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!