HAPPY HOLIDAYS

I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday this week. I thought it was appropriate to post this commission I hired Jamie Fay to do. It's the kids in my family as superheroes. I thought it was a good idea and the kids loved them when they opened them. Each of them got their own individual character and Jamie put them all together using photoshop for me. Pretty cool, huh? The image is not the best scan and the actual drawings are much more vibrate and the black pop out more. But I wanted to post this show anyway. Happy Holidays!!!

WORKING

I can't believe it's almost the end of the year. It feels like just yesterday that I was announcing the release of the SENTINELS Anthology, lol. Of course, I had hoped that we'd be close to having NEVERMINDS complete and ready for release soon, but we hit a few bumps in the road and are still working on it. I also finished writing another OGN over the summer that is being drawn by Teyo (the artist on Templar's story in the SENTINELS Anthology). But Teyo had an injury that has delayed him a bit. Then there's that CASPIAN CURSES book I mentioned a ton of times that Luciano Vecchio and I am planning to do. Luciano just has to find an opening in his schedule.The guy is in demand.

So, even though it's been a while since anything new has come out, I think in the long run this will all be for the best and the end results will be great. I've never been one to rush just to get something out. I prefer quality over quantity, lol. I see a lot of Indy creators just rushing to get something new done for each con they go to and I can look at the quality of there book and see it looks bad. Issue one might have looked great, but then you see their issue five and see no progress in art or design. It's stagnant. That's not how I want people to feel about anything I publish.

I'll keep posting info and previews as I can. Sorry for the delay!

In the meanwhile, here's a sketch done by Howie Noeldechen of Alanis from NEVERMINDS and Howie's creation, Mr. Scootles. Anyone who's read this blog knows I'm a BIG fan of Mr. Scootles, so I love this sketch. The first Mr. Scootles trade just came out recently and I even wrote the intro for it. The book looks awesome and I highly recommend checking it out at http://www.hcnoel.com/ .

LADY NIMUE BY DAVID QUILES

It's not often that I get a sketch by an artist twice in my sketch book, but knowing how much I loved the last sketch David Quiles did for me, I had to get another from him. This time he drew Lady Nimue, one of the villains from SENTINELS Book 2: Masks. I really love his rendition of her. She looks so dark and creepy. And he even drew a few of the demons in there with her.

David has worked on such titles as BAREKNUCKLED FIGHTER and THE UNTITLED. You can see more of David's work at www.comicspace.com/davidquiles and http://www.infinitelinecomics.com/ .

JAMIE FAY HAS A BLOG

Jamie Fay, artist on NEVERMINDS and Firebomb's story in the SENTINELS Anthology, has gotten himself a blog. Jamie says he plans to show sketches and artwork on there as well as commissions he's gotten from other artists. Jamie has a pretty sweet collection of art so I'm glad he's finally posting some of them and sharing them with everyone. Check out Jamie's blog at: http://www.jamiefay.blogspot.com/ . With this post is one of the many commissions Jamie has. Gotta love Amanda Connor.

TERRACE BY ED COUTTS

This drawing of Terrace was done by Ed Coutts. What's that? Who's Terrace? lol. Well, this sketch should make Ryan McLelland and Andrew Charipar pretty happy. Terrace made her first and only appearance in the SENTINELS Anthology. She was the villain who fought Serpenta and happens to be the only character in the SENTINELS universe that wasn't created by me. She's all Ryan and Andrew's baby. I thought it was pretty cool that Ed picked Terrace to draw. It continued the villain sketches theme that seemed to be happening at the Big Apple Con. Ed Coutts was a very nice guy and super fast. Ed is an illustrator who works in pencil, inks and paint. He is very well know for his "good girl" art and has done covers and interior pages for AC Comic's FemForce as well as numerous other publishers. Check out Ed's website at http://www.edcouttsart.com/ .

FORGET THE FANBOY AWARDS

A few posts back, I posted about the Fanboy Awards that are going to be presented at Megacon in February. At the time you could do a write in for your favorite writers, artists, titles, etc. But I was told by someone who tried to go vote that they seem to have changed that . You only have the choice etween a few nominees now. Oh well, it doesn't seem like SENTINELS is destined to get any kind of nomination in any awards. Thanks to anyone who voted or tried to. We really appreciate that. There's always the next project to hope for. Hopefully we'll have NEVERMINDS done in time for next year and try to submit that.

