MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hope everyone is having a great holiday and got something good from Santa. Best wishes to all!

DONATE YOUR COMICS

A few days ago I was e-mailing with a friend who is serving our country over in Iraq and he mentioned how the men and women over there love comics and haven't had much access to them. As we chatted I told him I'd be willing to donate some copies of SENTINELS to them. He was happy to hear that and gave me all the info I need to mail the books. I figured it's the least I can do for the people over there that are serving our country and sacrificing their safety. And while I don't neccessarily agree with the reasons our men and women are over there, I do whole-heartedly support them and our country. I am trying to gather as many Indie comics as I can to send to them and hope others will also be willing to donate a few of their books.

But even if you're not a publisher, that doesn't mean you can't donate to our troops. Comics, magazines, used paperbacks, DVDs, or CDs (no adult material as it will get confiscated) can also be donated and would truly be appreciated.

Please contact me if you have any thing you want to donate. Tis the season and it'll do your heart a little good!

BUSY WEEK

Doh! Fell behind and haven't posted in a few days. Work, the holidays and finishing up the SENTINELS Anthology seemed to have taken up more of my time then I thought. But everything is on schedule and by January we'll be ready to print the Anthology and then it's full steam ahead with NEVERMINDS.

I still have lots of work to do, so this is just a quick entry. Posted along with this is a picture of Anne from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS by Jamie Fay. Jamie did this while at the NYC Anime Con along with the one of Julia and Simon (who I'll post soon). I love seeing his renditions of the kids.

More soon....

READ IT! MR. SCOOTLES

I really want to plug some great books on this blog that I think people will enjoy. So, I hope every week I'll do this "READ IT!" feature. For me, one of the best thing about going to conventions is finding something new and original. I try to always look through the aisles of my local comic shop too and look for something new, but most stores don't carry a lot of Indie comics and they're hard to find. Which is why finding a new book at a convention is always so much fun for me.

The first book I really love that needs to get more attention is MR. SCOOTLES. Written and drawn by Howie Noeldechen, Mr. Scootles is unique work of art. The story goes like this: Mr. Scootles was a successful cartoon creation from the 1930s who got trapped in Hell due to his creator's suicide. In Hell, he finds out that one of his films is a gateway between Earth and Hell. When two college students find the film and open the canister, they unknowing open the gateway. From there things really get crazy as control over the gateway pulls in agents of Hell and Heaven as well as a nutty/evil College Professor (didn't we all have one of those?). And poor Mr. Scootles is left to fend for himself and try to make his way out of Hell.

What I enjoy most about Mr. Scootles is the unpredictability of the entire book, It's not your typical hero fights villain and hero wins thing. It's full of different characters with their own stories and agendas that make for a great ride.

Then there's Howie's artwork. From the cover, you might think it's a funny cartoon book, but Howie's art totally sets a mood. It's sometimes dark and twisted, and other times light and peaceful. It fits the story so perfectly! Just his view of Hell alone is worth the price of the book. I can't see any other artist doing Mr. Scootles justice, the art is that unique to the story. As I read Mr. Scootles, I often felt as I did when I read Bone and Cerebus. Like I was reading something that really meant something to the creator.

I could go on and on about how great I think Mr. Scootles is, but then I'd probably be spoiling some of the story for people and I don't want to do that. Trust me when i say that you won't be disappointed by this book. The first storyline is about to wrap up in issue #5 and i can't wait to see what happens. It's the perfect time for new readers to discover this awesome book. Check out Howie's website and read through it. He's even posting the issues on his site to read for free. But if you're like me, you'll want to order the issues themselves or wait until Howie puts the first five issues together in a trade. Go to http://www.hcnoel.com/ to see what you've been missing!

CONVENTION SCHEDULE

Busy working on too many things today to really post much. But I thought I mention the conventions I plan to be at next year.

First up is MEGACON in Florida. I've never been there before, but I hear great things about it. The SENTINELS Anthology will be ready and I hope to see a few friends I know down there. Should be fun! MEGACON is March 7-9.

Next is the NYC COMIC CON from April 18-20. I haven't been told yet where my table will be, but I'm hoping for Artist's Alley again. I really did great there last year and had a blast at the Indie After Party that we always have. This year should be better cause they moved it to spring. Won't have to worry about the cold now.

The following week is the PITTSBURGH COMIC CON from April 25-27. I love this convention and always have a great time there. This year I have no idea how it's going to be with the organizer for the con on trial for murder. Yikes! Hope it all works out well for everyone and the convention continues. It's really a great show.

