SENTINELS ANTHOLOGY IN PREVIEWS

We got accepted into Diamond's Preview Magazine for next month! I was a little worried because I had heard (after the book was sent to the printers) that Diamond doesn't like the word "anthology" in comics and are less likely to pick something up that is an anthology. It turns out this isn't true and Diamond approved us no problem.

Now it's on to the promotional end for the SENTINELS Anthology. Start spreading the word that the book will be solicited in next months Diamond Previews! We need all the help we can get. We'll also be spotlighted soon on Newsarama and hopefully some other sites. I did a very cool podcast on Comic Geek Speak with Andrew Charipar (artist for Serpenta's story in the Anthology) which should be up soon.

The art attached with this post is the ad that will appear in Diamond Previews next month and the design/layout of the ad was done by Jamie Fay. (Thanks again, Jamie).

Still recovering here from my work shift being switched from nights to days. I'm loving seeing the daylight, lol. More soon!

SENTINELS COMMISSIONS 4

Another excellent SENTINELS commission by Luciano! This time it's Firebomb in a picture that shows all her looks throughout the series. This was commissioned by NEVERMINDS artist Jamie Fay while Luciano was visiting the states last year. Jamie is a big Firebomb fan and the artist on her story for the SENTINELS Anthology, so it's a no-brainer that he had Luciano do this for him. I hope eveyone is enjoying seeing these commissions, I know I am. Thanks to Jamie and Luciano for letting me post this. Now what is everyone else waiting for? Go get your commission by Luciano now before he becomes a superstar and doesn't have time. :)

And by the way, Happy Birthday, Jamie!

ANOTHER NEVERMINDS UPDATE

Just because I haven't posted much about NEVERMINDS on here, doesn't mean we're not working on it. We're working hard on it actually. With the SENTINELS Anthology all wrapped up and being printed, I've switched my focus solely on NEVERMINDS.

The concept of NEVERMINDS has changed a bit since Jamie Fay and I first started. And I think it's a good thing we took so long to work out the bugs. Originally, I just knew that I didn't want to do another superhero book, I wanted this book to be different. And I think that thought was blocking me a bit. Now though, it has it's own focus and story and it's unique.

Jamie is really doing some incredible art on this and I hope to post some previews soon. As people will see with his Firebomb story in the Anthology, he's grown a lot.

I'm still not sure on the actual page count of the book, but it'll be close to 100 pages or so. We're also hoping to do this book in color, depending on how the response to the Anthology is.

The picture with this post is one of the first promo pieces Jamie did a while back. I still love it and surpringly, it still expresses what we're doing with Neverminds even with the changes we made.

DONATING COMICS TO THE TROOPS

Somedays it seems like self-publishing can be a real downer. The whole struggle to get attention and try to promote yourself can be tiring. Believe me, I experience it all the time. It can be exhausting. But then it's the seemingly little things that can cheer you up.

I wrote a few months ago about donating comics to our troops overseas and I just heard back from a friend (Dominque Sumner) over there that the books I sent were well received. Kind of made my day to know that they appreciated them.

I sent a box of SENTINELS trades along with an assortment of comics that NEVERMINDS artist Jamie Fay donated to the troops overseas and I was surprised by how easy it was. Not to mention fast. I hope that others will also donate. It doesn't cost that much and it's truly appreciated by the men and women over there who are just doing their job.

The above pictures were sent via Dominque Sumner. Thanks for sending them, Dom. Dominque has always been a big supporter of SENITNELS and it was a pleasure to return the favor of support to him. Get back safe and soon guys.

READ IT! TALES FOR THE CORNERSTONE

TALES FROM THE CORNERSTONE is a book I've been wanting to plug for a while. I really love this series. Written and drawn by Andrew Charipar, TALES FROM THE CORNERSTONE is funny, original and exciting.

I first met Andrew at the NYC Comic Con in 2007. He came up to my table to chat about self-publishing. Now I've talked to many people who's goal it is to self-publish, but few ever have anything to show when I meet them. To my surprise, after chatting a bit, Andrew pulls out a complete graphic novel of TALES FROM THE CORNERSTONE. I was totally impressed. Not only had he already finished all the story we had been chatting about, but he already printed it! I gladly accepted Andrew's offer of the trade and looked forward to reading it later.

What I didn't expect was not being able to put it down the next day. I honestly laughed out loud on many occassions and when I was done, I wanted more.

TALES FROM THE CORNERSTONE is a great mix of mystery and humor all set in a city full of monsters where a special situations task force made of up of other monsters enforce the law. There's Ricky 17, a Frankenstien created super solider who is also Cornerstone's favorite detective. Then there's Cortez, the were-wolf dectective who's crude and sexist jokes hide his true nature and loyality to task force. Rounding out the team is Officer Amanda Wright who is one of 306 in a third generation of witches and warlocks.

In the first trade the team tries to track down a murderer they believe to be a vampire. But like any good story, everything is not as it seems and the resolution to the first arc is surprising.

As both artist and writer, Andrew really pulls out all the stops and must never sleep in order to produce this book. His art fits perfectly with the oddity of the series and creates a vidid world for the characters to live in.

