The story thus far.....
Well this is it!
To this the fine mess started with me leaving Passline Comics and getting enough courage to start on a little self anthology called Tales of Retribution! It was the deepest darkest place I could possibly take horror to! A cross between Twilight Zone and my never ending nightmares within dreams.
Who knew that this little guy from a harsh upbringing would rule over underground comics, but it had to start from somewhere.
When I started, It was something people didn�t expect or even believe in from me. I remember the pressure to actually do a comic back then. I got people telling me that I couldn�t do comics like that back then, that it was a sign of blasphemy. Tales of Retribution was controlled anger and oppression on so many levels. it was my book of revenge.
Little did I know that it would get me banned for life at Planet Comicon or some kid would kill himself over the thing. I will have to admit that it was not fun at all to be caught up in all of that. It still torments me sometimes to this day. and sometimes it just has a way of popping up in my head unexpectedly. I had Christian groups after me, it was insane!
I remember Planet Comicon as being an accident to get into, it was sort of being at the right place at the right time. The headliner was Richard Corben and Kenny Baker (R2-D2) from Star Wars. I couldn't believe I was there with these people! I was there with my girlfriend Diane and whatever concepts of mainstream you had, I broke every one of them!
I remember getting into arguments with my dad about it and losing a job because of it when I had literally no one to turn to after Planet Comicon 3. I woundn�t want to relive that episode in my life.
I had done other underground comics after Tales of Retribution 1 like Darkmind: Tales of Retribution II and Blek 5 in Iceland. Blek was taken to the Icelandicon in about 1998. And it got good reviews. But Darkmind was not even looked at by too many people after the revolt of me.
I was at a point where I didn't know if I ever wanted to do comics or not, then I had realized that I wanted to go back to school and learn more in the way of Photoshop.
It was there that I met Dr. Lindaberry who used to go to the Kansas City Art Institute and he had taught me so much into doing digital art, that after the semester ended, I began to do a retrospective page with new art entitled Ambiance: The Dark Graphics of Mickmo. That thing took off! To this day, i still get many visitors on it. It had links at one time to relapse.com and many others.
That lead to me me doing album cover works for underground metal bands like Grand Facade and art for Punished Earth�s Ruined Empire which I am also quite known for. I also did covers for A few Static Zine issues including the 15th anniversary issue and 2 Static Zine Compilations.
I thought, if somebody would publish work from me after all of this crap in my life, that I would do that issue that eluded me for the longest time. Bug-Slayer! A creation that was lying around in my head for literally 11 years. But it never got perfected till after I had yet another dream that lasted a good 14 hours of sleep while I was living in a small apartment with my girlfriend in Lee�s Summit. The I started on the Bug-Slayer website.
Most of my good ideas come from nightmares.
I was forced to move in back with my dad after a split-up with Diane and I was working on mostly the Ambiance and Bug-Slayer websites.
I couldn't get much sleep and I was a working a lot. He persuades me to get a house. I thought if I could get a house, I could create a new art studio! Hence, my home is where Mickmo studios is now! A small place in Kansas City that I now live in that I call home.
During the time that I sent in The first Bug-Slayer was at Small Publishers Co-Op in Florida, I did a website for my second love, Death and Black Metal. A page about my metal going experience called Continuum: The Blasphemous Photography of Mickmo. At first it didn't get any hits till it got into Metal Maniacs, then it was another website of mine that is taking off....
Ambiance and Continuum both got into the Shorts Section in Metal Maniacs.
Now Bug-slayer 2 is coming out shortly. It takes off where Bug-slayer 1 left off.
I guess I look at art as more then just a cartoon or story. It is the way you interpret an image and then work with it on your format. Whether it be on computer or drawing or whatever. It is all a part of the process to create. So I am doing the best to work with it as a medium. I just don't want people to think of me as just some dark horror artist all of the time. Art is unlimited and there are so many ways of doing it.
Sometimes I just feel more well rounded in art then people would ever care to imagine.
I don't want to be pidgeonedholed as a horror artist or super hero artist or whatever. I see myself as a storyteller. The visual component is the most important because that is what people see, then they read the words. But it has to flow together somehow.
Hopefully I have proved more then enough that I am not just a comic book artist, but a TOTAL artist. I don't know everything about it, but I am sure as hell going to learn as I go along.
Where can it go from here? Well I have Bug-Slayer 3 in the works. The maybe some plans to do another Retribution anthology in 2004. Maybe another website or 2? Who knows.....
But sometimes I think what kind of life I had with this, and I can say that it was rough on me sometimes but I think of all of the people and celebrities and musicians I have met, and I can honestly say that it is almost uncanny at times.
5 years is a narrow window of time to self-publish. I am hoping the next 5 will be even better and more experimental in my art styles.
With a little luck and perseverance, I will be doing something creative before you know it.
Hail to 5 years and hail to a few more.......well enough of my talking......I hope you liked my mini-biography.
See you around.....
Mickmo
1-12-2003
