I don't ever hesitate to let most know I'm a geek at heart. Back when I was in school I spent a lot of my time reading comics and drawing those characters or concepts of my own when I should have been paying attention in class or picking up girls. Even now, at 25 years old, nothing has changed. I bring in a book to read or a sketch pad to draw on while I'm on my lunch break at work.

One thing I've always wanted to do was to write my own story and create my own comic book. When I was about 10 years old I came up with the character "Veikira", who was influenced by Conan. A warrior with two other brothers who did what they could to survive in a world of magic, steel, and treacherous women. I had roughly 30 pages typed out and several pieces of art. After a lightning storm I lost it all. The only thing I have left from that is the first two pages I had turned in for extra credit in Literature class. Since then...I've never attempted to re-write the story of Veikira. Though he's had many incarnations over time there is nothing that does justice to that original concept. It was after this incident I purchased a battery backup for my computer...consider that lesson learned.

In 2004 a game called City of Heroes came out. Being a comic geek I jumped all over it. And for roughly 3 years it was something that took up a lot of my free time. I understood then the lure of MMO's they're so immersive. I tried making 'Veik' but later on was unhappy with the version I made for the game. I couldn't make the concept I originally had for him when I was a boy. Then City of Villains came out. And I created a villain that to this day is a favorite of mine and actually was liked by others, "Overbite", the half-man half-shark mutant with a mouth and teeth to back it up. It wasn't long after that I found myself in the same level grind over and over. So CoH/V found it's resting place on my shelf collecting dust. And for a while I didn't play any MMO's.

At work where I offload trucks a driver and myself get into a conversation about games and World of Warcraft is brought up. I had played it for about two weeks with some (RL) friends but after they stopped playing it lost it's appeal. He got me back into the game. Burning Crusade had just come out so I found myself coming in at a good time where many of the then 10 million players were rolling one of the two new races, Blood Elf for Horde, and the Draenei for Alliance. It helped that the driver was Horde, but I always thought that the Horde were the hidden underdog story of the game. Portrayed as the "bad guys", I always thought with they weren't bad by choice, but driven that way by the Alliance. To this day, Warcraft is still a game I play. It didn't get any of my creative juices flowing for a new character concept. But it did make me think about resurrecting Veikira.

Champions Online. A smoke screen of flashing lights and pretty graphics. One of the worst games I've ever played in my entire life. There's only one other game I'd put in this pot, Superman N64. Horrible and repetitive, broken quests, broken contacts, aggravating escort missions, and a pointless loot/craft system. But...it did spawn the first character I EVER started a actual comic book for, "Bombard". The character was fleshed out, the story was done, and I even had two pages complete for the comic book, (you can see them in my portfolio). After just two weeks and 26 out of 40 levels I knew this wasn't the game I expected. So I decided to make Bombard a totally original concept taking out everything with Champions Online lore from it and trashing it. I have a new story finished. But nothing drawn. It could be that Champions left a real bad taste in my mouth...not sure. But since then I haven’t worked on the book. Just another project pre-destined to collect dust within the pages of my notebook and sketchpad.

DC Universe: Online. My nipples erect every time I think about it. For nearly twenty years I have been nose deep into DC titles. I've always been a DC fan. For years Superman and Batman were my titles. Then I moved to the Green Lantern after reading Sinestro Corps War. Though I have my favorite characters within DC, I have a love for them all. So it goes without saying that a DC MMO...is a dream come true. I won't hesitate to admit I have the fanboi syndrome, it could play like Champions Online did and I would still love it. But it wont. Jim Lee, my favorite artist is supervising the art direction of the game and Chris Cao the creative Director really has a great sense of the spirit of the DC universe and bringing that into the game. I'm really hyped about this game. Since then I've been rattling my brain on a character to use for this game...literally, some of my friends at [link] can attest to this. All of my characters, every one of them is a 'larger then life' type. Veikira was a 6'6'' Native American Warrior with the stature to match, "Overbite" is this huge hulking shark beast, Bombard was Arnold Swartzenwhatever in tights...because that's what I am. I'm 6'6'' 300lbs so all of my characters had the same archetype. This time I wanted to really come up with something that was new to myself and maybe instead of making a character who could move planets or hurl balls of energy, to just come up with a pretty grounded character and even put myself into this concept. So...Megasect was born. Along with Veikira and Overbite, he's become a personal favorite of mine. More so because as I said a lot of myself is being put into him i.e. back story; being into comics, having trouble with girls, being picked on a little in school, being in a military family, trying to look out for his little brother, then finding out he has fantastic abilities, hell...I still need to lay low so the military doesn't find out about me!!!

Not about to say I have a comic book project lined up for Megasect interacting in the DC Universe, though I won't say it hasn't crossed my mind. My track record for completing personal projects is still at zero, lol. But who knows. When DC Universe: Online goes live, it just might give me the kick in the ass I need to complete my very first comic book.