Arch Enemy Entertainment rolls out a special holiday comic honoring moms of all sorts.


Jean-Paul Deshong's mom used to put his artwork on their fridge at home when he was growing up, and she might do so again with his Mother's Day present to her.

In honor of the holiday, Deshong wrote and drew a comic-book story that acts as an ode to his mother for a special Arch Enemy Entertainment digital comic Something Beautiful, which is dedicated to moms everywhere. The effort also includes a story by writer Thomas Bolding and artist Mike Feehan, and a short from Digger Jones creator Mach Yeager.

Matt Smith, an executive producer on the dance movie Step Up: Revolution and the upcoming Disney film Maleficent with Angelina Jolie as the evil Sleeping Beauty villainess, also contributes a tale drawn by Deshong that's inspired by his two sons and is a gift for his wife.

"I wanted to give her something a little bit outside of the box and something that reflected the current state of our family in a loving and whimsical way," says Smith, dad to Jake, 3, and Noah, 3 months. "The opportunity to create a comic book is a little bit better than flowers."

So much of parenthood falls on moms, according to Smith, and he thought it'd be fun to craft a cartoony, storybook tale based on the idea that there is a secret life of babies.

"The comic is just a short piece of two kids based on my own frantically scrambling to get a Mother's Day present ready for mom on the morning of when they've forgotten," Smith says.

The lesson: "All mom needs is the love of her boys, and vice versa."

Being a father has changed everything about everything, Smith says. He loves getting his oldest son into Star Wars and superheroes these days, while his child's obsession with Wreck-It Ralph opened his own eyes to different creative endeavors.

"Thinking about projects," he says, "I look a little bit with their viewpoint now: Would kids respond to this, especially when it comes to a family or younger property? Looking through that lens has been interesting."

Deshong's Mother's Day story takes a different angle than Smith's, watching a mother through a child's eyes as a superhero.

That's how Deshong saw his mom as a kid, and even now as an adult doing artwork for publishers such as Image Comics, Zenescope and Dynamite Entertainment.

"I would go so far as saying she's the one who started it when I was little," Deshong explains. "If I was bored, she'd say, 'Go draw something.' And I actually remember it, from when I was 3 or 4. She was never like, 'Oh, what are you doing? Go do something else.'

"She's always been there, totally, in my corner, 100%, good news, bad news, whatever: 'Ma, I got my 10 millionth rejection.' 'Don't worry about it. They don't see the genius you are.' "

His mother kept a finger painting of their house and a stoplight that Deshong drew as a kindergartner. Much to his chagrin, it is still hanging prominently on her wall. "I literally go in the house and cover my face," he says, laughing.

The story also marks Deshong's first outing as a comic-book writer, which he found easy due to the subject matter.

"It was just telling my mother how I feel," he says. "It was an avenue where I could pay homage and thanks to everything that this lady's done for me."