The following journal entry explains how "The Adventures of Jesse & Steve-O" came to be, and how it was created.



"So, where did your cartoon sketches begin?"

It all started in Dalton High School a few years ago. I think it was the year 2005. Anyway, I finished suffering through a miserable math class and made it to my lunch period. I was sitting at my table and thought to myself, "What would I look like if I turned into a cartoon?" So, I pulled out some notebook paper and did a quick rough draft of myself as a cartoon character. Remember, this was the very first sketch, so it didn't look as good as it does now. Anyway, I thought it looked pretty neat, so I kept it. I then decided to turn my best friend Jesse Clark into a cartoon. These drawings were all spawned out of boredom. So, I had cartoon Jesse and cartoon me standing there. Later on, I was inspired by some show about an evil twin to draw the cartoon version of myself to look evil. I threw on a cape, a bunch of spikes, glowing eyes, that sort of thing. I originally named him Evil Steve-O. However, I changed his name to Evo Zero soon after, because Evil Steve-O was not only too long, but made it harder to tell them apart. Eventually, I turned my friends DJ Lee, Cliff Moore, Robert Dodge, Roger, Jennifer French, Tara Dyer, and my favorite math teacher Mr. Rainbow into cartoons too. Over time, I randomly created a series of fictional villains to coexist with my cartoon friends, wrote in a simple storyline, and viola! My comic is born!

"So, let's start with the friends. Why did you choose the friends you did?"

Well, Jesse Clark is my best friend. He's always been there for me, no matter what. After I created my cartoons, I decided to dedicate the comic to Jesse as a token of thanks for keeping our friendship indestructible. I chose DJ because he too is a one-of-a-kind friend just like Jesse, always there for me. Cliff was a great friend to be with; he meant well and had a great sense of humor. Robert Dodge was a friend of mine back in Cheyenne, and I figured I'd put him in because the comic needed a nerd. We went our own separate ways since I moved, so I assigned his name to a drawing that might not look exactly like him. Roger was somewhat of a friend of mine, but he betrayed me when I fell through thin ice and left me out in the snow to freeze. Jesse helped me get home, and Roger and I broke our friendship. I included him in the comics anyway because not only did I forgive him later on, but he handmade a bow and arrows for Jesse and I. He was great with survival and making homemade weapons, so I figured he'd be a good addition to the comic. Jennifer French, or "Jenny" was a great friend in Fayetteville. We haven't seen each other since I moved from NC when I was ten or eleven, so her cartoon looks probably don't match. I still haven't found her again, but maybe someday I will. Tara Dyer was the younger sister of my childhood friend Emily Dyer. I never really hung out with her back then, but ever since I found her and Emily on MySpace last year, Tara and I have been catching up on things and bonding our friendship. As for Emily, she became a prep, and the childhood friend I knew is gone. She won't talk to me anymore... So Tara proved to be a better addition to the comic. Finally, Mr. Rainbow. He was my favorite math teacher. Great sense of humor, loved to have fun, and he made his class enjoyable. We played video games in his class after our work was done! He was a great moral supporter during my difficult times in school, and I wanted to remember him by adding him into the comic.

"Now, how did the villains come about? Let's start with Evo Zero."

Evo Zero, as I mentioned before, was originally called Evil Steve-O. I changed the name to Evo because the words "evil" and "Steve-O" combined sounded like Evo. I soon discovered that an evo was a brand of car too, but decided not to change it. As for his last name, my storyline mentions that Tronix Labs classifies failed projects as Project Zero, then Project One, and Project Two, and so forth. Seeing as how Evo was the only failed project, he was classified as a Project Zero, this resulting in his last name. How, as for Evo's behavior, he's the most evil human who ever lived. Sure, he looks and sounds just like me, but his heart is as black as the night sky. He loves destruction and causing people great amounts of pain, finding joy in the suffering of others. His ultimate goal is to rule the world and spread eternal darkness and damnation to everyone on Earth. Now, in the story, he ignores me, but after I stopped him from his first stage of his evil plan, he changed his top priority to killing me first. He gets defeated several times, and later on finds an ancient temple in the mountains called the Temple of Sorrow. He finds a skeleton key and opens a portal inside, opening the doorway to a parallel universe called the Realm of Shadows, ruled by an evil entity called Death Mask, and three loyal followers, Wrath Wraith, Mirror Wraith, and Knight Wraith. After Evo becomes invincible, Jesse and I join forces with our enemies and defeat the Wraith Trio, along with Death Mask. We close the portal with the key we steal from Evo, taking his power away. At the end of the story, I supposedly kill Evo when the temple collapses, but somehow he survives. The bad thing is, when the portal closed, everyone on Earth except for the people inside the temple had their memories of the world domination erased. So, only the heroes remember saving the world, and don't get rewarded for it.

"What about Mr. Big?"

Bruno Maximus Big. I got the name "Mr. Big" from a fictional short story written on the Internet. Mr. Big sounded like a mobster name, so I came up with a random first and middle name. Bruno sounded tough, and Maximus seemed to accent his great size. I made Mr. Big wear a top hat, monacle, and own a cane so he would look like a big fat rich guy. As his name implies, Mr. Big is rather large, standing at 8' in height, and weighing 593 lbs. He's a multi-millionaire and an infamous jewel thief. He becomes our enemy in the story after Jesse sneaks onto his property hoping to get an autograph. His mansion is hidden deep inside the forest behind a secret passage in Crow Valley Desert, and can't be seen from above. So, while Jesse and I are there, we accidentally find an underground tunnel to his basement, where we overhear him discussing his plans on stealing a gem from the Dalton Museum to his henchmen. That night, we arrived at the museum early, bringing the police before hand. Mr. Big was arrested before he even set foot on the property. He swore revenge against us, but joined forces with us after Evo conquered the world. After Evo's death, Mr. Big became our enemy again.

