Welcome to the special sixteenth April Fools issue of The Neon BoneYard, the comic art comedy club (although I should probably call this the tomatoe issue, because after falling behind for three months on publishing these, I'm about to catch up ... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ... SHUT UP!!!) . This month's page features the introduction of The Sentry , the Superman of the Marvel Universe. The "Golden Guardian of Good with the Power of a Million Exploding Suns" was introduced back in 2000 in Wizard magazine as a long lost Marvel hero. Supposedly created in 1961 by artist Artie Rosen and famed Marvelite Stan Lee , the Sentry pre-dated the introduction of the Fantastic Four in 1962. It was later revealed to be a big April Fools hoax (or as it is sometimes called, a lie), perpetrated by Wizard Magazine and Stan Lee (this is another fine mess you've gotten us into, Stan Lee) to prpmote the character. Wizard Magazine even went so far as to publish the death of non-existent artist Artie Rosen. Recently, the character has been resurrected again as a member of the New Avengers . I'm hoping this, plus the hoax, plus the fact that this is the origin page for a new super hero will increase the value of this page exponentially over the years.

This April was also the start of my convention season with a new entry, the Atlanta Comics Expo . This was the intial year for this convention, and is an offshoot of the much larger (and crowded) Dragon*Con. As can be inferred by the name, this Atlanta, Georgia convention focused more on comics than Dragon*Con. It also had much smaller crowds, which was fine with me after last years Dragon*Con and San Diego Comic Con. As a matter of fact, the hotel sponsoring the convention also had three proms and a 9 to 12 year olds cheerleading / dance competition going on at the same time. Between the trekies, tuxedos, and tootoos, for once I was the only person in the room who wasn't in a costume!!!

Even though this was a small convention, it did have a decent artist alley. Many of the guests were inkers, which was even better. Most of them worked for a variety of artists or comics, so each one had his or her own "artist alley" of original comic art to sell. Some of the artist/inkers included Dexter Vines , Whilce Portacio , David Mack , and this freaky little splash page I purchased from Karl Story .

Terra Obscura #2 volume 2 page 22 pencils by Yanick_Paquette inks by Karl Story � Wildstorm Comics 2004

Looks like something from a 1950's horror flick. As I try to catch up (or is it "ketchup") on my so called "monthly" editions of the Neon BoneYard with this issue, I'll end with a little April Fools Joke of my own. How do you leave a moron in suspense?

Grail Page Original Comic Art Store