The last convention I plan to go to is the SAN DIEGO COMIC CON from July 24-28. It's been a few years since I've been there cause it's so darn expensive. But it's the big show of the year and I really want to go this year.

For now, that's all I have planned. If anyone knows of any others cons that they think are worth traveling to, let me know!

INDIE COMIC NETWORK

For the most part all I've been posting are spotlights for the SENTINELS Anthology on here. It just kind of happened that way and once I started I didn't want to stop. I wanted to spotlight all the creators involved equally and I think I have. All that is except for the creators working on Templar's story. And there's a reason for that. Unfortunately, the original artist that was working on the story had to pull out and I was left scrambling to find another. I hope to post spotlights on Javier Barrera Fanego (writer) and Teyo (artist) once I have some finished art to show. It'll be soon though and worth the wait!

But this gives me the perfect chance to mention a great site that focuses on Indie comics! I hope this blog allows me to plug a lot of great sites and Indie books and the INDIE COMIC NETWORK is doing the same thing.

The NETWORK consists of David Price, Vincent Bonavoglia, Michael Myers, Hakan Hellgren and last, but certainly not least, Miguel Rodrigues. They're a great group of guys who have a real love for comics. They started with the BULLPEN BULLETIONS PODCAST and this year decided they wanted to spotlight other comics by independent creators.

I first met Miguel at the 2007 NYC Comic Con and convinced him to buy the SENTINELS books. To my surprise, before the weekend was over he had persuaded two of his friends to come by and buy all four books too! Since then, I've been chatting with Miguel online and been on their podcast show. Miguel is a super nice guy and has been posting many things about the SENTINELS Anthology on the INDIE COMIC NETWORK since I started this blog. He also asked me to be involved in a project he's working on that I hope I can talk more about soon.

The NETWORK is still a new site and just starting to build it's following. But I think it's a great idea and a good place to find out about smaller publishers.

Please take some time and check out the INDIE COMICS NETWORK at http://www.indiecomicsnetwork.com/ .

ANTHOLOGY SPOTLIGHT: LUCIANO AND RICH

For Sin's story in the SENTINELS Anthology, Luciano and I decided to try switching roles. He would be the writer and I would be the artist. For Luciano's part, I had no worries. During the time that we worked on the SENTINELS series, Luciano had grown a lot as an artist and as a storyteller. Along with co-creator and writer, Javier Barrerra Fanego (Templar writer for the Anthology), Luciano had published the graphic novel REAL CLOHE. It was a great story and showed me that Luciano had the ability to tell a story. This wasn't something new to me. Throughout the years we worked on SENTINELS, Luciano had always been my springboard for ideas and would keep me in line as to what truly worked and what didn't. His storytelling is very strong and before we even started on the Anthology, I told Luciano I wanted him to write one of the solo features. What I didn't expect was him telling me that if he wrote it, I would have to draw it. Ahhh!

I have been drawing since I could hold a crayon. I trained at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and got my Bachelors degree in Design and Illustration. But I've never felt totally happy with my skills. So, I was nervous. But Luciano encouraged me to do it, so do or die, I was committed.

When I received Luciano's story for Sin, I was impressed by the depth he put into it and how he really understood Sin's background. He focused on Sin's relgious background, something that always interests me, and it made me decide to try to work in a different medium then usually comic art.

Using watercolors and pastels, I've been trying to work on Sin's story while organizing all the other SENTINELS stories. It hasn't been an easy thing, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I only hope my art matches the strength of Luciano's story. Switching roles has been a fun experiment and I'm curious to see how it turns out!

And yes, this is a combo spotlight. I feel weird spotlighting myself, lol. Also, I had trouble posting art for this, so I had to post the page as gif. It's not the best resolution, but at least the page can be seen now.

ANTHOLOGY SPOTLIGHT: SIN

I have to admit, Sin was the one member of SENTINELS I wasn't sure what to do with. When I first created him I liked him solely for his look and his connection to Gospel. I liked the idea of a twin brother and sister who who were powered by good and evil. I liked that their father would be a ruler of Hell and I had worked out that Sin and Gospel would eventually switch looks. But beyond that, I wasn't sure what to do with him.

When I was writing SENTINELS Book 1: Footsteps, I put in a line where Gospel tells Harlette that her and Sin's fate are intertwined. It wasn't my original idea to pair them up, but I liked it and as it developed it seemed to work. It also helped to add to Sin's change and gave him more of a personality then just "I have to find my sister.".