"Now, what is Dr. Tronix like?"

Dr. Hector von Tronix was a random creation. His first name was derived from Prof. Hector from the game "Gyromite." I added 'von' to make him sound German or something. His last name just popped into my head. Not sure where I got inspired to use that. I thought the comic could use a mad scientist.

"And his brother?"

Dr. Tronix's younger brother Victor van Tronix was another random idea. I used Victor because it sounded a lot like Hector, and 'van' was added not for the German name, but because it was like a play off of 'von.' Anyway, his appearance was also random. I made him look slightly younger, but with a few more wrinkles, and a mole. Prof. Tronix specializes in laser weaponry.

"Where did Dr. Komma come from?"

DJ the Hippie gave me that name. I needed a name for Dr. Tronix's assistant or student, and DJ randomly said "Name him Dr. Comma." So, I stuck with it! His full name was Dr. Dash P. Komma; the P stood for ""Peereeihd," a play off the word "period." That way, his name sounded all of punctuation terms. His appearance was yet again random. I made him like a snob. He cares more about physical appearance, and how he looks more than his inventions, yet somehow manages to get more of his approved than Dr. Tronix.

"Now, tell me about Solar Phase and Lunar Phase."

Lunar Phase was the screen name of a girl I was friends with on a video game server host called Kaillera. I thought Solar Phase was the exact opposite of the name. I decided that the two sounded related to astrology, so my two characters were created. Solar Phase was originally a boy named Solaris Firebrand, but was changed to be a girl named Star Firebrand. The reason was because there were too few girls in the series. Anyway, their interests are mainly in astrology and horoscopes, that sort of thing. Star was born during a Solar Eclipse, and Luna during a Lunar Eclipse. Star is like a tomboy. She's very tough like Steve-O and always wears sunglasses all the time, for an unknown reason. Luna is a girly girl, enjoying make-up and dresses, etc. Long story short, they accidentally found the two temples, the Temple of the Sun, and the Temple of the Moon. They each acquired legendary powers there, and chose to use them for the good of mankind. However, after they tried to help people in the city, their powers caused more damage, and the city rejected them. They then decided to use their powers not necessarily for evil, but for fun and personal gain. They went to the mall and began destroying things for fun, until Jesse and I stopped them. They swore revenge and later on kidnapped us, attempting to sacrifice us to the two temples during a full moon at midnight. Doing so would give them a special power called the Eclipse Beam, capable of mass destruction. However, Jesse and I escaped and defeated them again, making them miss their only chance at getting that power for the next 1,000 years. They joined forces with us when Evo conquered the world, only to become our enemies again after his downfall.

"Okay, now who is Hei Ming Xhong?"

His name was very different when I first created him. I improved his name and soon created his character. Xhong is a Chinese satellite designer that moved to Japan to work on a space program. He's a good man, but when Evo conquered the world, he threatened to kill Xhong's family if he refused to build a satellite capable of launching Prof. Tronix's Burst Bomb from space. So, to protect his family, Xhong fought Jesse and I and built the satellite, only to be defeated and have the satellite destroyed. We moved in and relocated Xhong's family to a secure area and befriended him. Xhong joined the resistance and defeated Wrath Wraith with his swordsman skills. After the world was saved, he left us and returned to Japan to continue his career.

"What's the deal with the Wraith Trio?"

Wrath Wraith was a random combination of words I put together. He's a wraith with unspeakable wrath. I got the idea for his face from a Rupee Wraith from "The Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords Adventure." The body was a suit and tie just for the hell of it. Wrath's abilities include shapeshifting, becoming transparent, and wielding a Dark Sword and Dark Shield composed of pure evil energy.

Mirror Wraith looks just like Wrath, except his suit is white, and his eyes and mouth resemble a creepy smile. His abilities include duplicating himself, mirroring anyone's outer appearance, voice, and any/all powers and skills, plus mimicking their exact movements like a real mirror. His weakness is his inability to acknowledge the environment around him. His vision is limited to moving objects only, so the best way to defeat him is to trick him into walking into a trap, or grabbing an object close to you and throwing it at him. He'll assume that object is mirrored, and he can also grab it.

Knight Wraith stands at about ten feet tall, and has arms that extend to his feet. His weapon of choice is a double-sided axe. Knight can also duplicate himself, but only in mass numbers, up to ten thousand times, and only at the command of Death Mask. Duplicating himself drastically lowers his constitution, meaning a single light punch could kill one of his copies.

Death Mask is the Guardian of the Realm of Shadows, and is the most powerful of his kind. His face is concealed behind a tall skull mask, and he is clothed in all black, including cape, tunic, boots, everything. His specialty is using his own dark power spawned in his hands, and is the toughest adversary ever met. Unfortunately, he is invincible, so Jesse and I end up defeating him by sealing him back inside the Realm of Shadows and securing the key, which Steve-O wears around his neck.

"How long did it take to come up with all this?"

About three years. I got everything done. I have a summary of the storyline written, and all characters designed. The characters have their own individual biographies and history.

"Well, this is my last question. What do you want to see in these characters?"

I'd like to have my storyline written into a book. More than likely, I'll write the whole book myself. I already have chapter one finished. I love seeing my characters drawn by other people. It just makes me feel good.

"Time to wrap this interview up. One last thing... what would you do to someone that stole your artwork?

I'd hunt him/her down, reach my arm down their throat and turn them inside out before dismembering them with a hacksaw. Seriously though, I would make sure you get sued and get the shortest end of the stick.

"Okay. Thanks, Steve-O."

Anytime.