BREAKERS ON KICKSTARTER!

One of my oldest friends (I can say that because he really is older than me, lol) and one of the writers from the first SENTINELS Anthology (he wrote the Splash story!) is Noel Short. And after writing his story for the Anthology, Noel was bitten by the writing bug and along with his writing partner, Andrew Reaves, they created their own story called Breakers. Breakers is an underwater epic focusing on a race of mer-people. The protagonist, Gundred, strives to learn the secret of the legends of the "surface world" as he also becomes entangled with the evil "River People". The original art designs were drawn by NEVERMINDS awesome colorist, Rey Arzeno. Rey helped create the look of all the characters and provided Noel and Drew with inspiration to develop the entire story. Later, they found artist, Ashish Joshi, to become the regular artist on the series. I'd really love to see this series come to life, but self-publishing does not come easy and takes a lot of money. That's why Breakers has a Kickstarter page at www.kickstarter.com/projects/756391117/breakers-an-original-graphic-novel . Please head over there and learn more about the series, see some amazing art and check out the promo video that they did. They only have 10 days left to make their goal. Help support them in whatever way you can!

ANOTHER NEVERMINDS #2 PREVIEW

I promised to show more previews from NEVERMINDS #2 and here are two panels. We're trying not to show too much, but I think it's quickly obvious that the tone for this issue is different. With issue #2, we focus on

NEVERMINDS team member, Nina Hartley (yes, the name is explained, lol). Nina's story is much darker than the first issue and I hope it will show that we are aiming for something different with this series. I also love showing off the amazing art by Jamie Fay and colorist Danielle St. Pierre!

NEVERMINDS #2 BACKCOVER BY ROSS CAMPBELL

We're proud to show off what will be the back cover for NEVERMINDS #2. This beautiful drawing of Nina was drawn by Ross Campbell and colored by Danielle St. Pierre. Ross is an extremely talented writer and artist, who has been nominated for multiple awards (including being nominated twice for an Eisner Award!). His work includes Wet Moon, Shadoweyes, The Abandoned, Water Baby and Mountain Girl. Ross work has a truly unique style to it. It's expressive in so many ways. His use of body language and facial expression really make his characters come to live. He also creates a very believable world with his writing and makes you care about each and every one of his characters. That's not something many creators can say. So, when Ross agreed to draw the back cover for NEVERMINDS #2, we were very excited! I love his rendition of Nina from the main part of the NEVERMINDS team and it's fitting that he's drawn her as she is the main focus of issue #2. Please check out more of Ross's work at www.greenoblivion.com and www.mooncalfe.deviantart.com.

Also bringing this back cover to life is our very talented colorist for NEVERMINDS #2, Danielle St. Pierre. We're super excited to see each page Danielle has been turning in and can't wait to show off her work. She did a knockout job on Ross's art and wait until you see what she's doing with Jamie Fay's! Check out more of Danielle's work at www.witchysaint.deviantart.com. We'll show more previews of issue #2 tomorrow!

SANRIA BY RHINANNON OWENS

This sketch of Sanria, from Neverminds, was drawn by the extremely talented Rhiannon Owens. I love Rhiannon's work! The amount of detail and color technique put into each commission is amazing. On top of that, Rhiannon is a blast to be around and funny as hell. Check out more of Rhiannon's work at http://www.dangerous-beauty778.deviantart.com/

FIREBOMB BY BILL WALKO

This sketch of Firebomb, from SENTINELS, was drawn by Bill Walko at the 2011 Baltimore Comicon. Bill and i go waaaaay back and earlier this year, he decided to jump into the self publishing world with his own comic. I really love Bill's style and his version of Firebomb looks great! I love the border he made around her and the sleek lines. The only problem Bill had with it is that he left the sketch book open on a chair and his table neighbor knocked Bill's own coffee over on it. Doh! Luckily, only the one page was damaged and it scanned perfectly. :)

2011 BALTIMORE COMICON REPORT

So, this past weekend was the 2011 Baltimore Comicon. This is only a two day show, but it gets a very good turnout. We arrived bright and early Saturday morning to the show, eager to be there, only to discover that our table was cornered with two other artists. Unfortunately, this lead to some problems as we weren't able to put up both of our banners due to their table and ours over-lapping. I got someone from the convention to try to help us and they said they would be back quickly, but they had Stan Lee entering the building and needed to take care of him. No problem, Stan is a legend and deserves the attention and to be taken care of. So, we went about our business and only put up the NEVERMINDS banner. I was totally scrunched into my half of the table and shadow by another person's display on the right of me and no banner behind me. This made it hard to see what I had on my table and really show the books off or get attention. Needless to say, Saturday was not a good day at the convention for me. Sure, I sold a few books and art, but not the volume I usually do. Jamie Fay on the other hand did great and was completely book the entire day and even had to take commissions back to the hotel room to finish. Near the end of the day, I realized that nobody had come back over to us from the convention to help us with our problem. I went and found the person in charge and although he was very nice, there was basically nothing they could do. Sigh.

