SKETCH A DAY 131: ROGUE

One of my favorite X-characters has always been Rogue. I liked her ever since Chris Claremont added her to the team in the 80s. She's gone through a lot of changes as a character since then and even more changes in costume, lol. (Wasn't wild about her "iconic" look that they used in the 90s cartoon, ugh, headband). I always thought she looked best in green and white and liked the recent costume she had with the hood. So, I decided to draw that version for her. Just a quick sketch, but I think it turned out okay.

PHAZER BY ERIC GUERRERO

While not a convention sketch, this sketch by Eric Guerrero is just as great as any I've gotten at one. Eric was visiting NYC over the 4th of July and did this sketch of Phazer in my sketch book while we were hanging out. I really like his style and can't wait to see what his new original comic series he's working on will look like. I don't have many sketches of Phazer, so this was a nice addition to my book. Thanks again, Eric. It's awesome! Check out more of Eric's work at: http://cirgy.deviantart.com/ .

BEATDOWN BY REY ARZENO

These sketches of Beatdown from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS were done by the talented Rey Arzeno. Rey was hanging out with Jamie Fay and I working a bit on NEVERMINDS and he did this 1st sketch while we chatted. Of course, I think it's great and love it, but Rey being Rey, lol, was not satisfied with it and did another version while at home later. Pretty cool, huh? Thanks again, Rey!

SKETCH A DAY 130: ALIEN

I wanted to switch things up again with my sketches and do something a little different. The aliens in the movie, Alien, always gave me the creeps. I love their design (except in the 4th movie, lol). I went for a darker feel with this sketch and kind of messed up a little with what I had in mind for the background. I think I was able to salvage it okay though.

SKETCH A DAY 129: IGNITE

Finally, the last of the 3rd Gen SENTINELS is done! I had a blast doing these characters. It even made me miss them a little. Ignite is an interesting character. He really shouldn't be such a brat. I didn't plan to write him that way, but it just kind of happened and I liked it. I thought it was good that the son of the SENTINELS leader wasn't so perfect. Made him more human. Plus it made him fun to write.

SKETCH A DAY 128: CLOCKSTOPPER

Clockstopper (Simon) from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS is one of those characters that took on a life of his own. He's definitely his father's son. Next to Beatdown, he was the toughest to draw. Luciano gave him a very unique costume. I think he turned out pretty well though.

SKETCH A DAY 127: PSYCHED

Almost finished with all the 3rd Gen SENTINELS as part of my "sketch a day" project. I'm really finding drawing these characters very easy and fun. Weird how there is less pressure on yourself when you're doing something you created, lol. Pysched was a very last minute addition to the 3rd Gen time and I think she rounds them out perfectly. Great design by Luciano!

SKETCH A DAY 126: BEATDOWN

Beatdown is the last of the triplets from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS and, so far, he was the hardest to draw. I wasn't sure what kind of pose to put him in because his powers aren't as visual as the others. I decided to just go with a classic stance and focus on getting the details in his costume and skin right. I think he turned out okay, not as good as the others, but still okay.

SKETCH A DAY 125: KICKBACK

One of the funniest characters to write in SENTINELS was definitely Kickback. I don't know how he turned out to be the crazy way he is, but it just fit. I originally had him jumping upside down in this sketch but once it was inked, I thought it looked better right side up.

SKETCH A DAY 124: VIPERELLA

Here's the first of Serpenta's triplets from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS, Viperella. I love how she has a really unique costume. I don't really show off too well here, but Luciano put some alien style into her that fits perfectly.

SKETCH A DAY 123: HEARTACHE

Here's Heartache from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. I really like the way she turned out. I wasn't sure how to draw her powers. We really haven't shown them too much in the books. So, sorry, Luciano, lol, I kind of did my own interpretation.

SKETCH A DAY 122: WICKKID

Here's the last of today's posting of the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. I like drawing Wickkid (Brad) because he's such a angry character, lol. It fit in with my mood over the last week! But seriously, I liked how the energy effects turned out. So what if he looks like Adam Lambert from American Idol.

SKETCH A DAY 121: ELECTRO-CUTE

Here's Electro-Cute (Elena) from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. I think I went a little too crazy on the electricity around here, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with the way this sketch turned out. I'm having fun drawing all the 3rd Gen members and it's a nice break drawing some younger characters.

SKETCH A DAY 120: CASCADE

When I started this "sketch a day" project, I decided that I wouldn't draw any of the SENTINELS for it. I figured I had drawn them enough. Over the course of the four years Luciano and I had worked on the book, I probably inked each character a few hundred times and drawn them a lot before that too. I was kind of sick of them, lol. But recently, it occurred to me that I had never drawn or even inked any of the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. The only time I had drawn them was when I first sketched them out when I came up with the idea for the series. And the characters hardly resemble those first rough sketches. So, what the heck, I'm drawing the 3rd Gen SENTINELS, lol. Here's the first of them, Cascade (BoBo) who was one of my favs and the most fun to draw.

