R. K. Milholland

R. K. Milholland at RavenCon

Randal Keith Milholland, better known as R. K. Milholland, is an American webcomic author. His works include Something Positive, New Gold Dreams, Midnight Macabre, Classically Positive and Super Stupor.

History

Raised in Bedford, Texas, Milholland attended Harwood Junior High and Trinity High School in neighboring Euless, Texas.[1] During high school he won several awards for his editorial cartoons.[2][3] He went on to enroll in the art department at the University of North Texas where he spent four years.

Milholland moved to Boston in the spring of 1999. He worked odd jobs, including stints at a dot com startup, scientific non-profit, medical billing and medical research companies. During this time he started the Something Positive webcomic, in response to a criticism from his friend, voice actress Clarine Harp, that he should "do something positive" with his life. The protagonist in this comic, Davan, is loosely based on Milholland and the stories are often inspired by real life experiences. Davan's best friend Aubrey Chorde is based on Harp.

In June 2004, faced with increasing complaints about his lateness in updating the comic, Milholland challenged his readership to donate enough money to pay for a year of his salary, so that he could quit his job and become a full-time cartoonist.[1][4][5] To his surprise, this amount was reached and surpassed in less than a month, making Milholland one of the successful pioneers of micropatronage. Since then, his webcomic has expanded into many realms of merchandising.[6][7]

Milholland has relocated to Texas and travels the con circuit frequently. He also sometimes performs in community theater, especially children's theater.

Comics

Something Positive

Something Positive 1937

Starting on September 7, 2007, Milholland launched a third spin-off from Something Positive, this one also taking place in the same continuity as the original but taking place many years earlier. Something Positive 1937 follows the relationship of Fred's father Vester Macintire and his cousin Davan (Davan of S*P's namesake, first mentioned in the comic's May 8, 2007 strip). The comic is in black and white and for a time featured in a sidebar next to the original, with archives available on the same page as the original strip. Milholland has said in news posts he expects the story to last for a few years, and provided it with its own website on September 24, 2007. The strip stopped updating in 2008.

Midnight Macabre

Midnight Macabre is another spin-off from Something Positive. It features Gaspar Baugh, the father of Something Positive secondary character Lisa Baugh, as he attempts to resurrect a horror TV show presenting Midnight movies.

New Gold Dreams

New Gold Dreams is a strip that spoofs the conventions of the heroic fantasy genre. It also ties in with Milholland's interest in role-playing games, as the comic is portrayed as a game run by Pee-Jee, one of the main strip's cast members; some of the characters in New Gold Dreams have the same appearance and personality as regular S*P characters. The comic started on April 2, 2004 but, due to the amount of time required for each strip, has been updated sporadically. Milholland wrote that, starting on June 6, 2005, he would update NGD three times a week, although the story has been entirely on hiatus since the 20th issue in August 2005.

Characters

Eumaeus is a twelve-year-old boy who dreamed of becoming a hero, but was denied a Hero Permit due to high intelligence. The Heroes' Guild encouraged him to try to join the Villain's Guild. This didn't work for Eumaeus either, because his older brother is a Licensed Hero and the Villain's Guild declared it to be a conflict of interest.

Altaes is Eumaeus' father. A coffin-maker by trade, he is somewhat disappointed in the fact that his older son has saved so many people's lives (thus lowering the demand for coffins). He deeply cares for his younger son, but nevertheless rents Eumaeus out to a pair of travelers for 160 gold dubloons.

Gornaf (originally created by Josh Pritchard, i.e. the "real world" Jason from Something Positive) is one of the travelers that rents Eumaeus. He is a dwarf and claims to have been sold for half the price that Eumaeus was rented (apparently by Aubridawn, see below).

Aubridawn is a halfling. Her upbeat nature makes her a perfect foil for Gornaf. She resembles Aubrey Chorde of Something Positive, and indeed, Aubridawn has appeared as Aubrey's gaming character in at least one comic.

Umya is a creature that is half chameleon and half man. He spends most of his time trying to avoid being eaten by the ogres that power Gornaf and Aubridawn's ship, the S.S. Foglio.

The Grave Digger has thus far been friendly to Eumaeus, though he is mysterious, and seems to be more powerful—and possibly sinister—than he seems. He resembles Fred MacIntire of Something Positive.

Super Stupor

Super Stupor is a superhero comic, which mocks the conventions of the genre. Four self-published volumes of the strip are currently available from the Rhymes With Witch store.

References

  1. 1 2 Morrison, Ellena (2004-06-08). "Online comic strip gives creator a new beginning". The Fort-Worth Star-Telegram.
  2. ↑ "Columbia Scholastic Press Association presents 1993 Scholastic Gold Circle Awards" (Press release). Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Retrieved 2007-08-18.
  3. ↑ "ILPC Awards 1992-93". University Interscholastic League. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
  4. ↑ Losowsky, Andrew (2004-09-09). "Charity begins on the net". The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-02-12.
  5. ↑ Chen, Jialu (2011-08-02). "See you in the funny pages". The Boston Globe.
  6. ↑ Warehouse 23 - Something Positive Merchandise Archived March 23, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ↑ Coltrain, Nick (2009-02-03). "Artists exploit the Web's freedom in creating their own comics". The Nevada Sagebrush. Retrieved 2009-02-12.
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