That night we got to have dinner with a great group of people! One of which was our friend from down south, Rhiannon Owens. Rhiannon is an extremely talented artist and came to the Baltimore Con mainly because we, and a few other people, told her it was a good show. She said the show went well for her, so I'm glad she made the trip up. We love seeing her and she's hilarious to hang with.

After dinner, we went to have fun at one of the hotel bars. We ran into the amazing Amanda Conner, who was very happy to see us. Amanda is one of the best creators in the biz (in my opinion) along with Jimmy Palmiotti. Amanda is working on a ton of things right now and I can't wait to see what she has out next. Whatever it is, you know with Amanda its going to be good!

Sunday was a really different day for me. For some reason, I was selling a ton of art. I sold a lot of books too, don't get me wrong, but it seemed it was totally and art day. I ended up selling over 20 of my pre-made headshot sketches and then did 4 commissions. Add that to the volumes of books sold on Sunday and I ended up okay for the weekend despite Saturday and the table prob.

Eventually, the guy running the Con offered to give us a break on next years table due to the problem we had. I'm not sure we will be returning next year though. We have to check our schedule.

We want to give a HUGE thanks to everyone who came out and supported us the Con! You guys are the best!!

HARLETTE BY TIM LASKEY

This sketch of Harlette, from SENTINELS, was done at the 2011 Wizard World Philly Con by Tim Laskey. This was one of two sketches I got from Tim at the convention that weekend (I posted the other one a few weeks ago, check below!). Tim was seated a table down from us, so we chatted a bunch of times and I lucky enough to get him to do these sketches. I love his interpetation of Harlette! His use of color and the background only add to the already dynamic pose. Tim is currently working on his own comic series and hopes to have something out soon. I will definitely be looking out for it and post more about it when he gets it out to the comic world!

BALTIMORE COMICON!

I know I'm a little late getting this info out, but this weekend (August 20 - 21) I'll be at the Baltimore Comicon in Artist Alley at table A-128. I'll be there sharing a table with NEVERMINDS artist, Jamie Fay. We'll both be doing commissions, selling prints and selling NEVERMINDS and SENTINELS. As we always do at conventions, we'll have an awesome deal on the entire set of SENTINELS books. Stop by our table for details!

ELECTRON BY TIM LASKEY

This sketch of Electron, from SENTINELS, was drawn by Tim Laskey at the 2011 Wizard World Philly Con. Tim is a super nice guy and very, very talented. Tim puts a lot of thought into each of his sketches and it was great seeing him working on them throughout the day. I liked Tim's art so much, that I actually got two sketches by him at the convention, lol.

ALANIS MUNROE BY NEI RUFFINO

This sketch of Alanis Munroe from NEVERMINDS was done by Nei Ruffino at the 2011 Wizard World Philly Convention. Wayyyyy back when we first started NEVERMINDS (and when it was a completely different story), Nei was the colorist on the book. Anyone who has seen her coloring knows how amazing she is and it wasn't long before she was coloring multiple books for Zenoscope and DC Comics. Currently, she is coloring Birds of Prey and one of the Green Lantern books for DC Comics. In addition to being a professional colorist, Nei is also a talented artist. As you can see her she has a really unique and soft feel to her style. I also love her crisp linework and the expression she gave Alanis. Please check out more of Nei work at http://www.bakanekonei.deviantart.com/ .

NEW HEADSHOTS AND COMMISSIONS

I haven't posted any of my sketches in a while, so i figured I'd post a few today. Here are some recent ones and two commissions (Indiana Jones and a sketchcard of an original character, Serenity Star).

BUGGED COVER!

I'm very proud to show the cover for our third title, BUGGED. This original graphic novel has been a long time coming, but we're finally getting very close to completion and plan to have the book out before the end of the year. Soon, I'll post more previews and give some hints as to what the story is about. But for now, I hope the cover, by uber talented artist, Teyo, is intriguing enough. :)

NEVERMINDS #2 PREVIEW

Not to give too much away just yet, but here are two preview panels from NEVERMINDS #2 which we hope to have ready for the 2011 NYC Comicon! This issue tells the back story of Nina and explains a lot of things about her. We have a new colorist for this issue, Danielle St. Pierre! Danielle is a very talented artist and was one of the winners of our first Drumfish Art Contest on Deviant Art. We're extremely happy to have her on board and believe that everyone will be very impressed with her coloring. Please check out Danielle's work at http://www.witchysaint.deviantart.com/ .

SAMANYA BY FRANCO AURELIANI

This sketch of Samanya from NEVERMINDS was done by Franco Aureliani. Franco is half of the amazing team (along with creative partner, Art Baltazar) that produces Tiny Titans every month for DC Comics. The book has won many, many awards included an Eisner (which is the Oscars of the comic world) and continues to be a great read for young children. I really admire Franco and all the work he's done on that book and many others. I love that their work can cross all ages and helps to bring young readers into comics. I saw Franco at the 2011 Wizard World Philly Con and even though i have gotten sketches from him in the past, how can I resist getting a super cute sketch like this when he's doing them for only a dollar? Check out more of Franco work at http://www.blindwolfstudios.com/ and if you have or know any young kids, buy them Tiny Titans to read!