Another thing that eventually helped me to really like his character was Luciano's visuals for him. When I first saw his ideas for Sin for Book 2, I was blown away. It finally all became clear to me what he was about. And as we developed him in Books 3 and 4, I think he really grew into his own. Plus I loved the light wings, lol.

Another cool thing that wasn't planned was Harlette and Sin's twins. I originally saw them as having a son, but it was Luciano's idea that they have twins and it made perfect sense. It also gave Sin more depth in that he was now truly following in his father's footsteps.

I had asked Luciano to write one of the story for the SENTINELS Anthology and to my surprise, he asked to write Sin. Luciano had grown a lot as a creator and I knew he could tackle Sin's story really well. I joked that I should draw his story and it would be a cool change of roles for us.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into!

NYC ANIME CON REPORT

So, I went to the first NYC Anime Con this weekend. They've never had one this big here in NYC and it was the first time I ever went to an Anime con. I wasn't even sure what Anime really was until recently, lol. But I heard that it was going to be a good convention and the tables were relatively cheap, so i gave it a shot.

Overall, it wasn't too bad. I didn't sell hardly as many books as I usually do, but I covered costs and then some. It wasn't really the con for my stuff, so I think I ended up pretty lucky selling anything at all.

I have to say, Anime fans are by far the most diehard fans I've ever seen. I mean they are totally hardcore when it comes to their conventions. I've never seen so many costumed people in my life! And don't even ask me about Cosplay. I never even heard of that before! Also, they REALLY like their free stuff. It was almost as if they came to the convention solely to dress up and get free stuff.

I went to the convention with NEVERMINDS artist, Jamie Fay. He did a few commissions there but no where near as many as he usually does. In the free time he had, Jamie did some sketches of the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. You can see Julia (Harlette and Sin's daughter) along with this post. Pretty cool, huh?

I met some other self-publishers and hope to spotlight some of their work on here. That's always one of my favorite parts of conventions, finding new work that I can share.

Wendy Pini, co-creator and artist of Elfquest, made a surprise appearance at the con. I thought I saw her Saturday night as I left, then thought I must have been mistaken because there was no advertising for her. So, Sunday I went and asked. It turned out that she was there Friday and Saturday only. :( Wish i had known. She's really a great artist and one of the first self-publishing success stories.

Next convention for me is Megacon in Florida! Can't wait to be back among my own con people! lol

ANTHOLOGY SPOTLIGHT: RYAN MCLELLAND

The writer for Serpenta's story in the SENTINELS Anthology is Ryan McLelland. Along with Philip Clark, Ryan is one of the first people I met when I began publishing SENTINELS. At the time, Ryan was a writer for Newsarama and we chatted a bit about the book and he was nice enough to review it for the site. It was also then that I found out that Ryan published his own comic called WISE INTELLIGENCE. I got the issues he had published from him and was impressed by how funny they were. Ryan is a funny guy and full of smartass remarks. So, we got along really well. Over the course of the next few years we chatted about trying to work on something together, but time seemed to get the best of us. We also attended a bunch of conventions together, got lost in the hicks of Pennsylvania (home of Hoss's 39 cent burgers) and have a great Margot Kidder story to tell.

While I knew him, Ryan also started his second comic called PHILLY and asked to use some of the SENTINELS characters in it. I, of course, agreed and he choose to use Templar and Serpenta. I loved the way he wrote them and when it came time to do the SENTINELS Anthology, I knew I wanted Ryan involved.

Ryan's take on Serpenta was extacly what I hoped it would be. Funny, original and full of action. He really captured her spirit and made me proud that I asked him to be involved.

Currently, Ryan is writing a TON of things. He's an editor at Latino Review, pitching numerous proposals, working on his Newsarama feature and involved in some other top secret stuff for a big publisher. I know Ryan is headed for greatness. Check out his work at http://wiseintelligence.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/wiseintelligencecomic

And see PHILLY at http://www.drunkduck.com/Philly/index.php

ANTHOLOGY SPOTLIGHT: ANDREW CHARIPAR

Andrew Charipar is the artist on Serpenta's story for the SENTINELS Anthology. I met Andrew last year at the 2007 NYC Comic Con when he stopped by my table and started asking about self-publishing. I'm always happy to talk to other self-publishers and chatting with Andrew was a blast. We immediately hit it off and by the end of the talk, he handed me his trade of TALES FROM THE CORNERSTONE. I was totally impressed with the amount of work Andrew had put into his book and was even more impressed that he had written, pencilled and inked the entire book himself. The book was a great mix of humor and mystery and I ended up reading it as soon as I got home. For the next couple of weeks we traded e-mails and before I knew it Andrew had agreed to work on Serpenta's story for the SENTINELS Anthology.

