About

The year was 1992. We had just left Homestead AFB in Miami (due to Hurricane Andrew) and my parents were getting a divorce. My dad, trying to help me through it all, bought me my very first comic books. He had always had a huge collection of Jonah Hex, Power Man and Iron Fist, Shang-Chi, Rom and Conan books for himself. But these were mine.They were Green Lantern and Silver Sable. Needless to say, they had a profound impact on my life. I immediately escaped the world within the pages of these books. And I read those two for a month every chance I got.

My dad started buying me more and more books due to my increased interest. I started reading Spider-Man, Batman, Conan and anything else I could get my hands on. Later, in 1993, my mom sent me a package from QVC. It was the complete Death and Return of Superman. I didn’t know what to do with myself! I immediately ripped into the story. Characters I had never seen before, flew by. Fire, Bloodwynd, Ice, Maxima and the all-too-awesome Booster Gold were introduced to me for the first time. And then we had Superman. I had heard about him and even watched the old “Superboy” tv show in Miami. His book, however, was a different story. I had never really read a Superman book at that time. Needless to say, it changed my life. I was introduced to a great story arc for the first time and I witnessed a story from beginning to end. It was one of the coolest things, ever, to me.

Time passed and I read more and more comics. I had buddies that would get me into others (Christopher Wright got me into X-Men via Age of Apocalypse, Michael Bell and I would read ANYTIME we got the chance (especially during Health Class, HAHA) while my buddies John Bring and Daryn Beasley introduced me to Watchmen), and I kept reading more and more from there. I got to the point where I just wanted to read the Big Two. I had subscriptions to Spider-Man, Batman, Justice League of America, Superman and tons of others.

I eventually got bored, and broke, with all the cross-overs and “Events” and started reading Image comics. They were pretty much new and didn’t have 70 years of history to keep referring to. This opened up a whole new world to me. I kept on reading and eventually became an Image junkie. I still collected some of the big Two, just not as much as I did earlier.

In January 2002, I joined the Air Force and almost stopped all of my collecting. I met my wife and she embraced my geekiness by joining me on my first ever comic convention. The first-ever Wizard World LA (located in Long Beach at the time). It was there I met my friend Richard Oh. He was just a really cool guy. He knew everything about comics. The artists and writers’ names, characters and storylines. He knew everything and I thought it was awesome. I started heavy collecting again and attended every comic convention (except for SDCC) from that year on.

Then, in the year 2007 while I was in the Air Force, I was diagnosed with skin cancer. I freaked out. I didn’t know what to do. I turned to my wife and she gave me all the support I needed. I then went into surgery to get it taken care of and it was a success. The cancer was gone. I started thinking about all the things I hadn’t done yet and immediately thought about comics. But, I still had a job I needed to do and that left me no time. In January of 2008 I got out of the Air Force and eventually met a guy named John Puterbaugh. He’s a really cool guy that was into comics and actually got me into wanting to write my own. That is when ‘Anatomy Of War’ was born…initially. I had to do a ton of research and reading, but I had the main idea down. And then, with a stroke of luck, I was re-united with my old bid John Bring! He now lived in LA and, of all places, we ended up meeting each other in Disney Land. CRAZY SMALL WORLD.

We kept in touch and he, along with his friend Sebastian Kadlecik, were coming up with a comic book. If you get the chance, head on over to www.epicwebcomic.com . It’s an AMAZING book and is a lot of fun 🙂 After meeting up with them in Long Beach (Long Beach Comic-Con 2011) it was decided. I would finally get ‘Anatomy Of War’ off the ground. John Puterbaugh and I talked it out and he helped me a lot with getting the ideas on paper. Four months later, the initial script, and series’ “Bible”, was completed. I now had to find an artist.

As luck would have it, there is a website dedicated to finding talent. www.digitalwebbing.com is filled with people wanting to use their talents. All you have to do is log in and make sure you follow the guidelines. Then, you can post your own job. Don’t say I never gave you anything 🙂 I was looking for someone that could tell a story without having to use words. Someone with a Terry Moore type of style (Terry Moore is AMAZING; Pick up Echo if you can!). After a few days of looking through the candidates ( A TON of people offered their services) I KNEW who I wanted to bring ‘Anatomy Of War’ to life.

Luisa Russo ( Her art can be viewed here: www.luisarusso-gallery.it) has amazing art! She submitted a couple of pictures to me and it was EXACTLY what I was looking for. One was a full-page that was part of a story. no words, but you could feel the tension pop-off the page as you were looking at it. I didn’t even need to look any further. I almost immediately e-mailed her back and asked if she would do it. She said yes and now we had a team! I don’t know if I can stress this enough but, even if ‘Anatomy Of War’ doesn’t make it (Good Lord PLEASE let it happen), Luisa is a force to be reckoned with. She will definitely make it in the comic book business as she has a ton of talent in showing the emotional side and bringing the reader into the book. Not many people have been able to grab my attention with pictures as she does. If you are still a little skeptical, please take a look at her gallery and prove me wrong.

That is pretty much the “how” of how it all happened for ‘Anatomy Of War’ so far. Stay tuned as I am sure the story can only get more interesting 🙂