IGNITE BY AMANDA CONNER

Just as I had gotten George Perez to draw all the main characters in SENTINELS, I've had the luck and honor to get another of my all time favorite artists, Amanda Conner, to draw the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. So far she's done 5 of the 10 members. She's at the midway point! At last months Wizard World Philly Con Amanda did this awesome rendition of the 3rd Gen SENTINELS resident brat, Ignite. She really captured that innocent look he has (even though he's kind of rotten, lol) and I love the way she did the flames bordering him. As usual, seeing Amanda at the Con was one of the highlights for me. Her and Jimmy Palmiotti are two of the nicest creators you'll get the chance to meet. Amanda even emptied her bag looking for a benydrel for me because I had bad allergies. (Thanks again, Amanda, lol). Right now they both have some great work coming out including Powergirl that they are collaborating on with Justin Gray. Check out more of Amanda's work at http://www.amandaconner.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 119: HE-MAN

I wanted to do some more non DC or Marvel characters and He-Man fit the bill. I remember watching the old He-Man cartoons after school when I was a kid. I loved all the different villains that were created and have to admit that I liked the villains more, lol. Orco annoyed the heck out of me. Even as a kid, I didn't like him. Tried to do a quick background for this one. Kind of adds to the feel of the pic I think.

BOLT AND TEMPLAR BY TOM WHALEN

I met Tom Whalen a few years ago at a convention and really admired his work. Each time I'd see him, I think to myself, "why haven't I gotten a sketch by him yet?", lol. I dunno, for one reason or another, I just didn't. But I always wished I did. Well, this year at the Wizard World Philly Con, I made sure to find him and get something from him. I gave him his choice of 1st Gen SENTINELS and he picked Bolt and Templar. I love Tom's line work and style. It's really different than a lot of artists. It has that silkscreen feel to it. And his color work is even more amazing. He's done some awesome poster designs for things like Army of Darkness, Return of the Jedi and even Weird Al's UHF, lol. They're very cool, but don't take my word for it, go see his work at http://strongstufftom.blogspot.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 118: DUST

I'm trying to get back into the sketching mood after a few days off. Here's Dust from the Young X-Men. I liked the idea behind this character when she first appeared. I think it was Grant Morrison who created her. Her background, culture and personality have a lot of story potential. But I feel like they never really got into any of it. They started to in New X-Men, but then dropped the storyline and started with the "no more mutants" thing. Anyway, cool idea. Easy design, lol.

RECHARGED A BIT

Thanks to everyone who wrote about my needing a break. I totally vegged this past weekend and feel a bit recharged. This summer has been so busy that I think I just burned myself out and let things get to me too much. But all is good now and I hope to try to sketch some more soon. I might have some new announcements to make soon too. Nothing in stone yet, but maybe by the end of the week.

SKETCH A DAY 116: GRACE AND SKETCH A DAY 117: PROWLER

These two sketches were done for my friend Martin Eden over in England. Martin is another Indie creator who writes and draws his own work. His first series was called O Men and has been going on for a few years now. It's a very cool series that has been nominated for an Eagle award. And later this year, Martin plans to start his second series called Spandex. I drew these two sketches for him last week before I became burned out. I hope they came out okay.

The first is Grace from his series O Men and the second is Prowler from Spandex. I really applaud Martin for being a self-publisher. It's a lot of hard work and he's not only putting out his own stuff, but he's also doing everything on his own. Writing, drawing, inking, coloring, lettering, etc. Don't get burned out, Mart! lol. Check out Martin's work at http://www.comix.org.uk/theomen/ .

BREAK FOR A FEW DAYS

I had another post on here earlier that was kind harsh. Sorry about that. I took it off and figure the best thing for me to do is just take off for a few days and not post anything. I'm rethinking a lot of things and projects and will try to see what the future holds soon. I think I'm burned out today with comics, creators and the industry right now.

SKETCH A DAY 115: SPEEDBALL

One thing I really miss about current comics is the upbeat, light-hearted characters that used to exist. Whatever happened to them? Almost every character that I can think of is either dead, in comic limbo or has been totally changed and made darker. Here's an old favorite, Speedball, who used to have his own title back in the 80s and was a member of the original New Warriors. He's still around, but his name is Penance now and he wears a leather costume covering him from head to toe with spikes on it. Sad.