Andrew grew up all over the U.S. as his father was in the Navy and they moved around a lot. Settling in Jacksonville, Florida, Andrew attended the Douglas Anderson School of Arts High School where he perfected his talents. A mixture of cartoon and energy, Andrew's art really surprised me in it's style. I loved that he mixed his art with real-life photos and created an enviroment that worked so well. When I received Ryan's story for Serpenta, I knew Andrew would do a kickass job on it.

Another great thing about Andrew is he's amazingly fast. He was the first artist finished with his story and had been drawing 300 sketches for the Comic Geek's 300 podcast party at the same time. And on top of all that he had a full time job and a family to take care of. I have no idea when he slept!

Like I've said about all the other creators involved in the SENTINELS Anthology, I'm extremely impressed with Andrew's work and see great things in his future. His comic TALES FROM THE CORNERSTONE is a great book and he's currently completing the second volume. Check it out at http://www.misfitcorner.com/ . You won't be disappointed!

ANTHOLOGY SPOTLIGHT: SERPENTA

When I first came up with the idea for SENTINELS, I went through my old sketches and pulled a few characters I liked from other projects I was dreaming of and used them for the book. Blaster, Rapture, Adlivon, Silver Owl, Flare and Serpenta were among them and all of them except Blaster were created as villains. But when I looked at my old sketches for Serpenta I thought she'd make a much more interesting hero. I threw out all my old notes and did the total opposite of what I originally thought I would with her.

As soon as I decided she'd be a member of SENTINELS, I worked out Serpenta's personality and it just seemed to click. Sweet, innocent and happy, Serpenta became the heart of the team to me in many ways. She pretty much stayed that way through the entire book. Sure, her arc had conflict with the triplets and deciding to be a mother, but she never lost her upbeat outlook on life. Right up until the end when she said her goodbye with a smile on her face. I still love that last panel of her that Luciano did so well. It was almost as if she was saying farewell to readers too.

I'm always surprised by how much people seem to like Serpenta (and the triplets). So, when it came time to find a team to tell her story in the Anthology, I knew I wanted a team that understood her personality well. Ryan McLelland and Andrew Charipar have both published their own comics and both have a wicked sense of humor that I really love. They proved to be an awesome team and infused a lot of that humor into her story. They were also the first ones to complete their part in the Anthology and I'm really proud of the work they did. I hope one day I can return the favor to them and can't wait to see their Serpenta story printed.

REPORT CARD

I had my class at the Learning Annex last night. It was a lot of fun. There were 11 people there. I'd never taught a class before and was a little nervous. I really wanted people to enjoy the class and get the most for their money. I hope they did. My only regret is I think I talked a little too fast. I tried to slow down a few times, but I normally speak fast so it didn't work.

If anything, I learned a lot and gave them a ton of information that I know they will be able to use if they choose to self-publish. Who knows, maybe one day one of them will be at a table next to me at a convention? I look forward to seeing that.

Above is an image of Templar, from SENTINELS Book 2: Masks, that Luciano had turned into wallpaper. I always meant to have him post it on the site, but forgot to ask him. I have it as wallpaper on my computer.

Tomorrow, I'll start back up with the SENTINELS Anthology spotlights. There are still 3 other solo stories in the Anthology, so there's still some good art to show.

NYC ANIME CON

I almost forgot about the NYC Anime Con this weekend! I'll be attending the con and have a table in Artist's Alley from December 7th to 9th along with NEVERMINDS artist, Jamie Fay. This is a new convention for me and I'm curious to see how it'll be. I've heard good things about the con, so I'm crossing my fingers. Reed Exhibitors, the people that run the show, are very professional and do a lot of publicity to promote it. My concern is whether or not the crowd there will be into what I have to sell.

I've only recently gotten into Anime and have realized that there are a lot of great books/shows out there. They just started showing Death Note on Adult Swim on Cartoon Network and I'm totally addicted.

Tonight I'll be teaching my class at the Learning Annex! Report to follow...

BREAKTIME

I'm taking a short break from the Anthology Spotlights. I'll start them up again later this week. In addition to posting on the blog daily, I've been pretty busy working on a number of things.