TEMPLAR BY BECKY CLOONAN

This sketch of Templar was drawn by Becky Cloonan at the Big Apple Con. I'm a BIG fan of Becky's work and she was one of the artists I was really looking forward to meeting at the Con. I first saw Becky's work on the Vertigo series American Virgin. It ran for 24 issue and was a pretty good read, but it was really the art that drew me to the series. Becky has a unique style that I really like. It's kind of a realistic/manga merge that reminds me a little of Luciano Vecchio's work. Meeting Becky, she was exactly how I thought she'd be, very nice and happy to answer questions. I was surprised when I asked her how much she was charging for sketches and she answered free if you buy one of her books. I was planning on buying her self-published MINIS anyway, so I thought that was really cool. So, I got MINIS and a free sketch! Cool, huh? Becky is currently drawing DEMO, another Vertigo series. I highly recommend it and all her other work. Check out her site at www.estrigious.com/becky/index.htm .

RAPTURE BY STEVE MANNION

Steve Mannion did this sketch of Rapture for me last week at the Big Apple Con. I saw Steve's work and knew he'd do an amazing job. Perfect fit, huh? Steve has worked on such titles as Batman: Black and White, Batman Gotham Knights, Tales From the Crypt, Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty, Satan's Circus of Hell, Strange Pirate Tales and Warlash: Dark Noir. Steve is also the writer and artist on THE BOMB (which has been described as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" meets "Mad Magazine") and was recently released as a trade by Asylum Press. I think Steve's rendition of Rapture has a great mixture of cute and sexy. It was also cool having him draw her, as this Con seemed to be one that I got a lot of villain sketches at.

HAMLET BY CHRIS MORENO

Here is one of my favorite sketches I got at the last Con. It's one of the lesser known characters from SENTINELS, Hamlet, and I think that's why I like it so much. The artist is Chris Moreno and when I happened to see him sketching away at the Con, his art really caught my eye. I looked through his work and after talking to him for a bit, I realized that he was the artist on SIDEKICK. SIDEKICK is an awesome book that I really enjoyed. I highly recommend it, especially if you looking for something different and funny. Chris has also drawn Dracula Vs. King Arthur, another great book with a completely different style and tone. I knew Chris would draw something unique for me, so I gave him a copy of SENTINELS and let him pick who he wanted to draw. His choice of Hamlet really surprised me and I think he did an amazing job on him. Next time I see Chris at a Con, I'm definitely getting another sketch from him! Check out more of Chris work at http://www.chrismoreno.deviantart.com/ .

STITCH BY CHRIS GIARRUSSO

Yet another sketch from the Con last week. This time it's Stitch drawn by Chris Giarrusso. Chris is the writer and artist on Mini-Marvels. Mini-Marvels can be seen in a lot of different Marvel books and it's kind of their counterpart to DC's kid line of books. I really like Chris's style and even though i usually let artists pick who they want to draw when I commission them, I asked Chris to do Stitch. I think it worked with his style and came out great. Definitely check out Chris's website at http://www.chrisgcomics.com/ and see all the cool stuff he's done.

SILVER OWL BY ANDY MACDONALD

Here's another one of the sketches I got while at the Big Apple Con last weekend. This time it's Silver Owl by Andy MacDonald. I was really surprised by Andy's choice of Silver Owl. I usually tell artists to just look through one of the SENTINELS books and pick whoever they want to draw. I think the sketches come out better that way. By not assigning a character to them, they pick one that they will enjoy drawing more. Hence my sketch comes out better. It's funny, but at this con, three of the artists picked lesser shown characters to draw (I'll be posting the rest soon). I have gotten sketches from Andy MacDonald in the past and he is one of my favorite artists. I always tell friends to seek him out and they always end up loving what he does for them. I don't know why Andy hasn't crossed that bridge to work on a mainstream Marvel or DC book yet, but I know he will. Andy has been drawing the Indie comic, NYC Mech for a few years now and his art is amazing in it. Check out http://www.nycmech.com/ to see what I'm talking about.

FIREBOMB BY SEAN CHEN

I went to the Big Apple Con here in NYC this past weekend and got some pretty great sketches. I didn't have a table at this con because I hate the way they run the show. But I went to say hi to some people I know and get some art. The first person I hit up for a sketch was Sean Chen. Sean started drawing comics at Valiant and worked on X-O Man of War, Bloodshot, Rai and Harbinger. Then he moved on to Marvel and drew Iron Man for a few years and also Wolverine and Elektra. Most recently he drew X-Men: The End. Sean is a super nice guy and really fast. I think he had my sketch finished within an hour. Just looking at it you can tell he didn't rush either. I love his interpretation of Firebomb.

NEVERMINDS EXTRAS

As we continue to work on NEVERMINDS, I'm trying to show bits and pieces here on the blog. Here's something done by colorist Rey Arzeno that I think is funny and shows how we're trying to put in little extras throughout the book. In the unfinished panel with this entry, you can see one of the characters in our story (Gavin) wearing a shirt with a face on it. Sneaky Rey took the face from the SENTINELS website and the back of SENTINELS Book 2: Masks. It's was my bio pic that we used. It was done in about ten seconds by me when we were on deadline and I needed to get the pic done. Little did I know that years later it would come back to haunt me, lol. Curse you, Rey!!!

