Editorial: My Journey

9 Seasons. 221 Episodes. 1 Theatrical Movie. 1 Holiday Special. 8 Shorts. 1 Spin-off series. 4 Spin-off Direct to DVD Movies. Over 100 hours of animation.

And a lifetime of memories…

…

I've been going back and forth on whether or not I should write this. Whether or not I could give the ending of this series proper justice or even if I am the proper person to write an editorial like this.

However as we sit here on the 9th anniversary, with less than two days until the series final of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic from airing in Prime Time on Discovery Family, I cannot help but find myself with something to say. Something to say about my journey. How I got here.

How I've met some amazing lifelong friends. How I've been to places I could only dream of and done things I never considered to be possible.

For all the positive things which have happened in my life over the last 7 years of my life, it's time to take a moment to pause and reflect on just how much this series and this community has impacted my life.

Perhaps as you check out my thoughts after the break, you'll think about how this show has impacted yours and maybe share your story in the comments below.

---

"I used to wonder what friendship could be…"

Growing up, the number of friends I had could be counted on one hand. There was an easy enough explanation for that: I was every schoolyard bully's favorite target. Reflecting back on it, it's not hard to figure out some of the reasons why.

I learned how to talk in the United Kingdom and then proceeded to move back to the US. So literally opening my mouth would draw ridicule.

I had a short temper and also generally wore my emotions on my sleeves. So getting a reaction out of me was really easy. Much to the amusement of those who tormented me.

I won't go into the details about what specifically happened while I was growing up and going through school, we'd be here forever. However it was usually the case that those few people who I would hang around at school were also social misfits. However because of the above temper and emotional shortness, those who I was the closest too were oftentimes in different classes.

And more often than not I would only see them at recess. And then either they or I would move away and… well this was before the internet and social media became mainstream so keeping touch was next to impossible while I was in elementary school, middle school, and high school.

Heck I didn't have regular access to a home computer until 2000, and even then it was highly regulated. No forums. No online messaging. No chat rooms. No personal e-mails. Just an approved list of websites needed for school work or pertained directly to my interests at the time, school work, and computer games.

As a result I missed out on a lot of the formative years of the internet. Mostly missed out on AIM. Missed out on forums when they were in the heydays. Missed out on a lot of the now ancient fandom dramas from Pokemon, Digimon, and so many other things from the dial-up era that people just assume because of my age I should know or should have experienced.

Well ignorance is bliss, and I was (and in may ways still remain) ignorant to a lot of what happened in the 00s simply because I didn't have access to it.

And I was perfectly happy with this. For why did I need friends, if they are just going to leave you (or you them by decisions you cannot control) and cause pain. No sir, I was perfectly content in my ivory tower… more or less alone.

"…until you all shared its magic with me…"

There are lots of things you can do alone. Drawing. Writing. Exercise. Playing outside. But the ones that caught my attention the most were reading, watching TV, and playing video games. Which as time passed on eventually came to represent the same sort of thing: a fantasy adventure to parts unknown in a world not our own.

For instance did you know there are over 700 Star Trek Novels covering a wide variety of genres and stories? Well by December 2010, and when the novel Rough Beast of Empire was released and completely assassinated Captain Sisko's character, I had read them all. And all 7 Harry Potter novels. And the Lord of the Rings. A handful of Star Wars Novels (including the Thrawn Trilogy). A number of other novels I found interesting at one time or another…

To sum up there was rarely a time growing up when I didn't have a book in my hand. Not a tablet. Not a phone. Not an e-reader. An actual book.

Which is ironic because I detested school reading assignments, and really the only novel I loved to read from school was To Kill a Mockingbird the rest were a chore.

Anyways I had a theory in school. Namely that if I had a book in my hands I would be left alone by my bullies. That theory was proven false by countless times the books were slapped out of my hands, but I kept at it.

For lost in those worlds I felt safe. Surrounded by people who I knew would never hurt me.

Of course they weren't real, but I didn't care. A book wouldn't hurt me. It couldn't hurt me. Just like TV couldn't hurt me. With video games I could bring the hurt, but again they couldn't hurt me.

With them I was invincible. With them I was alone. With them I was happy.

"…big adventure…"

I come from a very sheltered background.

A good portion of this I can easily attribute to the bullying I had received during my K–12 education, hard to make friends when you are the bully's favorite target. With the immediate side effect being a severe lack of opportunities to play with friends… at either their place or mine.

The other portion boiled down to timing and parental decisions that were made in the wake of the September 11th terror attacks in NYC which I will not go into detail about.

But the end result is that I did not end up going on a trip with any of my classmates/peers without chaperones and out of my parents immediate reach until October of 2010. When I went on my first trip to NYCC.

To put that in perspective, I was a senior in college then. Two years previous, I had started getting into comics and I really wanted to meet the writer of my favorite book at the time. And he was right there in NYC. Just 4 hours away.