KICKBACK BY MATTHEW FLETCHER

I'd gotten a sketch by Matthew Fletcher before at the NYC Comic Con, so when I saw him at Wizard World Philly it was a no-brainer that I'd get something else by him. I really like his style. It's clean, energetic and unique. I love his rendition of Kickback from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. It's perfect and really captures the character well. See more of Matthew's work at http://www.mjfletcher.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 114: MEDUSA

Trying some different things here. I wanted to show some more perspective and still have it look interesting. I'm pretty happy with the way this one came out. I really don't know much about Medusa from the Inhumans except she has lots and lots of hair. I just went with that. :)

FIREBOMB BY GREG MOUTAFIS

Here's another of the great sketches I got while at Wizard World Philly. This time it's Firebomb in her costume from SENTINELS Book 3: Echoes drawn by Greg Moutafis. Greg has a really clean simple style that I think captures the essence of the character nicely. Greg was one of the Xeric winners a while back and has drawn such books as the Rookie, Boom!Squad and Johnny Raygun to name a few. Check out more of his work at http://www.gregmoutafis.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 113: HARRY POTTER

I tried a little different technique with this sketch. I did really, really loose pencils and then went straight to inking. But instead of being as smooth with my inks as I usually am, I decided to go a little rougher. Interesting effects. I've never drawn Harry Potter before, but with so many commercials on TV for the new movie, I decided to give him a try.

SENTINELS ON ALERT NERD

Here's a cool review of the SENTINELS series from Jeff at http://www.alertnerd.com/ . Jeff got all the SENTINELS books at the Wizard World Philly Con and (luckily, lol) he seemed to like them. Check out the review here: http://www.alertnerd.com/?p=2282 or read below. :)

Thanks Jeff! Glad you liked the series!

UNDER THE RADAR: SENTINELS

SENTINELS is better than it has any right to be.
The indie superhero book got a good deal of buzz from Newsarama, CBR and Ain’t It Cool around the time its second volume - “Masks” - was released, but I never got around to tracking the book down, and then it vanished under the radar again by the time I remembered. I found the entire series of OGNs at Wizard World Philly and have spent the past two weeks digging into it. I finished it up last night.
If you like the Chris Claremont run on Uncanny X-Men, you’re probably going to dig Sentinels. It delivers a page-turning combination of angst, romance, aliens, demons, government conspiracy, daddy issues, Bronze Age-style ass-kicking, frequent costume changes and a long form plot that spans three generations of heroes and manages to pay off satisfyingly, something that few Big Two titles can accomplish these days. Things happen in Sentinels - death, resurrection, betrayal, sex, sacrifice, et cetera.
The most entertaining part of Bernatovich’s magnum opus, though, was watching the evolution of the creators in elapsed time. Much like J.K. Rowling, Bernatovich and Vecchio’s early work is still entertaining and engaging, but becomes much more polished and craft-aware from volume to volume, especially Vecchio’s pencils, which gain added depth over time without sacrificing his Marvel-meets-manga style.
Like I intimated above, Sentinels is very easy to recommend to 80s X-fans, and to superhero fans in general. The book may be a harder sell for Golden Age/DC die-hards, however. It’s the most competent and interesting superhero project I’ve read from a nonmajor publisher since Rising Stars.

SKETCH A DAY 112: STATIC

This the first time I've drawn Static. I am pretty happy with the way he turned out. They recently added him to the Teen Titans and at first I couldn't stand him. But they seem to have merged him well with the team and within the DC universe. He was fun to draw.

SKETCH A DAY 111: POWER PACK

Finally! A good sketch again I think. I was in the mood to draw Power Pack. Don't laugh. See, I was talking with some people recently about different books and how they can bring them back and it actually gave me some ideas for Power Pack. They haven't been used right for a long time and I really believe that there is a market for them. I'd love to get a crack at writing them. Of course, I'd age them a bit. But I think it could be a cool book if you move it into current times. I think this sketch turned out pretty well.

SKETCH A DAY 110: DEATH

Another sketch where I wanted to try something different. This is the first sketch where I haven't drawn full body. I was going for a look where the character merges with the background. It's okay, nothing great. Two bummer sketches in a row, lol. Not good.

SKETCH A DAY 109: DARKSEID

Okay, so sometimes I really think I'm doing a good sketch and then once it's done, it's kind of crappy. That's pretty much the case here. As I was drawing Darkseid I thought he's face looked great. I got the shape and all the cracks right and was happy with him. I get to inking the body and somehow it just seems blah. Don't like it at all. I mean, besides the fact that he actually has a ridiculous costume, he looks off. I mean really, he's wearing a skirt! It's kind of hard to pull off making him look evil with a skirt. But they usually do it and I didn't so this one is a learning lesson I guess. Still like the way the face came out though.