First up is my Learning Annex class. I'm REALLY excited to be teaching there tomorrow. I've worked to gather as much information as possible to share with others and hope the class will be successful. I'm also eager to see who attends and to help them on their journey into self-publishing. As I've been working on the class, I've grown to realize there is so much that goes into it. Things even I forgot. I've been doing this for almost 5 years and things that were so hard in the beginning have become easy and second nature. But I remember when I started all the little things you never think of. It can be overwhelming.

I've also been working on my pages for the SENTINELS Anthology. I'm drawing Sin's story that is written by Luciano Vecchio. It's a nice change of roles for us, but it's another thing I realized I took for granted. Drawing used to be soooo easy to me, but it's been years since I've done sequencials and I find myself hating things that come out on paper and redrawing a lot, lol. We're our own worse critic, I know, so I keep trucking along and now I'm finding I'm pretty happy with the results. It's also great to do drawing and painting again.

In addition to the Anthology, I'm also working on NEVERMINDS with Jamie Fay. We hope to have stuff for the NYC Comic Con In April. It's changed a bit since we first started but that's part of the charm of creating. Things grow and evolve. I think we've come up with some unique stuff though! :)

I'm also honored to be involved in a few other projects for other publishers that I can't mention yet. More on that later!

It's a busy time for me, but I'm having a blast on it all. Wednesday, I'll post on how the Annex class went. Wish me luck!!!

ANTHOLOGY SPOTLIGHT: JUAN MILANESE

Harlette's story for the SENTINELS Anthology is written by Juan Milanese (aka'El Ninja-Tron'). Another of the five Argentinian creators involved in the Anthology, Juan was introduced to me a long time ago by Luciano. Both had worked on a comic called TOCATE and I was very impressed by the story they did. It stuck in my mind and I knew that someday I would like to work with Juan.

So, when it came time to find writers for the Anthology, I asked Luciano if Juan would be interested. I was happy he agreed and glad that he wanted to write Harlette's story. I had been struggling to decide who would be right for Harlette and when Juan came on board, I knew he'd be perfect.

Of all the Anthology stories, Juan's surprised me the most. His influences are all over the place. Post-Punk, dreams, Borges, Proust, drinking nights with friends, some anime, Fellini, Talking Heads, Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, Adrogue's way of life, Detroit techno music and a thousand different things. And Arnold movies aside (lol), he got Harlette dead-on and brought story elements into her story from the entire SENTINELS series. Things I even kind of forgot, lol. He put so much depth and thought into Harlette's story in only 10 pages, I loved it. Added to Charles awesome artwork, it was (again) another great story.

It's been a while since Juan has written anything and I was glad this got him back in the game. He has a distinct voice that I'm sure will one day get lots of attention.

Juan is currently studying Audiovisual Communication at the University of Buenos Aires. You can see and hear some of his work at these links:

http://www.youtube.com/user/LesDEDS

http://www.purevolume.com/ninjatron

http://www.purevolume.com/ninjatrondos

ANTHOLOGY SPOTLIGHT: CHARLES HOLBERT JR.

Charles Holbert Jr. is the artist on Harlette's story for the SENTINELS Anthology. I first saw Charles work by looking through his gallery on Deviant Art. Almost immediately, I fell in love with his unique style. I thought to myself, this guy must be a professional already. But I wrote him anyway in hopes that he might be able to work on the Anthology. Luckily for me, he was free and could work within the deadline we had set.

I had only one character in mind for Charles to draw and that was Harlette. His style is perfect for her and with the bold colors he uses I knew it would be an awesome story. Charles works in markers and watercolors to create a truly striking look. It's that energy that first caught my eye and his pages for the Anthology are just as impressive! Working in watercolors can be very difficult, but Charles's pages make it look so easy. He brought Juan's story to life in a way only he could. I can't wait to see the pages printed!

Working with Charles was a pleasure. He kept in contact with me throughout the entire process and let me know how the pages were going. Most artists aren't as professional and you sometimes have to bug them just to make sure things are okay. And even though he lives in Las Vegas, Sin City itself, he didn't get distracted. I can't say I would be able to do the same, lol. Vegas is my kryptonite!

I keep saying this about all the creators involved in the Anthology, but it's totally true, I see BIG things ahead for Charles. I feel fortunate to have worked with him. Currently, Charles is working on a few different projects, which can't be mentioned just yet! Check out his gallery at http://www.kidnotorious.deviantart.com/ to see more of his work and hear what his next projects are.