ANOTHER NEVERMINDS PREVIEW

I still don't want to show too much of NEVERMINDS just yet, but this page is just so awesome that I had to post it on here. Jamie Fay and Rey Arzeno are an amazing team and I'm blown away by the work they are doing. Just look at this page. Beautiful, huh? Readers of SENTINELS will notice a connection to that series with the character featured on this page. I'm not saying much more than that though. We'll have more previews with us at the NYC Comic Con next weekend. Stop by table J7 in artist alley and come see them!

SKETCH A DAY 6: HALO

One of my favorite teams from the 80s was the Outsiders. I liked the mix of the team with both established DC characters and new ones created just for the series. To me, Halo was the glue that held them all together, with her innocent and optimistic attitude. And when they re-launched the Outsiders later without her and most of the original team it just wasn't the same. Now they are reuniting the entire team and I'm looking forward to it. This was a fun and easy sketch to do. :)

SKETCH A DAY 5: WILDCAT

Another day, another sketch. This time it's Wildcat from the JSA. Sure he has a goofy costume, but he's still a cool character. I like that he's been around so long too, I think from the 50s. I also wanted to post a guy for a change since so far it's all been women. I also got some color work from Rey Arzeno yesterday on NEVERMINDS. It's looking great! I'll post a sneak tomorrow. In the meantime, give me some suggestions on who to draw, lol.

SKETCH A DAY 4: ZATANNA

While we're working and working on NEVERMINDS and stuff for the NYC Con next week, I'm still keeping at my sketch a day task. This time it's Zatanna from JLA. It's not one of my best sketches, but it was still fun to draw. I'm trying to get this art style down and develop something unique so that I might be able to do some sketches at cons. I'm not there yet, but maybe by the summer, lol.

SKETCH A DAY 3: TIGRA

Keeping up with my daily sketching, here's Tigra from the Avengers. I don't know a lot about her to be honest, but I like her and she's fun to draw. I was happy with the pose on her. I've been doing a lot of sketching and I'm getting happier with each result, but this won't turn into just a blog of my trying to sketch, lol. I will post some NEVERMINDS previews in the next few days.

NYC COMIC CON ARTIST ALLEY TABLE J7

The Fourth Annual NYC Comic Con is next weekend! I'm really looking forward to the show and hope it'll be as great as the previous years. I got my Artist Alley table assignment the other day. I'll be at table J7 along with Jamie Fay and Rey Arzeno. Both Jamie and Rey will be doing sketches at the con and we'll also be holding a raffle each day to win a piece of original art (sketch of your choice) by Jamie Fay. To enter the raffle all you need is to purchase one Drumfish book. For each book you buy, you get an entry. Winners will be announced by the end of each day. Not a bad deal, huh? Even if you already have all the SENTINELS OGNs, stop by to see previews of NEVERMINDS.

SKETCH A DAY 2: JOCASTA

Here's another of the sketches I am doing once a day. This time it's Jocasta from the Avengers. I always liked this character and I'm glad they brought her back recently. She has a cool design. While not the best sketch I've ever done, I'm still happy with the way it turned out. Especially since it took very little time to draw, lol.

Give me some suggestions on who to draw!

SKETCH A DAY 1: POISON IVY

Few people remember, including myself sometimes, lol, that I started as an artist first and even got my BA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA. Once I got into the Indie comic biz, I stopped drawing and it's been a few years since I've done anything outside of character designs and inking. I focused on my writing. But I always wanted to get back to sketching at least. So, this year I want to challenge myself and try to do a sketch everyday. I don't plan to post them every day, but I hope to draw at least a little each day. Here is the first in what I hope will be many sketches. Now I don't claim to be a great artist, so don't slam me too much, lol, but it's a start getting my skills back up. With this post is Poison Ivy. Feel free to give me some suggestions on who to draw.

MORE ABOUT DIAMOND

Today Newsarama ran another story [link]about Diamonds new policy and quoted me. That was a bit of a shock. Self-publishing can be tough and sometimes just hearing someone say something nice or even mentioning you can be very rewarding. It'd be great to get recognized for some awards or something, but I'm not good at kissing up or being fake. This kind of recognition feels better though and makes me feel like I did something right. I've helped a lot of Indie people get attention and introduced them to lots of my connections. Sometimes they turn their back on you and never pay it forward, but sometimes your hard work gets noticed and you realize you've made some impact. Back in December 2003 Drumfish's first SENTINELS book came out. At the time, to the best of my knowledge, I was the first person self-publishing straight to trade. And it turned out to be the best thing I could have done. I always encouraged others to go that route and it seems now that might be the only way for the Indie publisher to survive. It's not easy, but I still think you can succeed. Anyone looking to self-publish and has questions, don't hesitate to write and ask any questions you might have.

