One Week...

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!!

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

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

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.

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.