So I planned the trip. Ran into a number of hurtles, and then... that was going to be it. Meet the author and then I would move on with my solitary life. Somehow find a job with my degree (which couldn't land me an internship because of the great recession), go on a trip to London, move out, and...

I was a naive fool. I had no permanent friends. No job. No relationships. No prospects. And a mountain load of college debt. Life was going to hit me hard. I knew it. I didn't want to deal with it, so I just kept thinking about other things.

For those who know MLP History, that date of October 2010 should let everyone know what happens next. I was introduced to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It wasn't right when the series premiered. I had no idea the franchise from the 80s had been rebooted for a premium cartoon TV network. I came across the series on March 18th, 2011. So about 2 months before I graduated.

I remember that date because the very first brand new episode I watched was Over a Barrel, which aired on March 25th, 2011. Yes, I binged the entire series in a week.

Shortly after that time, a person who I collaborated with at Emerald Coast Comics asked everyone he knew if anyone was heading to Summer of Sonic in London. He was looking for a traveling companion for the show. My initial instinct was to say no, I couldn't afford to go, and leave it at that.

But instead I did something I had never done before. I told him I was available. I told him I had a passport ready to be used. I told him I could afford to stay in country no problem (big thank you to YHA London Central Hostel). The issue was actually flying there. I could not afford the whole airfare.

I asked him if he could help me cover that cost. And he did. Of course I owed him a huge number of favors after that, but I couldn't believe it. He helped me accomplish my dream trip to London.

That is something I will never forget. At the time, I had no idea it was because I had started watching a cartoon about colorful cartoon horses.

But that would change in very short order.

"…tons of fun…"

My Little Pony was my secret obsession. I was super embarrassed about enjoying the cartoon. No ifs, ands, or butts about it. It is a little girls toy property. I knew that. I still know that. I knew beyond all doubt that my life would be ruined if word ever leaked out that I was watching this show. And yet I kept watching it. Because there was one thing I couldn't deny.

I was having fun!

...

Which was something of a rarity for me in 2011 and 2012. After I had graduated and my seasonal summer custodial job had ended, I was unemployed. I also had no income coming in for the seasonal job wasn't long enough to qualify for unemployment benefits. Everything I had earned that summer would have to last until I found more work.

So I would hit the online job boards for 8 hours a day, looking for work. I applied to every single job I could find. I got a couple of interviews, but never landed anything because (and I figured this out later) the retail hiring managers knew from the fact I had a college degree that I wouldn't be staying with them long term.

I still don't know why I was even interviewed if I wasn't going to get the job.

But there were two things in my life which made the drudgery of looking for work (just try sending out 50+ job applications a week then hear nothing back and see how your moral is after 2 months) which I have to admit kept me sane.

The first was the video game Star Trek Online (I had bought a lifetime subscription when I was a junior in college). The second was My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

The video game would help me de-stress after a long day of getting no where with the job hunt. MLP would get me to laugh.

Which was important since it would take me nearly two years to land a non-seasonal job. My first professional job actually. One which I held for 6 years before moving onto a different position within the company.

I do not like to think about where I would be right now if I didn't have an outlet to have fun during that time. I really don't like to think about it.

Instead, I like to think about Equestria Daily. I like to think about Seth, and Phoe, and Cereal. I like to think about how the antics of the website kept a smile on my face.

I like to think about all the beautiful fan art I had seen which blew my mind away. I like to think about all the fanfics I read during that time. One of which eventually led to a close friendship with Pen Stroke. I like to think about how a little bit of fun kept me here.

I like to think about my online friendship with CatbeeCache.

"…a beautiful heart…"

October 1st, 2012 is a day which changed my life forever. For that was the day I started my brand new permanent job! The pay was... not ideal but it was way WAY better than minimum wage seasonal followed by nothing!

I dove into my work. I had known what it was like to be unemployed. To not have an income. To just exist and not live.

There was no way I was going to let that happen again! So I decided to make sure it didn't. I made sure I was invaluable at the company. A true asset. A company man!

And through it all, I had CatbeeCache as someone I could talk to. Someone I could vent to. Someone, who even though we had never met before was my best friend. And my new job gave me something I had never had before: extra income after finally getting out of deferment for my student loans and started paying those off!

Which a good portion of it was swiftly eaten up by the IDW My Little Pony Comic Series and their 20+ variant covers a month.

I'll get into that more later.

2008 was another very formative year for me. Why 2008? Because that was the year I had discovered comics. The Sonic comics specifically after I had discovered the wonder that was SatAM. This in turn led me to an online forum called Bumbleking Comics, which at the time was the homebase for the current writer of the series Ian Flynn.

Which I lurked on for a few months before diving in head first into what I now know is the kiddie pool of the internet. My very first internet forum. And it only took me until sophomore year in college…

*checks twitter*

Anyways, I had gotten to love the Archie Sonic comic series and had written a fan comic mini-series in the summer of 2009. A fan comic mini-series which I then pitched to the editor of the sonic fan comics group Emerald Coast Comics. It was there that I met Catbee. Through our shared love of all things Sonic we started chatting via forums Direct Messages.

