BUSY BUSY BUSY!

Too much to do and not enough time! I'm not sure what it is, but I've been totally busy since the beginning of this year. I'm not trying to complain, because I'm enjoying everything I'm working on, but the burnout is definitely felt.

The good news is that the SENTINELS Anthology is currently printing! Jamie Fay and I are working a lot on NEVERMINDS and I think we're heading in a really great direction. I'm loving it! And I just finished a 16 page story for another Anthology that I'm really happy with. I can't talk too much about the 16 page story yet, but as soon as I get the go-ahead, I will spill the beans. What I can say is that it's not a superhero story, but it has a SENTINELS connection.

I'm cleaning house a bit and have found some interesting things I'll post over the next week or so. But in the meanwhile, the art above is the last of the three 3rd Gen SENTINELS pics that Jamie Fay drew while at the NYC Anime Con. This time it's Luciano's favorite, Simon. Enjoy!

READ IT! QUANTUM: ROCK OF AGES

Plug time again! This time I'd like to recommend a book called QUANTUM: ROCK OF AGES by Philip Clark and James Rodriguez.

Of course, I've known Philip and James for a while now. I met both of them at the Big Apple Con some years ago. But even though I consider them friends, that's not the reason I want to help share QUANTUM with people. I really honestly like this book and think they're doing some awesome work.

QUANTUM: ROCK OF AGES is a twelve issue series that tells the story of Nick Vargas, East Village record store owner and would be musician, and how he becomes a Quantum bearer and gets pulled into a battle for control over parallel worlds. Guided by Stolz, a scientist from one of those parallel worlds, Nick quickly gathers allies on his journey. Each of whom are also embedded with a piece of the Quantum Sphere. The Quantum Sphere gives each of it's bearers different powers and is the only thing that can repair the space/time continuum. The group is pursued by the son of Hitler and the evil Frosch (also a Quantum bearer), who's gathered his own group of allies from other parallel worlds. Nick and company must discover the secrets of the Quantum and oppose Frosch and the Reich before it's too late.

So far, Dreamchilde Press has released six issues of QUANTUM and has also put out a trade of those six issues. Currently, issue seven is about to be released, hopefully in time for the NYC Comic Con in April 2008.

Whenever I discover or read a new comic, I can always tell how much time and energy the creators put into it. I really think you can tell when a book is a labor of love. And QUANTUM: ROCK OF AGES definitely is. Philip and James have put so much of themselves in this book that it's obvious right from the beginning that you're reading something special.

Philip's witty dialogue and fun characters (wait until you see Blu!) match perfectly with James's smooth and clean style. And watching James's art mature from issue to issue is really amazing. Each of the team gathered by Nick and Stolz is original and has a distinct voice and look.

I'm really look forward to seeing the second act/half of QUANTUM and I know that it'll be worth the wait. But don't just take my word for it, check out the website for QUANTUM at http://www.quantumcomic.net/ .

THE SENTINELS APPEAR IN PHILLY!

The SENTINELS appear in Philly! No, not the city, the awesome comic called PHILLY by Ryan McLelland and Jim Hanna. PHILLY was originally schedule to be published by Arcana. The first issue came out, but then for reasons I don't understand, they stopped printing it and were planning to go straight to trade with the four issue series. Again, I'm not positive what happened from there, but the trade didn't happen (I still hope it will!). But Ryan was determined to get this book out and, lucky for us, he started posting it on Drunk Duck.

What I love about PHILLY is Ryan's humor is all over it. The character are funny and have distinct personalities too. Ryan was kind enough to ask/offer two of the SENTINELS to appear in the final issue. I quickly said YES. Ryan decided to use Templar and Serpenta in his story and I think they fit really well with the vampire storyline he had going. Continuity-wise, this story would fit between SENTINELS Book 1 and 2.

The fourth issue of PHILLY has just started to get posted on Drunk Duck and you can see Luciano's awesome cover for the issue on there now (to be followed regularly by the inside pages). They accidently credited someone else with the coloring on Luciano's cover, but it's all by him.

