SENTINELS ANTHOLOGY IN STORES TODAY!

The SENTINELS Anthology hits stores today. I checked out Midtown Comics this morning and they had a good amount of book. I have a friend going later tonight and we'll see how many copies are left. I also heard from Jamie Fay that a friend of his went to his local comic store this afternoon and they had already sold out. Very cool!

Attached with this post is a commission Luciano did for Bob Eddy last year when he visited and attended the Pittsburgh Comic Con. I cleaned the pic up a bit and wanted to repost it. It's definitely one of my favs and I thought it was fitting to post it today.

Off to Wizard World Philly tomorrow. Stop by and say hello!

WIZARD WORLD PHILLY THIS WEEKEND

A reminder to anyone who's in the area, I'll be at Wizard World Philly this weekend with NEVERMINDS artist, Jamie Fay. As many of you know, Jamie also did the art on Firebomb's story for the SENTINELS Anthology. He'll be doing sketches at the con. The Anthology arrives in comic shops tomorrow!
Next week I'll be posting more sketches I've gotten at conventions. I was just holding off until the Anthology officially came out. Didn't want to ruin too much. I'll also start posting some more previews from NEVERMINDS (and maybe CASPIAN CURSES).

SENTINELS ANTHOLOGY IN STORES THURSDAY!

I've been seriously neglecting the blog here this month. Sorry about that. I've been trying to do too much lately and to be honest, I'm not even sure how many people check this out. It's a little hard to get motivated to do this when you think no know is really reading. Maybe I'm wrong though.

That in no way means I'm not working on stuff. NEVERMINDS and CASPIAN CURSES have made a lot of progress. I'm really excited about them. I also have two or three other projects I'm developing. More on all that soon.

The big news this week is that the SENTINELS Anthology will be in stores this week. Thursday to be exact. Even though the Anthology was printed in February, this will be it's national release. Support your local comic store and Drumfish and go buy a copy!

SOME TEMPLAR SKETCHES

I thought I'd post a few sketches that I got from the original artist on Templar's story for the SENTINELS Anthology. When I was first looking for artist's for the Anthology, I remembered seeing some really nice sketches that I thought would fit the story Javier Barrerra wrote. After a little digging around on the net, I found that the artist I had seen was Irina Raski.

Irina lives in Finland and is currently in college. I really loved her style and thought she did really great pencil work. So, I contacted her and asked her to be part of the Anthology. Luckily, she agreed and everything was going great. I received these sketches from her shortly after she started school.

Unfortunately, things happen and school must come first. Just as I remember all those years ago when I was in college, things get busy. So, Irina had to pull out of being involved in the Anthology.

I was really sad to see her go, but totally understood. And as fate would have it, I think we ended up with another great artist in Teyo, who ended up drawing Templar's story under a very short deadline.

One day, I hope to get the chance to work with Irina again. I think she really has a future in comics if she wants to.

BOBO BY KATIE COOK

Last, but certainly not least, is the final sketch I got while at the Pittsburgh Comic Con. BoBo was drawn by Katie Cook, who was sitting at the Comic Geek Speak table. I hadn't made my way over to the area Katie was at during the con, but the last day Andrew Charipar told me I should try to get over there and check out Katie's work. Andrew had just got a commission from her and it really impressed me.

Katie couldn't be nicer and her rendition of BoBo is one of the favorite sketches I got at the con. Cute, huh? I can see Katie doing lots of work in the comic biz in the future. She'd be perfect for any of the kids comics that the big two publishers are putting out.

But don't take my word for it, check out Katie's website at http://katiecandraw.typepad.com/ .

MORE PITTSBURGH SKETCHES

Been crazy busy here, hence this quick post. But I wanted to show some more of the awesome sketches I got while in Pittsburgh.

The first is Electron by Scott Derby. Scott is a follow Pennsylvania native and has been at the Pitts con a few times. I was really happy to get something by him and love his cartoon style rendition of Electron. Check out his blog at www.liquidcouragefilms.com/blackboots .

Next is Rapture drawn by Donovan Bicker.

Last, but not least, is Sin and Harlette drawn by Comfort Love and Adam Withers.

ROBUST BY ROB REILLY

I've known Rob Reilly for a few years now, meeting him at the first Pittsburgh Comic Con I went to. At the time he was promoting his book, CONVENTION CONFESSIONAL, which focused on creators at a comic convention as they tried to sell their book. I really loved the book and thought it was funny. Also, Rob's art really stood out. He has a great animated style that bring the characters he draws to life.

Finally this year, I was able to get a sketch from Rob and asked him to draw whoever he liked from one of the SENTINELS books. To my surprise, he was the first artist to draw one of the first generation SENTINELS. He picked Robust. And honestly (though I hate to admit it, lol) I thought it was Cursher at first. It wasn't until Jamie Fay looked at it and said "Cool. He drew one of the first gen.", that I realized I it was Robust. Some creator I am not recognizing one of my own characters! lol.

Check out more of Rob's work at http://www.skatoonproductions.blogspot.com/ .

TEMPLAR IN WAR OF THE INDEPENDENTS

A while ago, I was asked by David Ryan to be involved in his crossover comic, WAR OF THE INDEPENDENTS, which stars some of the biggest independent comic characters out there. We're talking Cerebus, Faust, Badger, Shi, Bone, Zot, Dawn, Mad Man, Bomb Queen, ShadowHawk and 10th Muse, just to name a few. To be honest, it was so long ago that I talked to him about it, I forgot. Doh!

Recently though, I met up with David and Ryan McLelland and David showed me a ton of art from the series. He also showed me the HUGE group shot that is in the first issue. And there on the upper middle top was Templar from SENTINELS! Cool, huh?

I'm not sure exactly when this is scheduled to come out, but I'm really looking forward to it now that I've seen some of the art. I know that Templar isn't going to have a big part at all, but it's still cool that he's in there. I'm really glad SENTINELS got to be included in this.

Continuity-wise, this would be between SENTINELS Book 1 and 2 as you can see by Templar costume. Here is a closer look at his pic on the page.

Check out David's WAR OF THE INDEPENDENTS at www.comicspace.com/daveryan .

Also in this series is Skylar from Philip Clark's QUANTUM: ROCK OF AGES and Quick from Ryan McLelland's PHILLY.

HARLETTE BY ANDY BENNETT

Here's another of the sketches I got while in Pittsburgh. This time it's Harlette by Andy Bennett. Andy was super cool and his work is really detailed. I think he did this sketch in like 20 minutes and I think it's awesome. It really captures the mood and feel of Harlette from the 4th SENTINELS book. You can check out more of Andy's work on his website at http://www.wideopenwest.com/~bullistic/.

ELECTRON BY FRANCIS MANAPUL

Here's another of the sketches I got at the Pittsburgh Comic Con. This time it's Electron by Francis Manapul. Francis is the current artist on Legion of Superheroes. You can see more of Franis's work at http://www.francismanapul.com/ .

LIGHTBRINGER BY DAVID QUILES

Here is another sketch I got while at the Pittsburgh Comic Con. Lightbringer was done by the talented David Quiles. David is a fellow New Yorker and has been at many local cons. This is the first time that I got a sketch from him though. And after seeing his rendition of Lightbringer, I was kicking myself for not getting something from him sooner.

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/ .

He is also available for commissions and I highly recommend checking his art out!