberty Meadows has Brandi because Frank Cho loves to draw statuesque women with curves. I like slightly gawky nerds, so that's what you'll get from me. You'll learn a lot more about her as time goes on, but I thought I'd introduce you to the inspiration. I'd thought about adding the character from the beginning, but when I found this one image, I really had my hopes set that rammkitty would be hip to posing. She just noted me this morning that she's cool with it, so I'm going to get started on some character sheets for Eva, and trying to find ways to work her into the strip. Cheers, rammkitty, and I hope everybody has a great day.

One Week...

2009-01-08T13:40:00.000-06:00

I'll be leaving in a week for Mexico, and I'll take some pens and pencils with me, because I'll be on the beach most of the time and probably needing something other than just a book to do. We decided to do a resort vacation because we DID the "must see everything" vacation this summer in Rome. We're thinking we could use a decompression kind of vacation where you just get out of Chicago for a week and enjoy not freezing and not doing anything you don't feel like doing. Which to mean means lots of swimming, and reading, and walking, and maybe some sketching while I'm there.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to leave the laptop at home though. I'd love to do that, and not answer email for seven days, but I have this feeling that shit will happen that needs my immediate attention if I don't bring it. Totally paranoid, not to mention narcissistic, I know. Plus, it's not like they won't have TV in the hotel, right? Maybe completely disregarding email for a week would be a great thing.

Just float like a cloud for a while.

The Snuggler!!

2009-01-07T07:35:00.001-06:00

There used to be this place on Clark St. here in Chicago, that was in between shops in an alley, and there was a sign for it with a little man standing up in a canoe, and it was called "The Smuggler." The sign was written poorly, and in cursive, so for the longest time I thought it said, "The SNUGGLER," which was a pretty hilarous name for any kind of establishment, let alone a dive bar in an alley. I always just pictured a place where people could go in secret when they needed a snuggle for a minute. "Sheesh, Jim. I've had a really rough day, and my wife isn't gonna want to snuggle tonight. She's just out for sex. You wanna stop by the Snuggler and see if we can't get our snuggle on?" "Damn right, Leon. I could use me a good snuggle."

Anyway, that has very little to do with Milo, but the memory struck me as I was posting this picture. I was thinking of the things that clouds do, and what behavior they'd have, and this popped into my head. You always see the tallest buildings in any town surrounded by clouds on a hazy day, and sometimes even on a clear-ish day you'll see one or two clouds that are low enough to get a little snuggle in to a tall building. So Milo with the Hancock seemed like a natural way to go. I was going for a Polaroid thing here, and that strikes me as kinda sad because we're fast approaching the day when no one knows what the hell a Polaroid is anymore.

Say Lah Vee. "Laaah Veee!"

Milo Comic Strip #3

2009-01-06T01:01:00.000-06:00

Click for full size, please, to enjoy the full effect.

Here we meet the first of I'm sure many airplanes to buzz Milo. I figured he needed a Charlie Brown vs. the football moment, and well, you see what came out. Also, just as a side note, it's now 1:05 a.m. and I'm done. Only meant to work another 20 minutes past midnight on this and go to bed, but I was on a roll, so I figured I'd just throw down with it.

Milo Comic Strip #2

2009-01-05T08:30:00.000-06:00

This strip introduces Hank, a red balloon. Hank's last comment is a topic of discussion at our house right now, as my girlfriend thinks it's too much, that I shouldn't alienate kids by having him swear. I think it's not really an issue. It's not as if I have a daily strip in the Tribune. And anybody who's reading these needs to know that this strip is sometimes going to deal with bigger concepts and sometimes going to have humor that's a bit sharp. That's just who I am. I think on the whole, web comics are for thinking people, and not for those who would tune out because of a "dick" comment. I love my girlfriend for trying to make sure that I don't get myself in trouble, but I also think that if I ever got picked up for a gig where content was an issue, I could probably put together a Sunday Funnies kid-safe portfolio pretty easily.

If you're thinking you don't like what Hank says, just don't listen to Hank. He's kind of a "jerk" himself. See how easy that was?

Serious Bidness.

2009-01-02T10:50:00.000-06:00

Messing around with some textures and coloring. Came up with this. Milo taking a nap after some heavy duty floating.

The first strip.

2008-12-31T11:38:00.000-06:00

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.

2008-11-12T10:17:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-10-24T11:16:00.001-05:00

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...

2008-09-09T10:33:00.000-05:00

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...

2008-08-29T14:59:00.001-05:00

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!

2008-06-16T10:51:00.000-05:00

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

2008-06-10T11:09:00.000-05:00

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!

2008-06-05T11:28:00.000-05:00

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.

2008-06-04T11:46:00.001-05:00

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)