PART ONE
So you want to create a comic? Buckle up buttercup! It’s not all dandelions and roses! The journey to creating the Shadow Sentry was a long one and a tough one. Fun, sure, but by no means for the faint of heart. The following is a bit of an abridged version of what went into the creation of the Shadow Sentry. The journey as well as the concept which would need to be created and crafted over the span of decade all the way to the publication and crowdfund in 2020!
The Beginnning- Sort of
Eric began his comic journey landing an internship at Alias Comics and Lamp Post Publications in La Mesa, California, in 2006. That internship introduced Eric to a few gentlemen, one of which happened to be an amazing artist by the name of Mike S. Miller, artist on books like the Hedge Knight, and DC comics smash hit, Injustice! Having the opportunity to learn from a master in the comics world was invaluable to say the least, learning things like structure, storytelling, and honing in on drawing faces and hands! Shortly thereafter an opportunity arose to work on the Hand of the Morningstar, a Manga/merica style book published in conjunction with Zondervan, a major Christian publisher delving into the world of graphic novels at the time. That was quite the journey in itself, spanning around 1000 pages of art and taking roughly 3 years, doing 2 pages a day!
After completing six volumes in the series, Alias comics unfortunately disbanded and from there it was off to exhibiting at Comic Conventions and working non-art related jobs waiting for the next art gig to come through. The comic conventions were a great way to keep up on honing his artistic craft as well as sell artwork and network with other creatives.
Monomyth and Ossm Comics
Around 2013, exhibiting at La Comic Con (probably called Kamikaze at the time) Eric met a few young gents starting a brand new comic company, called OSSM Comics. Omar Spahi (companies founder) and writer Siike Donnelly, just so happened to stop by the booth that day and took a particular interest in some angels that they had seen on the table. Interestingly enough the angels weren’t drawn by Eric, but his table mate Mike Miller. Either way a conversation was struck and that began a happy friendship and work on a 3 issue series called Monomyth! To keep a good pace, Eric did tight pencils straight to colors on the series and Siike Donnelly wrote the script. It was another chapter for Eric, as this was his first gig on a more traditional American comic as compared to the smaller size of Hand of the Morningstar. Eric worked on Monomyth full time, but as that series drew to a close, it was time to think about the next book. Monomyth was slated as only a three part mini-series.
It was then that Eric decided to pitch his baby to Omar Spahi in the hope perhaps he’d want to publish a little superhero team called the Shadow Sentry!
The Pitch
Eric had a meet up with Omar Saphi later that year and made up something of a dossier to show off the rough draft of the team and the story line, probably not fully flushed out yet, but the bare bones where there.
To the left you can see the cover sheet labeled TOP SECRET, as well as the date below for the time stamp.
Below you can see the early concept art that Eric had been working on. You may also notice changes from what would actually make it into the Shadow Sentry comic years later.
Eric gave his pitch to Omar but he ended up not being on board 100% with it. It could have been that he would later be switching gears to more of an online podcast focus, but either way, it worked out for the better, and the Shadow Sentry would remain fully in the control and vision of Eric.
Remember I mentioned -“The Beginning – Sort of.” Well, the beginnings of the Shadow Sentry go all the way back to Eric’s High School days, (even further if you want to include when the drawing actually started.) But here you can see some EARLY drawings of Midst and Brazen from way back in Spanish class! Yup, the early beginnings of the team started way back there.
But it would take many years of fine-tuning and reorganizing heroes and villains and the finally coming up with the one unifying concept to bring them all under one roof! You need a unifying concept, what would bring them all together, what would give them their powers!? Having a faith rooted in the Bible and the realization that we live in a dual reality, the seen and unseen, not to mention the success of the Matrix trilogy and the influence that had on Eric. It was that aspect that held Eric’s appeal to dive into the Heaven and Hell idea. So what if humans who had near-death experiences, traveling to the other unseen realm, could bring back something from that realm? It was then the unifying concept of the Shadow Sentry was born! Granted it’s not a totally new concept (The Crow and Spawn were similar ideas) but it’s still totally cool and had never really been done on a team scale.
2018 – Crowdfunding!
It wasn’t until 2018 that things really began moving in the universe and Eric was introduced to some other creators who began their own push to publish and crowdfund their own creator-owned books. This was during the time of the ComicsGate label for many of those creators. Mike S. Miller, still a close friend of Eric’s brought him into this circle of creators and it was then that the possibility of ACTUALLY publishing this idea really became a reality! Crowdfunding really made this option viable, as sitting down and putting the time and effort into drawing a comic was really the hard part. How do you support a family and draw when you’re not getting paid per page for your work like a typical comic book gig (If you’re not working and doing comic work on the side.) Well, what if you could raise the money beforehand from backers and fans, and then sit down and do the work!
Seeing this as a viable option to self-publish and crowdfund; to get a feel for running a campaign and give it a bit of a test run, Eric started with a small “Ashcan” book: Inktober 2018. This book featured a month’s long worth of sketches highlighting all his favorite heroes from the 90’s and Image Comics, as well as an introduction to the Shadow Sentry characters. This would be the first appearance of the characters in print and give people an idea for the look and feel of the concept.
2020 – As Providence Would Have It
After that, as providence would have it, the world would be thrust into mayhem over a new virus called COVID-19 which would shut down the planet and all comic conventions with it. I jest, but that’s basically what happened. Shoot, you couldn’t even go surfing in California (by yourself!) without having the cops called on you! Not having conventions to attend cut down on Eric’s monthly income stream, which meant that that hole needed to be filled. Thankfully the wheels were already set in motion, and Shadow Sentry would be crowdfunding right about the time the world would shut down. February 2020! Also a new addition to the Ninaltowski family would be born in that same month! Again, God’s good providence knew what was needed, and the funds from that first Shadow Sentry crowdfund would allow Eric to stay at home, and literally take care of his babies ( his new baby girl, 3 other kids, his beautiful “babe” wife and the Shadow Sentry!) So the work began and roughly a year later the book was done! Due to Covid and shipping delays that book was a little late, but backers where thrilled to have the books in their hands! What did they think!? Well, take a look at some of the reviews!
“Excellent read. I thought the first one was the best written of the indie crowd and this one tops that. We need more people to find out about these books…” – Daniel C
“I’ve always known how good this was going to be, but I’ve still got to say it… the presentation and quality are of the highest standard and story and artwork are fantastic. I’ve backed over 50 books in the last year/year and a half… but this has been one of my top five most anticipated books… and expectations have not only been met, but exceeded!” – Mark (In Scotland)
“Really liked the first one! It kind of reminded me of the X-Men back in the day when the X-Men were fun, but with a supernatural touch. I will definitely be in for #2.” – Rezcot
“I just finished reading the Shadow Sentry and I have to say it’s a really great book from the top notch art to the writing and I enjoyed the pacing as well. A lot of comics, in my opinion, rush through things and others take too dang long to get to the point, but I thought yours was just right. I am very much looking forward to the sequel and thank you for making comics fun and entertaining again!” – Elminster
One book was done, and it was well received, then came Book 2! Which meant another crowdfunding campaign, new covers from other artists, building the campaign out, having sample pages done (typically 5) and getting the ball rolling with social media releases and YouTube friends to help promote! Book 2 was another hit, raising roughly the same amount as Book 1, and then came the idea to build out the world some more, and dive a little deeper into the many characters that Eric had created! Thus, ORIGINS was born and Eric would need to recruit some other talent for that mission.. but for that story… you’ll need to come back for PART TWO as we continue the saga of the Origins of the Shadow Sentry!
Till next time! Thanks for reading –