THE BLOG TURNS A YEAR OLD!

I can't believe I started doing this blog a year ago. But I did. And even though it hasn't always gone as I had hoped it would, I've enjoyed doing it. I feel bad that I haven't been posting as much as I did in the beginning, but that's mainly been because everything I'm working on is still in progress. Sorry about that.

I'd like to ask (if anyone is still checking this, lol) what has been good and bad about the blog. I have registered a new site name and hope to get a Drumfish site up early next year. This blog will be part of that, so input would be appreciated.

FANBOY AWARDS

This year Megacon is holding their first ever Fanboy Awards. Like an idiot, I forgot to put the word out and get SENTINELS nominated, but hey you can always write in SENTINELS for favorite Indy title. Write in votes count! So, go fill out the form. It seems like it'll be a fun award thing and anyone who is interested in voting should check it out at: http://www.projectfanboy.com/ .

They doesn't seem to be a whole lot of what I consider Indy titles nominated (ex. Walking Dead and Invincible are not really Indy in my eyes). I'm really looking forward to Megacon in 2009! I had a blast at the last one.

MORE NEVERMINDS

Here's another panel from NEVERMINDS. It's hard to show too much without giving away too much of the story, but I figured since I posted this panel a while back in line art that it would be good to show the finished color version. Jamie and Rey are kicking but on the art!

SHOUT OUT TO RYAN MCLELLAND!

So, my buddy Ryan McLelland (the writer on Serpenta's story from the SENTINELS Anthology, PHILLY and WISE INTELLEGENCE) recently had surgery and I wanted to just post this quick shout out to him to get well soon. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't even know that Ryan was having surgery until his fiance, Lauren, posted something about it on Facebook. Ryan was one of the first people to give SENTINELS a read and plug/review us for Newsarama. I still owe him big time. I'm not going to go into details about Ryan's surgery, but I have to say it seems like he went through a lot just to get a little nose work. lol. Just kidding, Ryan, I know if it was really plastic surgery you were getting that you'd have something done with those ears. Get well soon, dude.

3RD GEN SKETCH BY JAMIE FAY

Work has been pretty busy lately and I'm trying to keep up on the posting. Unfortunately, I don't always have the time I wish I did. So, this is just another quick post. Here's a cool montage of the 3rd Gen SENTINELS done by Jamie Fay. I really love the way he draws them.

NEVERMINDS PREVIEW ART

Just a quick post today. I know I've been teasing about posting some previews of NEVERMINDS for a long time now and it's really hard to decide what to show. I think the best thing to do right now is show some panels that show Jamie's art and Rey's colors. With this post is Paige and Gavin. They are Alanis's (our main character) friends and appear quite a bit in the story. Gavin is kind of a wild card type of guy and Paige is his "take-no-crap" girlfriend. They provide a lot of the comic relief in the book.

ANOTHER JESSE SKETCH

Here's another sketch of Jesse by the talented Rey Arzeno. This time he used orange for the sword. I think I'm still leaning more to the purple or green though. The star tattoos represent the "sisters" who protected him in SENTINELS Book 4 and there is a star for each one. I kind of like that idea. Also noticed the jacket that is a homage to the costume Luciano originally had him in. Of course, we're still just playing around with ideas. I'll start posting some Nevermind previews next.

MORE REY AZRENO ART

Since I mentioned a while back that I had some ideas for doing a story on Jesse, Lightbringer and Prophet, from the SENTINELS series, along with Rey Arzeno, I thought I'd post this sketch Rey sent me a while back. He just did it to start to get a feel for the characters. I think he got them dead on! Jesse is still a smartass, Lightbringer looks annoyed with him and Prophet seems to be the peacemaker that keeps them killing each other (or mainly keeping Lightbringer from giving Jesse a beating, lol). Above is the first quick sketch Rey did and the more detailed version he sent after below it. Pretty amazing, huh? We won't get to this for a while, when both Rey and I have the time. But I'm looking forward to working on it. It'll probably be the main part of a second SENTINELS Anthology. Thoughts?

WICKKID ART

Here's a sketch I was really happy with. It's another from my sketchbook and not many artists have decided to draw characters from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS just yet, but Holly Mongi surprised me when she chose to draw Brad (Wickkid). I think she did an awesome job. I'm a big fan of Holly's and have gotten a sketch from her in the past of Alanis from NEVERMINDS. Check out more of her work at http://luthien13.deviantart.com/ .

SPLASH SKETCH

Just a quick post today. Here another sketch of Splash from my sketchbook. I usually just let artist pick whoever they want to draw for my sketch book but latley I've been getting so many of Splash and Harlette, that I think the next con I go to I will tell artists who I'd perfer them to draw. This sketch was done by Marc McKenzie. Cute, huh?

