Comic book fans and local residents alike are abuzz with excitement over the debut of William Miles’ first issue of “The Hawk.”
“I grew up reading comics off of the rack at the Piggly Wiggly,” Miles told the Times recently. “That was when I found a passion and love for comics.”
As Miles grew up and continued to read issues of “The Amazing Spiderman” and “Batman” and more, like his beloved characters, he too experienced some hard times.
“Before I was in high school at Fennimore, I was just really angry,” Miles shared. “I wanted to do something with that emotion. I really like visual art and I knew I wanted to put that emotion into a story.”
With that, Miles created “The Hawk.”
The story is that of a young man, Ryan Vlory, who is raised by an emotionally and physically abusive father in Madison. The father, James Vlory, is the leader of the underbelly in the city, a ruthless mob boss.
James Vlroy, the evil father, naturally wants his son to follow in his footsteps of darkness, however, Ryan has other plans for his future. He has been pushed too far by his ruthless father and has finally decided to take a stand.
“Without giving too much away, that’s when things start to fall apart,” Miles says of the father and son going on separate paths.
The comic book has received positive reviews from those in the comic community.
“Now upon first flicking through the pages as I always do before I read a comic I instantly saw similarities between ‘The Punisher,’ ‘Iron Fist’ and ‘Batman’ stories,” Blogger ‘Geeky Guy Comics’ wrote. “It was then I knew I was going to enjoy this comic more than I thought I would. For a first comic I have to say it was very impressive. It had everything; drama, action, emotional ties drawing back to the origin of the story and it all tied together like a comic that has been around for ages.”
Although Miles had the characters within him, and worked tirelessly to create this story that was bubbling inside him, he knew he would need help completing a major part of the job, the artwork. So, Miles did what any young person would do, he turned to social media for help.
“It’s all on Instagram,” Miles said with a chuckle. “You can find anything by searching hashtags. #comicbookart #panelartforhire, on and on, it’s all on there.”
Through this process, Miles scanned through many different artists until he was able to create a team that matched his vision for his comic book.  Samir Simao on pencils, Kyle Sanchez and Matt Seaborne on inks, Michael Sanders on colors, Rhet Jones on letters, and some assistance on character development from Xavier Booth, “The Hawk” was slowly brought to life.
Miles spent time with his artists, sending them various scripts he had created until everyone was able to get it just right.
“We needed to make sure the story felt consistent,” Miles said.
From there, he was able to go through a self publishing service Ka-Blam and all 24 pages of his first comic book was in print.
“A friend had suggested it to me (Ka-Blam) at a comic con,” Miles explained. “I checked them out and they had reasonable prices and I got the first issue and it had the premium look I wanted, I’m happy.”
Miles shared that so far sales of the comic are doing alright.
“Locally, we’re doing well,” Miles said. “We’ve got about 200-300 copies out in the last month.”
For fans who have already made their way through the first issue, Miles assures them to never fear, more Hawk is on the way.
“‘The Hawk’ has a second issue on the way! We have about nine pages out of 24 completed,” Miles shared. “With five to six volumes in mind. We are hoping to do a crowd funding like Kickstarter in the future to help finance it. That would make it so we could get them out faster. And then hopefully pitch them to a company. That’s the dream at least!”

If you are interested in purchasing an issue of “The Hawk” you can do so at www.thehawkcomics.bigcartel.com or check out The Hawk’s instagram at www.instagram.com/thehawkcomics.