By the time I began this project, making comics had been my full-time job for about year and a half. Starting with Deathshadow Rising, I would be penciling and inking a comic for the first time. It's a little odd to say that since I started out as my own inker back in the kid comic/fanzine days. But it's worth drawing a distinction, because true comic book inking is a whole separate animal.

The invasion of Independence Colony has placed its citizens between two rival forces, but neither is what it appears to be. As we get closer to the truth, the line blurs between ally and enemy until they become indistinguishable. When all is revealed, nobody will walk away as the person they once were.

Independence Colony is a smoking ruin after a surprise attack from planetary orbit. Two survivors run into what appears to be a platoon of alien soldiers who easily overpower and imprison them. Against all hope, a heavily-armed team arrives from Earth. But what seems to be a rescue looks more like a second invasion!

In the future, everyday life on an Earth colony planet is quiet and routine...until the day an unexpected and devastating attack from space disrupts it forever. Suddenly, people who lived normal, predictable lives are caught between two brutal forces intent on mutual destruction. One of those forces is from Earth. But which of them is the enemy?

The story of how fate landed me with the plum assignment of drawing Captain Harlock comics, starting with issue #12. How can drawing a comic book change your life? Usually in unexpected ways you never saw coming.

Most days, I forget that I spent months of my life drawing a 4-issue Alien Nation miniseries for Adventure Comics, an imprint of Malibu (which also published Eternity comics). I also tend to forget the Alien Nation movie and TV series that I watched back then. But every project you undertake has something new to teach you, whether you remember them or not.

I've had the honor of transforming some of my favorite anime into comic books for American readers, including the Captain Harlock series created by the great Leiji Matsumoto. My entry point into that world was this 4-issue miniseries from Eternity Comics about the mysterious pirate queen who wanders the infinite eternity of space...

The finale of my six-issue series! For the mech-pilots of Chaser Platoon, galactic war was a way of life…until one mission changed them forever. When the speartips of two armies meet above the bleeding scar of a secret planet, strategies collapse and everything shifts in the blink of an eye. One way or another, the mission ends here!

The middle issues of my 6-issue series were all about expanding the story and building tension. In the same way the plot-heavy issue 1 set the table for the action-heavy issue 2, 3 and 4 both set the table for 5 and 6. They also used up all the previous material I'd written for my Votoms fanfic, so after I crossed that line it was all fresh territory for me, too.

For the men of Chaser Platoon, galactic war was a way of life...until one mission changed their lives forever. In our enlightened times, stories and rumors abound in the popular culture about corporate greed and indifference. This is a story of accountability. Here you'll find the first two issues of my 6-issue SF mecha action series, originally published by Aircel Comics.

In 1991, I got Malibu Comics to publish a 6-issue series I created, an SF war story titled Chaser Platoon. This article presents the roots of that project for the first time anywhere. You can call it my Fifty Shades of Grey, since it started out as fanfic for something else: Armored Trooper Votoms.

This was the third and last Lensman run I drew for Eternity comics, in which we merged the movie adaptation into the TV anime series and took off in a new direction. The biggest question going in was if it would last long enough to cover all 25 episodes. How far did we get? Spoiler: a lot less than 25. See every issue here!

This right here is the number one reason I wanted to set up ArtValt. There are lots of things from my personal archives nobody else saw until I shared them here, but this one is exceptional: the climax and finale of my first original comic book title. It was shocking and thrilling to feel it rush through me onto the page. It was the reward for my dedication.

Though his capabilities have been elevated, Aaron Broid still can't make a decisive move even with his enemy finally in sight. But in a moment of weakness, he gives in to his impulses. This decision puts him on a collision course with his own lost past. That collision is the shatterpoint that the entire story has been building toward. Nothing will be the same afterward.

We begin this issue with a changing of the guard on the enemy side. When the effect of this hits our rebel group head on, help comes from an unexpected source and a major step forward is taken on the path to the shatterpoint. In the real world, it was June 1990 and my first few comics were in stores, so I should have been flying high. Instead, I was working harder than ever.

Revolution! This is the halfway point in the story, in which a major event pivots Broid's rebel group into a new paradigm. And it wasn't even one they planned. All it took was one oversight on the enemy side to shift the ground under everyone's feet.

When we last checked in on Aaron Broid and his gang of human trash, they had just secured a valuable alliance and taken custody of an enemy hell-bent on destroying them all. And he'd do it, too, if not for that amnesia standing in the way. Thanks to the new intel that has landed in Broid's lap, he now has the initiative to take a bigger step forward. And with that step comes bigger risk.

I wish every one of my comics had gone as well as this one. The editor agreed to it right away, I got to write and draw all of it without interference, every issue got published, and - amazingly - I got one of the best inkers I could ever ask for. It's rare, but once in a while, things line up just right. See all five issues and some extras.

In every sense that matters, Lensman: Secret of the Lens #1 was my launch pad as a professional comic book artist. Like all the most important things in life, it was a right time/right place situation. It was an unbelievable opportunity composed of lucky breaks, valuable lessons, and unexpected drama. Here's all six issues and the story behind them.

I entered the comics industry exactly the same way I entered the animation industry. I showed up with a project to pitch and someone said, "Your thing is pretty cool. Now come over here and work on my thing." In this case, that project was the continuation of one of Dark Horse's early success stories: an anime-inspired series called MECHA.