ART AND UGH!

So, I just got back from shooting my Learning Annex video on how to self-publish your own graphic novel and I totally blew it. I don't know why but I felt completely off and think I did a horrible job. It's not like I was afraid of being in front of the camera, I wasn't. I've done that tons of times and from my years of acting I think I'm pretty comfortable with all that. But for some reason, I just felt off. I felt like I was blabbing too much and not giving enough information. Of course, I have no idea how it will all turn out and who knows, maybe it'll be great. But right now I think I screwed up a lot, lol. I feel bad about that because I really wanted to give out a lot of good advice. The video is only going to be 30 minutes, so I'm not sure how much good advice will get in there.

On the plus side, I did get some more sketches in my sketch book recently. With this post is a pic of Splash done by Noreen Rana. It's not finished as the sketch was supposed to be inked and in color. Unfortunately, she didn't get to the inks and color. I still think it's a cool sketch though.

WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW

Where have I been? Why haven't I been posting? What am I doing?It seems so long since I last posted, that even I ask myself that, lol. To be honest, I haven't had much new art to post and every time I go to make a post, I would think I'd just wait until tomorrow and post when I have some art to show. But that never happened. Sorry about that. I have been working on many different projects though and been extremely busy.

First and foremost is NEVERMINDS. I feel like we've been working on this book forever, lol, and we have. No need for us to be reminded, lol. But we are making tons of progress. I have the story, Jamie Fay is still drawing pages and we have Rey Arzeno doing the coloring. I have new art for that. but feel it's too early to show and that it gives away the story a little too much. I will post some panels from various pages soon though and try to show some sneaks.

I also completed writing a new OGN that is being drawn by Teyo. Teyo was the artist on Templar's story from the SENTINELS Anthology. The book will be 96 pages and full color. As of right now, I don't have a title for the book and have just been calling it ROACH. Of course the more I use that name, the more it sticks, lol. I don't want to give too much away about it, but it's a much darker book than anything else I've worked on. And of course there's a lot of humor in it too. I can't wait to see what Teyo comes up with for this book, his style fits it perfectly. And I'll show previews as soon as I can.

Luciano and I are still developing CASPIAN CURSES, but we both have full plates at the moment. Hopefully, we'll get to it next year. It'll be worth the wait though, just like NEVERMINDS. :)

In addition to all this (and work, you know the day job that pays the bills) I am also doing another class at the Learning Annex. Almost a year ago I taught my first class there and they asked me to teach again. Only this time it's different, it'll all be for their new online classes. I'll do a 45 minute class on camera for them and then it'll be available for download on there site for about $10. I think it'll be pretty cool, they plan to put our animated trailer for SENTINELS on it and all kinds of graphics.

I'd also like to take this time to ask what, if anything, people would be interested in seeing from SENTINELS. Right now I have about 5 different projects started, but if/when I come back to SENTINELS, would a second Anthology be a good idea? That's the way I'm leaning right now.

The art above was done by Jamie Fay at a convention and features Alex, BoBo and Elena from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. Cool, huh?

EVEN MORE SOUL CALIBER CHARACTERS

Here are the last of the characters Jamie did on Soul Caliber V. This time it's the villains from SENTINELS and Sanria from NEVERMINDS. And yes, before anyone asks, lol, Jamie is working hard on NEVERMINDS. These were done a while ago. Some of them really turned out pretty cool.

READ IT! MR.SCOOTLES TRADE!

A while back I wrote a post about Howie (HCNoel) Noeldechen's awesome book called MR. SCOOTLES. I really love this book and finally Howie is releasing the first trade!!!! I can't recommend enough that people check out this book. The trade is 160 pages and contains the first complete storyline (issues 1-5). The main part of the book is black and white, but there is also some color in there. The trade is going to be published by Alterna Comics and is in Diamond's Preview catalogue right now. The item code is SEPT083690. Ask you local comic shop to order it for you now. Believe me, you won't regret it. And I'm not just saying that because I wrote the intro for the trade! :)

3RD GEN SENTINELS ON XBOX

Okay, so maybe Jamie is getting carried away creating these, lol, but I still love seeing them. Here are the 3rd Gen SENTINELS on Soul Caliber, kind of grown up. Overall they fight pretty well and even give me some idea for future possibilites with them.

MORE SOUL CALIBER SENTINELS

Here are some more pictures of different characters Jamie Fay created on Soul Caliber 4 for X-Box. Sorry that they are a little blury, but these were taken off of the TV. As you can see, some of them worked out better then others, but I think they all look great.

I'm working on NEVERMINDS still and a number of different projects (which I hope to post on soon) but in the meanwhile, I thought these would be cool to show more of. I hope to be back to posting on here regularly starting next week.