Comic Musings

It's that time again! Yup, time to get nerdy! Pass the Fonions and
polish off your pocket protectors! I'm gonna talk about comics.

Back in 2003 Marvel Comics decided to release a line of comics called Tsunami. The hook of the line was that it was influenced by manga comics, or Japanese comics, which have been gaining in popularity lately, sometimes pushing American published comics off the shelf. The titles were Mystique, Venom, Sentinel, Inhumans, Human Torch, Runaways, New Mutants, and Namor. They were written by up and coming writers and featured manga influenced art by up and coming artists.

They were all eventually cancelled.

Runaways lasted for 18 issues and Mystique lasted 36 or so, and New Mutants was later renamed New X-Men: Academy X (Because they didn't have enough X's in the title). But still, all kaput.

Sentinel, written by Sean McKeever and penciled by UDON, was the only one I bought every issue of and I loved every bit of it. For those of you who remember, a Sentinel was one of those giant purple robots that dominated the first season of the old 90s X-Men cartoon on FOX. They pop up every couple of years in the comics in some form or other, but they all have the same origin: built by the government to exterminate mutants.

The comic uses this robot, but in a different way. The comic was about a
high-schooler named Juston who finds the remains of a mutant-hunting Sentinel, and decides to fix it up and keep it. The premise sounds cheesy and a bit familiar (Iron Giant anyone?) but I was surprised about the complexity of it all. It's not really about the Sentinel at all. It's about Juston. It's about a 9th grader who gets picked on by bullies and whose mother ran from the family. It's about a normal kid who has crushes on girls and best friends who stand by him. And he has a robot of his very own. What he does with it is where the story comes from. I also found it appealing that he basically turns a weapon of mass destruction into a force for good. Unfortunately, just as the story was getting even better, the series ended with issue #12.

Juston and his Sentinel

But, like the manga they were influenced by, most of the books were released in digest form, then sold in bookstores. Runaways, the other good book of the line, sold well enough to get a second chance. The second volume is now selling pretty well.

And just recently it was announced that Sentinel will also continue in a second volume. And I'm very happy about that. I love it when comic companies do what I want them to, cause they rarely do.

I started that picture at work a few weeks ago, then finished it last night. A few of my sketches start like that. The Sentinel is supposed to look a bit derelict, since it was practically rebuilt with spare parts and stuff. I didn't get a chance to draw its main power source: a snowmobile engine.

The author's site can be found here.