This was, I believe, the best version of my Cholly strip.  Here I had found the most unique and perfect concept for my characters and refined them to their ideal personalities.  The plot was pretty basic: Cholly was now an eight year old sidekick to Stoutheart, a superhero in training and Cholly's adoptive guardian.  They lived in a boarding house run by Miz Bijou (no longer Cholly's adoptive aunt, but still a mother figure to her) in a neighborhood called the Sandhill.  This time around I redesigned Miz Bijou as being wheelchair-bound to symbolize her spirit in the face of adversity.  I brought back Gossamyr (with a slightly new design) as Cholly's nemesis, and once again made her editor in chief of the school paper Cholly worked on.  I also figured out why Gossamyr disliked Cholly so much, which added some depth to the character.  I also brought back Hokum, now an evil substitute teacher and retired super villain who constantly plots against Cholly.  Sadly, I had to retire Gunk.  It was evident that, after three shots at syndicating the character, the powers that be just didn't dig him.  So, much to my distress, I left him out of the strip.  A painful task considering he was sort of my alter ego.  Stoutheart was a character I originally created for "Hodge-Podge", but never got the chance to fit him into the strip.  With this new comic, I finally found a way to showcase this great character that I loved so much.  

For the most part the syndicates were as unreceptive as ever.  However, one of the syndicates I sent the strip to claimed to never have received my submission, so I intend to re-send the strip to them.  I feel that "Stoutheart and Cholly" is the best strip I've ever created, so I've got my fingers crossed that the syndicate will feel the same.  If not, I'm done with Cholly.  This strip was the best I could do with my characters, they're perfect where they are and the way they are and I refuse to alter them further and ruin what I've created here.

TRIVIA: In the first two versions of the Cholly strip, Cholly's last name was Morningstar, named after my great grandfather.  In this version, though it's never actually said, Cholly's last name is Stoutheart.  Stoutheart's first name is Palooka.

Hokum was given the longer name of Hecate Hokum in this strip, named after the Greek witch Hecate.

Stoutheart was inspired by the cartoon superhero Rod Rescueman, from the 1983 animated film "Twice Upon a Time." Though Stoutheart was created for "Hodge Podge", he never actually got used for the strip.  However, he replaced Gunk for awhile as the star of "High school: Part II" and became part of the cast of the college version of "The Epic of Cholly" when I created new episodes for my school paper.