Sentinels Anthology, Book 2

Okay, I'll give you fair warning up front - this post is a shameless plug for a book in which I wrote one of the stories (or, at least, a one-page story). But, a bit of back-story first...

While I don't exactly remember how I stumbled across the Sentinels graphic novels, I remember seeing it and going to the website to check it out. I ended up talking with its creator, Rich Bernatovech, and ordered the first two graphic novels that were out at the time - - and I absolutely loved it! Sentinels tells the story of the generations of a super-hero group. The first graphic novel picks up with the children of the original Sentinels taking over and becoming heroes in their own right. I maintained communication with Rich, and we soon became friends. I bought the third and fourth (and final) graphic novels, and once again, loved the books. The art, by Luciano Vecchio, evolved over the four books, from somewhat simplistic figures and backgrounds to some outstanding heroes and scenes. Over the course of four books, these two talented creators tell an amazing story that is very reminiscent of the Marv Wolfman/George Perez New Teen Titans run. While it is a super hero story, it is also a story of family and friends, their relationships, their loves and losses, their fights and anger. And it is a complete story, told in four books.

Only, there were more stories that Rich wanted to tell. Individual stories of the various characters from the series. Rather than write the stories himself, though, Rich reached out to writers that he knew to take on these individual stories, and I was very honored to be asked to write one of the tales. I was challenged with the story of Electron, and I had the honor or telling the story of Electron first discovering his powers and his superhero legacy.

After the first Anthology was published, and the original Sentinels story complete, I honestly believed that would be the end of it. It was a blast, but Rich had moved on to his new Neverminds title, as well as his Bugged graphic novel. So color me surprised when Rich reached out to me again while I was at DragonCon a couple of years ago to let me know he was working on a second anthology and asked if I would like to be a part of it.  Needless to say, I said yes.

This time around, I was asked to write a one page story about Electro-Cute, who is Electron's younger sister (seen very briefly in my short story in the first Anthology as a toddler). Rich asked me to come up with a unique idea to tell a one-page story of the character. After throwing some ideas around in my head, I finally came up with "Dear Diary," in which readers see various pages from her diary over the course of a year. It was fun to write, and it was even more amazing to see the story come to life under the beautiful art of Holly Mongi. You can see Rich's comments about my writing of the story at his Drumfish Productions blog:  http://drumfishproductions.blogspot.de/2015/10/sentinels-anthology-2-spotlight-on-todd.html.

And yes - if you notice, I did not specifically give a review of the second anthology. I could easily spoil it for you by telling you about each of the characters, as well as the bridging stories, but honestly - it would take away from the joy of reading it for the first time.  Trust me, this is not a book you want to miss, if you've been following Rich's books since the beginning.  And if you have never read one of his Sentinels books, well, what are you waiting for?  Not only do you get to see just what a super-writer I am (okay, yeah, take that with a bit of sarcasm there LOL), but you will get some great entertainment for your dollar. If you want great storytelling, fantastic art, and good ol' fashioned fun comics, then check out the Sentinels - definitely one of the best comics on the market today!  (And you can check out Rich's blog for his comics by following the link under the "Suggested Blogs" on this page)

RATING:  10 diary pages out of 10 for keeping comics what they should be - fun stories about super hero antics with some team-building, family relationships thrown in for good measure!