Milo Comic Strip #16

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 #13

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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 #11

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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

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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!)

Milo Comic Strip #9

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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

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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.

Milo Comic Strip #7

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

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

Milo Comic Strip #5

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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

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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.

Family Portrait

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.

pushed around by =rammkitty-stock on deviantART

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.

The Snuggler!!

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 #2

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.

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