Thundermoth

Thundermoth, formerly known as Themilkyway, and often abbreviated to Moth, is the pen name of a comics artist, writer, gamer and YouTuber based in the U.S. He was the co-creator of the unfinished pencil-and-paper comic serial Peter and Ellie Vs The World, which was developed and then subsequently scrapped in late 2017, and is the sole creator of the serial's webcomic successor series Team Season With Superpsion, which launched in November of 2019, more than two years after the scrapping of the original serial.

Image: Thundermoth's YouTube and Pixton logo.

## Background

Born in 2004, Moth struggled with ASD and Savant Syndrome as a child, which made him intelligent and hugely creative, but also easily distracted and not the best listener. Moth was schooled at home for much of his life, and as a result developed an extensive interest in comics and art, which he pursued for his childhood years. Unfortunately, Moth was not very good at drawing on paper for much of his childhood life. When Moth discovered Pixton in 2012, his career as a webcomic artist was launched. He went on to write such stories as a fan-fiction remake of the Squid Girl anime, a cat-human comedy story called *The Ghost, The Cats, And Me*, a Doctor Who fan comic called "The Next Generation", a psychological horror series called *Alphabet Lane,* based on the online horror game of the same name, and a pencil-and-paper comic called "Ink Man".

## Creation and Fate of PAEVTW

In the early fall of 2017, Moth joined forces with a student in one of his freshman art classes, whom he has kept anonymous for identity protection, to write a comic serial for teens and adults. When searching for what kind of serial to write, the duo were inspired by John Milton's *Paradise Lost,* and decided to write a story about fallen angels, creating the teen/adult-oriented serial Peter and Ellie Vs The World. After the Remiel siblings, villain Psychic Fox, and hellbeasts were added, Moth did the artwork and character designs, while his anonymous partner wrote the story. Moth's skill at drawing had significantly improved with help from his teacher.

By late November of 2017, Moth and his partner had produced three completed issues, which they had originally intended to publish as part of the school newspaper. Unfortunately, by this time, Moth was becoming disillusioned with the serial, as he had grown tired of its nonlinear story arcs, frustratingly exhausting transformation sequences, and overtly crude humor, which was far more prevalent than any of his previous stories, made him highly uncomfortable, and would have been deemed unacceptable by the school paper's editor. In December of 2017, Moth and his partner parted ways after Moth refused to finish the fourth issue, which was in progress at the time of the split. Moth and his partner then divided up the story parts. While Moth's partner left with the storyboards, Moth himself kept his artwork and character designs.

## Development of TSWS

After Moth and his partner discontinued their partnership, Moth decided to take what he had kept and make something new. In the year following the split, Moth remade the Remiel Siblings, modifying Ellie Remiel to become Eclipse Season, and replacing Peter Remiel with the rest of the Season Siblings. He also altered the backstory from angels attempting to return to heaven to aliens attempting to go back to their home planet. Moth then used the newly created Team Season as supporting characters in a spin-off series of his "Ink Man" comics. When he decided to give Team Season their own series in late fall of 2019, he ignored everything that had happened in the spin-off. One of Moth's first acts was to give Team Season a Pixtonized design. Later, he replaced the hellbeasts with the Meta-Villains, and Psychic Fox with Lord Lochindorb. Moth also scaled the adult humor and crudeness back to teen-appropriate levels. He then recycled the concept of Psychic Fox as a hero rather than a villain, and Peter Remiel as a supporting character, creating Superpsion and Patrick Holliday, respectively, in the process. Moth also added reincarnated angel Valentine Masterson and the Demons as a nod to the Remiel Siblings and Hellbeasts of the original serial. In late 2019, Moth founded a team called Streamline Comics with two other authors to produce the series. However, Moth's two teammates left to work on their own projects in early 2020, leaving Moth as the sole developer and writer of the series.