Currently Andrew is finishing up the second TALES FROM THE CORNERSTONE trade and hopes to have it out in time for either the Florida Megacon (in March) or the NYC Comic Con (in April).

I can't reccommend this book enough! It's that good.

Check out Andrew's site to see more and even read the first issue for free on Drunk Duck at http://www.misfitcorner.com/

SENTINELS COMMISSIONS 3

Yet another of the SENTINELS commissions that Luciano has done. This time it's Crusher. And again, this was done for Todd Latoski. He's got a nice collection started! There are a few other great commissions that I will share later, but for now, this is it. Hope everyone enjoyed them. And of course, Luciano is still taking orders through his website at http://lucianovecchio.dreamers.com/ .

SENTINELS COMMISSIONS 2

Another awesome commission by Luciano again today. This time it's Sin commissioned by Todd Latoski. Todd was one of the earliest fans of SENTINELS and is also a very talented writer. You'll recognize his name from the SENTINELS Anthology too as he's the writer of Electron's story. Thanks again, Todd, for letting me show this. Check out more of Luciano's commissions at his website at http://lucianovecchio.dreamers.com/ .

SENTINELS COMMISSIONS

A while back Luciano started doing commissions through his website http://lucianovecchio.dreamers.com/ . Along the way he's done more than a few SENTINELS characters. I know we never posted some of them on the SENTINELS website, so I thought I'd put them here on the blog. They're too great not to be seen. Here is Electron done for Todd Latoski a few years back. Pretty cool, huh? Todd was also kind enough to allow us to use this image for a t-shirt.

THE LAST OF THE HISTORIC SENTINELS

Here we have the final two sketches of what would have been the historic version of the SENTINELS. This time it's historic Prophet and Damien. Yes, Damien would have had old ties to the SENTINELS. It would have been during the time before he "fell" from Heaven and would have told his journey to Hell. I think it worked out better the route we took, but it was great seeing Luciano come up with these designs.

I just realized this is my 50th post! Wow, I've been rambling a long time now, lol.

MORE HISTORIC SENTINELS SKETCHES

Here's the next two sketches of what would have been the historic version of the SENTINELS. This time it's historic-Harlette and a Monk (who would have filled the Gospel role on that group). Like I said, though I loved the sketches Luciano came up with, they didn't really work with the SENTINELS story. It would have been fun, but I think a little forced with us already having so many characters. But these are still some cool designs!

HISTORIC SENTINELS......................ALMOST

Uncovering stuff I'd long forgot I had, I came across sketches that Luciano did back when we were working on still working on SENTINELS Book 4, featuring the "historic" SENTINELS. I think they're pretty cool. It wasn't the direction we ended up going in, but I wanted to post them so Luciano's cool visions can be seen. These first two are the ancient verison of what would/could have been Templar and a pre-Alterian snake race. More tomorrow!

OLD SENTINELS ART TO SHARE

I said a few days ago that I've been trying to clean up and have come across some old art that Luciano had done that I'd thought I'd share. During the course of working on SENTINELS, Luciano was always throwing new ideas at me and doodling sketches. I always loved seeing them and whether they made it into the book or not, they were always great. This pic is of Jesse as he appeared in SENTINELS Book 2: Masks. I'm not sure why we didn't include it in the gallery on the SENTINELS website, but here it is now.

Jesse was originally created as pretty much a throw-away character. I needed someone to get Harlette and Sin to Lady Nimue's house in Book 2 and that was his main purpose. But something clicked with Jesee and I really liked his smartass personality. I worked it into Lady Nimue's story that Jesse would be her son and that was pretty much it. When Lady Nimue's story was resolved, I had no more plans for Jesse.

Then we started working on Book 3: Echoes. The plan there was always for the jewel that Electron stole from Damien in Book 1 to cause chaos in NYC and for Gospel to reappear trying to re-gather it. And up until midway through working on Book 3, there was an entirely new character who was giving the teens pieces of the jewel. But something seemed off and I didn't like the new character. He felt forced and out of place. Then it hit me, I still had Jesse floating around out there! In what worked perfectly, we changed this new character for Jesse and that enabled us to tell more about the spirits that Lady Nimue was controlling.

Finally when it came to Book 4: Echoes, I thanked the muses that I had used Jesse in Book 3 because he became a catalyst for Lightbringer. I loved the idea that he ended up with Lightbringer and Prophet and would train as the next generation Templar Knight.

I still think there's a great story to be told with Jesse and his training and hope one day to get a chance to use him again. He's truly one of those characters that wrote themselves.

INDIE COMICS NETWORK PODCAST

The Indie Comic Network has just posted a new podcast (episode 57) focusing on the SENTINELS Anthology. Miguel Rodrigues has always been a big support of SENTINELS and he was kind enough to interview myself and Jamie Fay for this first part of the podcast. Check it out at www.indiecomicsnetwork.com . Thanks again, Miguel!

SENTINELS MERCHANDISE

Finally! I've set up SENTINELS merchandise over at CafePress. Above are a few of things that are on the site. More to come soon! Check out the link at www.cafepress.com/drumfish .