Behind the Comic: Miles Erickson’s My Gums Are Bleeding turns polite small talk into a slow-motion disaster, and this gallery of 14 strips is a masterclass in deadpan dread. Expect celebrity confessions, a bank-robbing bear, and Superman facing an enemy he simply cannot punch. Clean, cheerful art keeps every grim punchline looking disarmingly normal. Short setups, blunt reversals, and literal misunderstandings do the heavy lifting. Approachable on the surface, quietly unhinged underneath.
In My Gums Are Bleeding comics, an ordinary conversation can turn grim in a sentence. A celebrity sighting becomes a disturbing confession, a bank robbery features a bear, and Superman cannot find a villain he knows how to fight. Miles Erickson’s clean, colorful figures keep the chaos looking almost ordinary.
This set of 14 dark comics moves through adult awkwardness, pop-culture parody and surreal everyday problems. Spare scenes and short exchanges set up the jokes; a blunt reversal or literal misunderstanding breaks the expected logic.
Which celebrity sighting turns into a car-crash confession?
A celebrity name makes the setup sound harmless, but the final line turns the conversation into a car-crash confession. Blank expressions let the dialogue carry the shock.
What happens when a giant pimple demands to be popped?
Why is this man hesitating over a piercing question?
What awkward admission derails this ordinary exchange?
Which conversation takes a turn nobody saw coming?
Stretch goals and reward tiers suggest an earnest crowdfunding pitch. The final admission discards that premise in one line.
How does a simple setup become something unsettling?
Why does this AI-generated room defy geometry?
An AI-generated room becomes a tangible architectural failure: the door itself seems to defy geometry. The visual makes its point unaided.
What misunderstanding cracks this calm scene open?
How does ‘over’ become a bedroom misunderstanding?
The walkie-talkie exchange turns radio etiquette into a bedroom misunderstanding, with “over” doing double duty.
Which deadpan exchange hides a darker punchline?
What ordinary moment turns grim in a single line?
Why can’t Superman punch microplastics?
Superman hears about microplastics and pollution, then asks for a villain he can punch. His toolkit is no match for the problems listed.
Which short exchange lands the bluntest reversal?
Who really ends up being the therapist here?
The client declares himself the therapist; the actual therapist’s response supplies the final reversal.
Who is Miles Erickson, the artist behind My Gums Are Bleeding?
Miles Erickson publishes as My Gums Are Bleeding. In a 2024 interview, he said he studied fine arts at CalArts, worked as a newspaper columnist, and later joined animation studios Wild Canary and Pencilmation. His official site promotes his comics and book. Follow him on Instagram. A third-party directory listed 252K followers on Nov. 9, 2026, but Instagram itself was inaccessible for direct confirmation. We previously featured an earlier Erickson collection; this gallery covers a different group of strips.
The artwork stays approachable while the punchlines refuse to behave. Which turn caught you most off guard—the impossible house, the bear, or another one?
📖 Comic Transcript, Scene Description & Humor Notes (Click to Expand)
How does the clean, colorful art set up the jokes?
Erickson's strips pair clean, brightly colored cartoon figures with deadpan faces and sparse backgrounds, so the eye stays on the words. A woman casually mentions spotting Kevin Hart; a red-hooded character lectures about a giant pimple; an orange bear holds up a bank with a gun; Superman stands ready to help. Each scene looks ordinary at first glance—living rooms, sidewalks, therapy chairs—until a blunt reversal or literal misunderstanding cracks the calm wide open.
What happens panel by panel in these strips?
- Panel 1: A woman tells a man she saw Kevin Hart last night, then reveals she hit his mother with her car.
- Panel 2: A red-hooded character compares gender-affirming surgery to popping a giant red pimple and insists it must be popped.
- Panel 3: A man hesitates over a genital piercing question before admitting he is banned from Claire's.
- Panel 4: Superman offers help, hears about microplastics and pollution, and asks for an evil robot he can punch.
Why do these darkly absurd comics feel so relatable?
The humor works because the setups feel like real small talk—then a single sentence detonates the premise. Blank expressions let the dialogue carry the shock, and the mundane settings make each absurd turn land harder.
🎭 Comic Highlights & Relatable Takeaways
✨ A casual celebrity sighting turns into a car-crash confession when the woman reveals she hit Kevin Hart's mother with her car.
✨ An AI-generated room becomes a tangible architectural failure where the door itself seems to defy geometry, making the visual joke land without any dialogue.
✨ A walkie-talkie exchange turns radio etiquette into a bedroom misunderstanding, with the word 'over' doing double duty.
✨ Superman hears about microplastics and pollution, then asks for a villain he can actually punch, since his toolkit is no match for real-world problems.
💬 Comic Q&A & Behind the Scenes
💭 What makes My Gums Are Bleeding comics so darkly funny?
Miles Erickson pairs clean, colorful cartoon figures with deadpan faces and sparse backgrounds, then lets a blunt reversal shatter the calm. Ordinary conversations turn grim in a single sentence, so the shock lands harder because everything looks so pleasantly normal.
💭 Why does the Superman microplastics comic work so well?
It exposes the gap between superhero logic and modern problems. Superman hears about pollution and microplastics, then asks for a villain he can actually punch. His toolkit simply cannot handle the threats listed, and that helplessness is the punchline.
💭 How does Erickson set up jokes in these short strips?
He uses spare scenes and brief exchanges to establish an ordinary premise, then breaks the expected logic with a literal misunderstanding or abrupt confession. Blank expressions let the dialogue carry the shock, keeping the humor dry rather than exaggerated.
💭 Who is Miles Erickson, the artist behind My Gums Are Bleeding?
Erickson studied fine arts at CalArts, worked as a newspaper columnist, and later joined animation studios Wild Canary and Pencilmation. He publishes comics under the My Gums Are Bleeding name and shares work on Instagram and his official site.
💭 Where can I find more of these dark absurd comics?
Check Erickson's official site, which promotes his comics and book, and follow him on Instagram for new strips. This gallery covers a different group of strips than an earlier featured collection, so there is plenty more dark humor to explore.