ELECTRON BY REY ARZENO

With the NYC Comic Con coming up on February 6-8, I've been busting my buddy Rey Arzeno's chops to get his portfolio in order and be prepared to do sketches. Recently he stopped over and we chatted about what he needs for the con and he practiced his sketching time. The sketch of Electron with this post was done by Rey in about 40 minutes. That's a pretty good rate to be doing sketches at. Now Rey just needs to get his portfolio in order. Hint, hint!

DIAMOND RAISES THRESHOLDS FOR PUBLISHERS

On Newsarama's website today it was announced that Diamond Comic Distributors would be raising their threshold for Publishers once again. I definitely reccommend reading Newsarama's article at this link: http://www.newsarama.com/comics/010919-Diamond-Thresholds.html . This is sad news for every Independent publisher out there. Diamond had recently raised their threshold in September 2005 to $1500 and back then it was tight for Indies to meet that goal, but now they are raising it to $2500. There's pretty much no way that anyone will be able to meet that amount unless they are one of the big companies. By big, I mean Marvel , DC, Image, Dark Horse, IDW, SLG and a few others. So, what does it mean for us little guys? I'm not sure yet. As it is, we are all always struggling to get our books out there. But with no other way to distribute to almost every comic book store in the U.S., it basically means we're on our own. I'm trying to figure out how exactly I will deal with distributing NEVERMINDS and the other projects that I have started, but I don't see being able to do it through Diamond. It's sad that the comic industry is shrinking to almost non-existence and this seems like the nail in the coffin. Thoughts?

FREEZING IN NYC AND CONVENTIONS

The weather in NYC has been so freaking crappy lately. The cold seems to have an affect on me and I have been neglecting the blog. But things are moving on all projects and we're gearing up for the cons in February. First I'll be doing the NYC Comic Con with Jamie Fay and Rey Arzeno. Both Jamie and Rey will be at the DRUMFISH table doing sketches. Noel Short (writer of Splash's story from the SENTINELS Anthology) and Andrew Charipar (artist of Serpenta's story in the Anthology) will be around at the con too.

At the end of the month I'll be heading down to Florida to attend the Megacon along with Jamie Fay. We did okay there last year and it was great to see a lot of people we normally don't get a chance to see. So, we're giving it another try. I enjoyed the con and we have a different spot this year so hopefully things will go well. Todd Latoski (writer of Electron's story for the Anthology) and Andrew Charipar both say that they will be there as well.

NEVERMINDS is looking really great! Both Jamie and Rey are working hard and the results are amazing. Luciano has done some work on CASPIAN CURSES that I want to show soon with his permission. So, they're will be lots to show soon!

The pic along with this post was a gift to me by Jamie Fay for X-Mas. It's my two favorite Titans. Jamie tried using a new technique with his markers on this. I think it turned out great!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year to all! I can't believe another year has gone by already, but I have to say I'm not sad to see 2008 go, lol. It's been a tough year for everyone I think, and the state of our nation has been a mess with elections, big biz corruption, the economy, etc.. But I'm optimistic about 2009 and truly think it will be a great year for us all.

For myself, it's been a bit of a hectic year with ups and downs and setbacks on different projects. I made it part of my resolution to have at least two of the projects I've been working on come out this year. Of course, first and foremost is the long talked about NEVERMINDS. I know, I know, I've said it all before, but believe me, it'll be out this year. Then there is the project I mentioned that I was developing with Teyo. It still doesn't have an official name, but the title we've been using for fun/referral is ROACH. I'm not sold on it (the title) just yet, but once I have some sketches to post and I tell everyone the basics about the story, maybe I'll have a poll to vote on the name?

So, those are the two books I promise/resolve to get out this year. But there are a few other things in the works.

One is of course CASPIAN CURSES with Luciano Vecchio. We have this all plotted out and character sketches have been re-worked. It's all just a matter of finding the time to finish it. Luciano is a busy busy guy and is currently working on the third OGN in the series called CRUEL THING that I mentioned many times on here. It's an awesome looking book and I'm really happy to see it in print. Bravo, Vecchio. After that Luciano is booked up with another project and then (hopefully/possibly) he will see if he can work CASPIAN CURSES into his schedule. I hope so because it'll really be a different type of books from us and kind of unique I think.

There is another OGN I am working on too, but not enough is done to start plugging it yet, but...there is also a possibly that we might be doing another SENTINELS Anthology by the year end. :)

The sketch with this post is of Alanis from NEVERMINDS by Jamie Fay! Hope everyone had a great and Happy New Years!