Alan Holloway and Ed Doyle‘s Sentinel project has come a long way since its launch back in 2020. Originally a homage to DC Thomson’s long-running pocket digest title, Starblazer, the pocket-sized SF adventure comic has developed its own vibe, and we’ve seen some entertaining tales since.
The latest, Issue 17, “They Call Her Trinity“, currently seeking support on Kickstarter, featuring the distinctive and impressive art of Mal Earl (previously acclaimed for his work on Aces Weekly and currently working on his own anthology, The Jigsaw Review) is a real treat of a tale; a western in space with everything you’d expect from such a setting – and much more besides.
For those who came in late, Sentinel is the brainchild of Alan Holloway and Ed Doyle, a small press publishing team driven by a love of the medium and an incessant desire to tell stories in words and pictures.
You may also know them as publishers of the anthology title, FALCON, a tribute to EAGLE comic with a modern take.
Since its first issue, “Special Delivery“, written by Alan, with art by Ed, published back in early 2020, Sentinel has amassed a solid series of 16 volumes, proof positive of the power of pure passion as motivation. In addition to Alan and Ed, contributors have included strip artists Mac Art, Ian Beadle, Dave Metcalfe-Carr, Sinclair Elliott, Morgan Gleave, Jack Parsons, Andrew Richmond, and Paul Spence; with variant covers provided by artists including Mac Art, Ian Beadle, Mal Earl, Patrick Goddard, Andy Lambert, Mark Montague, former Starblazer cover artist Keith Robson, Neil Sims and Lyndon Webb on different issues.
Alan Holloway first asked Mal if he’d be interested in producing art for an issue of Sentinel back in 2020, and after coming up with a script and character inspired by the pair’s mutual appreciation of Spaghetti Western cinema, and the 2000AD character, Strontium Dog, work began in earnest on the artwork.
Unfortunately, Mal’s full time job had to take precedence over his strong desire to try creating a tale in the pocket digest format, but, luckily for us he’s now retired – and “They Call Her Trinity” is the impressive result.
“Having thrashed out the early concepts with Alan and having designed her look, weaponry and environs I was still fundamentally attached to her as a character,” Mal explains. “Up to that point, the dropping of the ‘Trinity’ project had weighed as a regret at the back of my mind, and the opportunity to pick up where we left off and complete her tale was like collecting a lost child and bringing her home.”
Now fully focused on creating comic art and more from his Lake District home, Mal has taken Alan’s fun strip of a bounty hunter arriving on a backwater planet and delivered 64 pages of cracking art in his unique style (albeit with an occasional fond nod to some of his favourite artists, as Trinity wreaks havoc in search of very personal vengeance).
The “pocket digest” format is sometimes hard to make work for some creators – the restrictive number of panels per page, for example, can prove daunting. (Commando, for example, sticks firmly with two per page, excluding opening splash and finale). But Mal’s work displays an innate confidence in his ability as a cracking artist, and it’s clear, I think, he enjoyed bringing Alan’s story to life.
The whole adventures is complete, with covers from Mal and Atholl Buchan in the bag – it just needs your support, and I hope I’ve sufficiently wet your appetite with this review/ news item!
• Follow the Sentinel project on Facebook
• Mal Earl is online at malearl.com
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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