Always Meet Your Heroes

I brought my kids to SacAnime Winter 2025 a few months ago and I couldn't believe how massive that thing was. At least half of the crowd was in cosplay gear, and there were so many cool vendors and voice actors there waiting to meet fans.

Easily the most important booth that I visited was that of Ron Lim, one of my all-time favorite comic artists. I was a big fan of his back in the 90s when he worked on various X-Men, Spider-Man, and 2099 books for Marvel. There was nobody at his booth, which I thought was strange. But when I mentioned this, Mr. Lim said it was because most anime fans wouldn't know who he was. He was really kind and down to earth, said he'd been working on some What If...? featuring Galactus covers for Marvel. What a cool guy.

Always meet your heroes if given the chance. If they're different than you expected, ask yourself what you were a fan of: their talent, or their character. Adjust accordingly.

Ellis Novak

2025-03-24

Time Marches On

I don't want to get political, but is it fair to say that 2024 was one hell of a strange year?

Is it safe to say that 2025 could be anything we want it to be?

I'm gearing up to get Aric Hunter: Starcatcher published. I meant to get it out before the new year but things have a habit of not adhering to whatever schedule we set for them.

Once that's available, I'm going to start writing book 2, which doesn't even have a title yet. Also, I'd love to start getting some comics published, if I can find an art team that can do what I need at a fair price. Hit me up if you know a guy.

Thinking about taking my kids to SacAnime Winter 2025. I'd be happy to see Ron Lim there, one of my favorite artists from back in my teen years.

Time marches on. Make the most of it. Memento mori; remember you will die. Make the most of the time you have. Get off the couch and start doing.

Ellis Novak

2024-12-27

Inspiration Strikes at Funny Times

Today was a monumental day for me. I took my son to his and my first-ever ComicCon, the 2024 Silver Age Comic Convention in Reno. It was relatively small, I'm told, but it was pretty interesting. I saw a few people I know working booths including a couple writers from the Sierra Muse Meetup group where some of my first short stories were critiqued.

More importantly, it was nice to bond with my son over a shared interest. Although my love of comics revolves more around western material (Spider-Man 2099, the first comic I ever bought, is a perfect example), and his love of comics is based more on anime and manga (he wants to cosplay as Kokushibou), there's enough overlap here that we have a lot to talk about.

Speaking of cosplaying, I would say over half of the attendees were dressed up, and over half of those people were either anime or manga characters. I didn't see any One Punch Man, Akira, or Ghost in the Shell, or DragonBall characters (the only anime I'm remotely familiar with), but my son pointed out a lot of Demonslayer characters I can't remember or pronounce. I suppose this is what my dad thought when I was young and talking about cartoons and comics.

I'm putting the finishing touches on my second book, Aric Hunter: Statcatcher, the first in a four-part series. This follows my first book, a collection of five short stories called Your Love, The Night, which was released in December 2023. The process of writing is easy at first, at least for me, but more difficult when editing for publication, so this injection of inspiration is really helpful. It makes me want to keep working. It makes me want to succeed. It renews my love of fiction and adventure.

Maybe someday I'll attend a convention as a vendor. Who knows? Until then, see you at the SNAFU Anime Convention in November.

-Ellis Novak

2024-07-13