Saturday, May 17, 2008

The Sentinel...

This is a project that just won't go away. I originally drew 'The Sentinel' somewhere around 1980 when I was involved in underground comics. It centers on a trooper who has been wounded so many times in a long, protracted inter-galactic war that he is as much machine as he is human. Deemed unfit as a front-line soldier, he is shunted off to a spit-ball planetlet on the edge of the universe to watch for the enemy. He has no name, and scarcely any function, except to watch the sky. He receives spare parts, food for him and 'Beast', etc., but no communications. No orders. He has no idea of how the war is going. If his side has lost, how could he ever know? Conversely, maybe they've won...and forgotten about him. He broods. But there are times at which he pulls himself together and affirms that all will turn out well, headquarters knows what they're doing, the enemy will come through this sector, he'll sound the alarm...and be a hero. But his confidence always founders on: "Why don't I ever get any mail?"
After comics, I shifted over to 3D modeling. The Sentinel [and Beast] have been modeled [and re-modeled] several times. One of these days, all the [steadily accumulating] pieces will come together in a six-minute animation. [or thereabouts]

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