The name “Davan Xanthias MacIntire II” conjures images of an Irish Genghis Khan, astride in glorious green battle replete with fur-lined boots and a warcry to make his opponents’ spear-arms wither under an ochre blarney sun. Indeed, the character himself is not far from that image, clad in a blistering, saw-edged sarcasm that could repel spent-uranium-tipped anti-tank shells.
Something Positive, or S*P, has endeared itself to its fans by providing true-to-life Generation Y tragicomidramatic situations amid a machine-gun spray of witty triple-entendres, potent cutdowns, and salacious remarks involving midgets trained in the art of lust.
By contrast, Randall K. Milholland, the cartoonist, has made a name for himself in the online world as an outspoken condemner of idiocy — Adolf Hitler by way of Garrison Keillor. I envision him by a fireside in jodhpurs. He made time for Modern Humor Authority, becoming our first celebrity interview.
Modern Humor Authority: How does Randall K. Milholland begin his day?
R.K. Milholland: Usually, I wake and roll off the couch at the crack of noon. After I uncork my breakfast, I immediately set to work. Sometimes, I even start working on my comic. But not usually.
MHA: As one who creates worlds, does Randall K. Milholland feel a tangible sense of fatherhood for his work, like that of a caregiver to their charge? A sense of trembling magic when the creator of Something Positive opens the birth canal of his mind, and a new world, rife with possibilities, crowns?
RKM: No.
MHA: Fair enough. Moving on, Sequential Tart gave Something Positive a somewhat mediocre score, indicating that their reviewer couldn’t quite grasp the care with which you’ve woven the sprawling, crisp-edged tapestries of your strip. Your thoughts about the weight given reviews in the fledging webcomics community. Detriment or forte?
RKM: All reviews have some degree of merit (unless they’re the sort that start off, “I don’t like this kind of comic.” Every comic has room for improvement. It’s best to just take a review, whether it’s good or bad, and look to see where you need to improve things. If nothing’s listed, throw it away or delete the link or whatever. There’s no point in spending your time gloating about a good review or freaking out about a bad one.
MHA: Well said. Another review — Webcomic Book Club said of your strip, “SP seems like a sign of the times.” Does Randy Milholland believe that brutally-honest tone and surprising, satisfyingly-potent direction to be a sign of the times or times to come?
RKM: Not particularly. I don’t trust review sites or anything specializing in webcomics to tell me where this field is heading. I prefer to look at message forums where readers are. I’d rather hear what the audience has to say.
MHA: Micropayments. I imagine a raconteur as yourself favors the McCloud implementation?
RKM: I’ve mixed feelings on it. Webcomic patrons, as a whole, are still pretty selective about where they spend their money and only a few of them are willing to give any up just to see a comic when they can get so many more for free. It’s a nice thought, but so was Marxism. But the plan McCloud put out is still one of the best for people who want to make a go at surviving off their work, assuming what they’re producing is something worth paying for.
MHA: Something Positive is definitely worth paying for, if I may say so. Much of its appeal to its readers is surely a result of the strip’s realism, and harsh beauty. There is an undeniable bond among the characters, a bond not contrived by tricks of a writer, but of a forged trust, hardened by the kilns of life. Does S*P strongly echo your own life and times, or not at all? (Are there times you wish it did, or didn’t?)
RKM: In the first year of the strip, most of the comics were taken from my life. As it’s progressed, there have been changes made. I still draw a lot of inspiration from my life, friends and family, but real life can only be so interesting. With one or two exceptions, all the characters are based off people I know or have known. And, yes, there are times I wish I’d not giventhings an autobiographical basis. Usually at cons, when people walk up and start asking, “Did a girl really bite your dick while giving you a blowjob?”
MHA: Quite amusing. If R.K. Milholland could take over any existing comic strip or strips on the web today, and make them breathtakingly his own, which would he select?
RKM: Probably none of the strips I like, that’s for sure. I guess I’d go for a comic that’s dead on Keenspace. Probably something with pixels. Or furries. Or furry pixels who like to game and do constant movie parodies. Then I’d gut it.
MHA: The wonderfully-successful drive to earn a year’s salary so you could focus on S*P has spawned several imitators. Randal Milholland: comics-as-career visionary? Or just well-deserved good luck? Of what caliber must a storyteller be to share in your triumph?
RKM: I think it’s a mix, really. I’m definitely lucky. I don’t know I’m the right person to ask about how good you have to be, as I tend to look down on my own work most of the time, but you have to have proven to your audience you’re going to give them a consistent product that they’ll enjoy. You can’t just start a comic and tell anyone who’ll listen, “Gimme money to draw!”
MHA: Indeed. Even the manner in which you sign your name — “R.K. Milholland” — is another way in which you slash against the grain. Why not “Randy Milholland?” An homage to e.e. cummings, or J.K. Rowling?
RKM: Originally I did it because my father’s always signed anything official with his initials instead of his first name. Plus, “R.K.” sounds better than Randy.
MHA: Finally, Randall, the fundamental question — where do your whimsically elegiac stories come from? And from where do you draw the strength to tell them?
RKM: Heroin is surprisingly cheap these days.
Our profound thanks, Randy, for dimming your star that we may come nearer, if only for a brief moment. We’ll all be keeping an eye out for the Something Positive gang’s antics, and on a certain rising star creator for whom the crystalline-azure sky’s the limit.