If you know almost anything about me, you probably know that I’m part of Cloudscape Comics, a local group of comic book creators that publishes a yearly anthology of our work, has regular Wednesday meetings, and engages in a lot of different events throughout the city. There’s a lot going on there. Just last month, we had the launch of our seventh graphic novel anthology, Waterlogged, at the Maritime Museum and a great crowd of people showed up. This week we’re also putting the finishing touches on Epic Canadiana, an anthology of Canadian superhero stories edited entirely by me, and we’re already planning our next anthology, Mega Fauna. That’s not counting the Halloween party we’re preparing, the events we’re doing, the classes we’re teaching, the conventions we’re attending.

In the last year or so, Cloudscape has become a juggernaut, expanding far beyond the original confines of the group. When I first became a member, it was often hard to engage enough people to push forward any project that fell outside the yearly anthology while now we have a host of members who aren’t just interested in the organization as a venue for publishing their stories but are actually interested in the organization for itself. Thanks to their investment, Cloudscape has grown on numerous levels.

Few things make me as proud as being part of Cloudscape. My life would be very different and much less rich today if it wasn’t for the organization. Most of my best artist collaborations have come from people I’ve connected to through Cloudscape, many of my own stories that I’m most proud of have been published through Cloudscape’s anthologies, I count many of my closest friends as Cloudscape members, and of course I met my girlfriend, the multitalented Reetta Linjama, through the organization. Cloudscape has given me so much and I like to think that I’m doing my part to give back to it in return. There’s numerous other things happening on the horizon with Cloudscape and I look forward to being a part of them.