The 2025 Giftbox!
A Melissa J Massey Tradition
Hey there, cool kid!
If you’re new around here, then you might not know that every year for my last newsletter of the year, I make a post sharing five awesome, fun things I discovered this year and enjoyed to share some joy. If you’ve been a pal for awhile, then you probably remember this tradition well.
I know this year probably made it hard to find joy. There’s a lot of fear, anxiety, and worry in our every day lives. A lot of people are struggling. Some are even in danger.
I found myself getting sucked into the news cycle a lot. Sometimes I even cried a little. “What can I do? How can I help?” I often asked myself.
I don’t have all the answers for you. But I can try to offer up something positive, to prove that there are still reasons to get out of bed in the morning, to be kind, to create things.
So without further ado, here is this year’s Holiday Giftbox!
But First, A Big, Big Thank You
This year, I took on my biggest and most ambitious project yet: my first trade collection in the form of The Alchemist of Aurillia Volume 1. Not only was I collecting the first four issues of the series thus far, but also the addition of a lot of bonus content, short stories, and adding a really nice layer of polish to the whole thing. It was intimidating and challenging at times, and I almost gave up on it a couple times. Then there as the Kickstarter itself, which was the hardest campaign yet.
But despite all this, the campaign funded and the book will be real!
A huge thank you to everyone who backed the book, talked me through the campaign, helped keep my eye on the prize, and just let me rant and cry about it. Without all of you, this wouldn’t be possible. Please look forward to the book’s release. It’s going to be epic.
Best Hang Outs with your Comic Pals
San Diego Comic Con 2025
At the beginning of 2025, I was eager to make comics, but I felt very disconnected from them. I would sit down to write or draw, but I didn’t feel like a comic book artist anymore. Being out in creation, there aren’t a ton of fellow artists around. I felt lost.
Going to SDCC was not only a blast for seeing a bunch of cool comics related things, but also to see my pals both old and new, such as Russell Nohelty and Clay Adams. It was in particular my first time meeting buddies Ryan Claytor and George O'Connor in person! I also got to make new friends such as Rodney Daut and Karla Medlano! And Taylor the actor who I hung out with at the Hilton Bar on Friday night but never saw again. If you’re out there, Taylor, I hope you’re doing awesome!
You can relive all my SDCC adventures in a previous post:
Seeing my pals and talking comics and being around so many creative and awesome people gave my batteries a total recharge. I’m so thankful that I’ve gotten to meet amazing and wonderful people in the comics community. I already can’t wait till I see everyone again!
Best Adventure with your Digimon Pals
Digimon Story: Time Stranger
Wow, what a delightful game! Dr. Husband and I have been enjoying coming to Digimon through the card game and through games like Cyber Sleuth and Digimon World Next Order. So we were very much looking forward to the latest video game in the franchise. I was fortunate enough to play a demo at Comic Con, which only further assured me that this would be a great game.
The gameplay takes the best parts of Cyber Sleuth while adding tons of life improvements and a more immersive RPG world! A wide range of Digimon pals can join you on your journey, and you can even ride around on some of them!
The story also makes it so that you actually want to do all the side quests. What, Zudomon’s hammer is broken, the hammer he considers his trusty partner in forging materials?! Absolutely I want to help him fix it! Dr. Husband and I have loved our time with Time Stranger. It’s not only probably the bet Digimon game, it’s our favorite game of the year.
Best Art Book Even Though it made Me Question my Whole Art Career
The Art of Kelogsloops
Okay, perhaps I am being dramatic, but in the early part of the summer I became entranced by this very fine volume collecting the works of Kelogsloops, a big artist I used to follow when I was on grams. You can read more about my own art questioning here:
HOWEVER I think it was good to start asking these questions about my own art, and all the better that I had this beautiful book to look at. I love pouring over the pages and seeing the process of the painting coming together; something that has greatly helped my own explorations in watercolor. The cool thing about Kelogsloop’s art is his use of a small range of colors — red and indigo, cold leaf, and the use of white negative space to make shapes. He ends up creating these very dreamlike, ethereal compositions with a flavor specifically developed by him. It’s a wonderful art book to browse through, even with the art crisis. If anything, I felt this was a guiding star for me as I develop my own artistic voice.
Best Cozy Hobby that Lights up your Bookshelf
Book Nooks and r/booknooks
I didn’t technically start building Book Nooks this year, but I did get a lot more into them. Sometimes after a long day or week, I want to be creative but don’t have the energy to come up with a drawing or sit down to tackle comics. Enter book nooks: delightful kits where you can build a small world to sit on your bookshelf. Personally I really like Rolife’s nooks because they feel a little cartoony and stylized while also feeling like a secret little world you can step into, the same feeling you might get while exploring a new city or town.
The best part of my book nook journey has been finding the subreddit r/booknooks. I didn’t know that this was such a widespread hobby! People in this community are so creative and inventive, as well as being so warm and kind. It’s been wonderful to find this little corner of the internet that emits such genuine warmth.
Best Example to Never Give Up
Nico Hulkenberg Finally gets his First Podium
15 years. That’s how long it took Nico Hulkenberg to finally get his first podium in Formula One. The path was not easy. He found himself without a drive in 2020, returned after 3 years, had many last row starts and DNFs. Even at this race, the British Grand Prix, he found himself on the last row, in the woefully uncompetitive Sauber. He had to navigate a chaotic midfield, and hold off THE Lewis Hamilton. There was Papaya Shenanigans between the McLaren drivers, our boy Charles LeClerc flying off into the grass, and absolutely British levels of downpour. And yet, Nico held on, lap after lap. Crashes, safety cars, restarts, spins. Not just for one lap, but for 52 laps.
When I did my write up for the intense end of the 2021 season, I said “you run the whole race.” Well, Nico ran 239 races, and never gave up, even when some probably wondered if he should. If anything is an example of how you should keep perservering in this marathon of a comics life, then Nico Hulkenberg is the perfect example.
Relive his podium finish here.
Cat Photos Just Because
Parting Note
No matter what you celebrate or how you celebrate, I’m wishing you a wonderful holiday and hope you get some time to rest, relax, and enjoy.
I am so thankful to all of you who have joined me on this art journey, who stick it out with me through the ranting and exploration, and enjoy my silly little comics and my less silly comics. I really look forward to seeing what we do together next!
Happy Holidays,
Melissa J