Check out PHILLY at www.drunkduck.com/Philly

NEVERMINDS UPDATE

Now that the SENTINELS Anthology is complete and at the printers, I'm finally able to focus on NEVERMINDS. I'm excited to work on this project that has been in development for what seems like a long time. Why the delay? Many things, mainly life getting in the way on both my and artist Jamie Fay's part. We both had a lot of things going on and honestly didn't feel the book had that special something that would make it unique. I think that was something that was holding me back a bit with this project and I didn't want to put something out that I didn't feel was special.

Finally, I feel like we are there and things have really begun to click. I hope to post regularly about the progress on the book and look forward to seeing Jamie's art on it. We'll have lots of previews at conventions this year and hope to have the book finished for some of them.

I'm also working on another project that will be published by another company that I can't talk much about yet. But fans of SENTINELS will enjoy as it will have slight ties to the series. Very slight, but interesting. No superheroes though. That's all I can say for now.

How about that NEVERMINDS logo? Pretty cool, huh?

SENTINELS ANTHOLOGY COVER REVEALED!

With the completion of the all the pages, I can finally reveal the cover of the SENTINELS Anthology! I'm really happy with this and think it's a great representation of all the artists involved in the book. Everyone gets a chance to shine a little. I'm curious to hear what people's thought are on the cover.

The Anthology is at the printers now and with a little luck, we'll have it in time for Megacon in Florida. It might cost me, but it'll be worth it so that we'll have the book there. Four of the creators from the Anthology will at Megacon; Jamie Fay, Todd Latoski, Andrew Charipar and myself.

I'm really happy to have this book finished as it will be the first published work for many of the creators involved. I know many of them will go on to bigger and better things and I'm proud to have their first printed work in the Anthology. Congratulations, everyone! We did it!

With the Anthology complete I'm finally focusing solely on NEVERMINDS. I'm really excited to get something out that isn't superheroes and doesn't focus on a team. Jamie's art has gotten really strong and I know everyone will be impressed by it. It's been a long road working on NEVERMINDS, but it'll be worth it once you see it!

ANTHOLOGY SPOTLIGHT: TEYO

Teyo is the artist for Templar's story in the SENTINELS Anthology. Teyo is the last of the Argentina based creators who worked on the Anthology, but certainly not the least.

As I mentioned in Templar's profile, finding an artist for Templar's story proved to be the hardest part of doing the book. I was lucky enough to find Teyo through Luciano Vecchio. He had known Teyo through an art group he attends and Teyo mentioned that he was eager to draw some sequential pages again. He didn't have as much time as everyone else to work on his pages, but Teyo was able to make the deadline and I think did an incredible job.

Teyo style is very original and I feel has almost a story book quality to it. His use of color and line really fit perfectly with the story Javier wrote.

It's in spanish, but you can check out more of Teyo work at http://www.storydeteyo.blogspot.com/ .

ANTHOLOGY SPOTLIGHT: JAVIER BARRERA

Javier Barrera is the writer for Templar's story in the SENTINELS Anthology. I was first introduced to Javier through his artwork by Luciano Vecchio. Javier was kind enough to do a painting of Rapture that we posted in the gallery section of the SENTINELS website. I really loved the quality of his work and it wasn't until later that I found out he was also a writer.

Javier had created REAL CLOHE along with Luciano. It was a dream-like story that touched upon the different planes of reality and alternate universes. It's main character was a striking woman who seemed to have lost her mind and then discovers she isn't crazy, just that she is one of a chosen few who can cross those planes. Along with REAL CLOHE, Javier had written and illustrated a series called GATO V. I loved it! It was raw and uninhibited and had a turly unique feel to it.

I was having trouble deciding who would write Templar's story for the SENTINELS Anthology. I knew I wanted someone who could really do the character justice. Someone who understood Templar's past and would be able to tell a story that had a lot of heart. Luckily, Luciano suggested Javier and I knew he was the right person. I just hadn't thought of him because I was so impressed by his art and considered him an artist.

It's funny how everything just worked out for the Anthology and Javier's story really wraps it all together as the 3rd generation SENTINELS learn about their parents.

Javier is currently re-creating his website, but you can see some of his art at www.artelista.com/autor/6779686623657151-barrerafanego.html .

ANTHOLOGY SPOTLIGHT: TEMPLAR

I wanted to wait until everything was finished before I posted the spotlight for Templar and the creators behind his story in the SENTINELS Anthology and I'm happy to report that I finally can!

When I started SENTINELS, I knew I wanted (and needed) a strong character for the leader of the team. I also wanted him to have a great back story. Something unique and that would eventually connect the entire team together. The Templar Knights served as a great inspiration for creating just that character and also became the thing that would be responsible for the entire team's existence.

A lot of people have asked me if Templar is based on me. Of course he isn't. He's actually nothing like me. But of all the characters I did put the most effort into creating his personality. It was a fine line trying to create a person with so many demons and yet have that person be looked at by others as a leader. Hopefully, that came across.

Visually, Templar had a pretty boring costume in the beginning. That was my design and honestly, it was the first sketch I did of him. It just felt right at the time. When Luciano came on board, one of the first things he wanted to do was redesign Templar's look. Templar's look in Book 2 was a BIG improvement to me. But it wouldn't be until Book 4 that I really felt we had it perfect. Finally he looked like the leader he was meant to be. That worked in perfectly with his storyline and how he overcome most of his demons to emerge anew.

When it came time to decide who would tackle Templar's story for the SENTINELS Anthology it was really hard. I honestly had no idea who would work well on him. Fortunately, Luciano suggest Javier Barrera. I don't know Javier too well, but I had read some of his work and was impressed with the comic he had done with Luciano called REAL CLOHE. Finding the artist for Templar's story was the hardest part of working on the Anthology. At first I had found a really great artist named Irina Raski, who lives in Finland. Her style was very detailed and soft and fit perfectly with Javier's story. Unfortunately, Irina had just started college and wasn't able to complete the pages on time. This left me with just two months to find a new artist. Both Jamie Fay and Luciano suggested people and I decided that Luciano's suggestion of Teyo fit a little better. Teyo art really rounds out the Anthology and when you see the art, you'll understand why we decided to wait for him to complete it before showing any. It's awesome!

Like all the creators involved in the Anthology, I'm really proud of Javier and Teyo's work.

Can't wait to get this book out there!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope everyone had a great New Year!

I know I've been seriously behind on posting anything on here. Not really a great way to start the new year, huh? To be honest, I'm not even sure who checks this blog out (if anyone, lol), but to any of you who do, thank you and I applogize.
So, the last few weeks have been crazy and super busy. The holidays had me running around like a mad man and I was still finishing my pages for the SENTINELS Anthology. On top of all that I had jury duty and actually got picked for a case! Ugh! Talk about horrible timing. It lasted a little over a week, but it's over now. And I got all the Sin pages done. Even though I was hating my art on them as I was working on it, I just got the lettered pages back and I have to say, I think they look pretty good. I'm kind of surprised and happy I agreed to draw them.

On the Anthology front, everything is pretty much ready to go and should be shipping to the printers next week. I'm just waiting on the Templar story (I'll explain all that when I spotlight the Templar creators) and the final cover art. It entire book looks awesome though. Everyone envolved did a great job and I can't wait to get this book out there.

Jamie Fay and I are still moving forward on NEVERMINDS and we hope to have stuff ready for the NYC Con in April. If not the actual book, then at least an ashcan.

I hope to get back to regular posting now. I have a few links and stuff to share with everyone, plus a ton of great Indy books that I want to spotlight.

Art with this post is from waaaaaaay back in 1990. Wow, almost 20 years ago. It's from an apa I was in called TitanTalk. I did the Flamebird drawing and none other than George Perez drew Nightwing.