God that was slow.

Then I found out she had AIM so I actually went out and downloaded it so we could have faster conversations than what DMs allowed.

Catbee had gotten into MLP because of me. During our AIM chats, after I had discovered MLP, I never stopped talking about the series. I was just having so much fun and I guess she wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

She still blames me for getting her into MLP.

However, in 2013 I had made a decision. I was going to BronyCon. I had backed the 2012 documentary (there was no way I wasn't going to throw money at that John de Lancie led project) and really wanted to experience what the convention was like.

In 2013, the convention was going to be in Baltimore for the first time ever.

Prior to this, the farthest I had ever traveled within the US on my own was to NYC for NYCC. I had continued going to NYCC after the 2010 convention, because as my father pointed out after that first trip I have family who live on the New Jersey Transit commuter lines directly into the city who would be more than happy to have me stay with them.

Yes, I was not a very smart person to realize that the first time I went. I have never made that mistake since though.

Anyways, traveling to Baltimore was going to be a new experience for me. Plus I was still going to be heading to the show alone. After heading to NYCC for 3 years at this point, I kind of figured that going alone was the right way to go to a comic convention.

I had a blast! Unknown to me at the time, that show was also the first place I encountered a number of people who would become very important in my life. Some very quickly. Some not until this past year. But BronyCon 2013 was the first place where I, a nobody going by the fandom name of The Illustrious Q, first encountered DustyKatt, Foal Papers, Pixel Kitties, OMGari, and MyLittleTies.

And I bought some knickknacks from 3 of them, moved on, excitedly pointed out to a group of people I was chatting with in the catwalk that there's the manliest Brony as he passed by and proceeded to spend the remainder of the convention waiting in line for Tabitha St. Germain's autograph.

Sheltered, socially awkward human being remember? But life is funny like that.

Rarity is Catbee's favorite character and there was no way I wasn't getting her that autograph for her birthday.

Once 2013's convention came to a close, and I told Catbee all about it, she was very happy for me, but also a little bummed she didn't get to experience it for herself.

That's when it hit me. Next year in 2014, for the first time ever, I was going to go to a convention and meet my friend Catbee. I would finally meet her face to face...

I was excited. It was only one year away, and yet, I had no idea what 2014 had in store for me.

"…faithful and strong…"

Going back to 2011, back when I was still in college, I had started sending, well I suppose it kind of is, fan mail to Hasbro. Every couple of months I would send them an e-mail asking them about the possibilities for a My Little Pony comic book series.

I would send in suggestions for a comic publisher (I was big into Archie comics at the time so I would name drop them in every single e-mail) and throw out ideas for a creative team or twelve. I had no idea what I was doing, but for some reason I get the feeling I wasn't the only one sending fan mail to Hasbro like this.

Simply because during SDCC 2012, Hasbro and IDW Publishing jointly announced they were going to publish a My Little Pony Comic starting that November. Up until this point I had never followed a comic book from when it had launched. I had at this point only been diving into series which were well into their runs. I knew I was going to follow this series from start to finish and I had made a vow the day the series was announced that I was going to purchase each and every single piece of that series as it came out.

There was no way I was going to start digging through a backlog trying to find it! No sir. I was not doing that again. I was going to have a complete collection right for the get go and not miss anything.

I knew exactly what I was going to do!

...

I knew nothing about IDW Publishing and about how strongly they push their variant covers. Simply put, I had never read a comic from IDW Publishing before so I had no idea what they were like when it came to publishing the series. I was not expecting the first issue was going to have 20 different covers.

I was not expecting that I would be buying 20+ covers for MLP every single month for nearly 2 years.

I did it and amassed a collection of MLP Comics which is only rivaled by a handful of others in the fandom (looking at you Ramivic, DustyKatt, SilverQuill, and Caycifish), but that's not the important thing.

What is important is that I started to learn the names of the creators of the comics by collecting all the comic covers. Andy Price, Katie Cook, Heather Breckel, and Amy Mebberson. Those were the first names I learned about who worked on the MLP Comics.

I met Katie, Andy, and Amy for the first time at NYCC 2012. Chatted with Katie a little bit after the IDW Panel at the show, and that was basically it. I was really looking forward to the series, I was mostly hanging out at the Archie Comics booth during that con, and that was pretty much it.

I wasn't expecting the comic series to really impact my life outside of financially.

Then the series launched... and Sethisto was handling the MLP Comic posts on EQD. He would also post up information which was quite frankly in accurate. He would miss covers. He would toss up a cover multiple times (because CMYK doesn't play nice with RGB) and call them variants.

It was frustrating as a collector to say the least. So I started compiling the comic information myself and sent them into EQD to make sure they were correct!

...

...They weren't, but at the very least they became more accurate. I was happy with that.

Then the next unexpected event landed in my lap a month later. It was on Free Comic Book Day 2013 (first Saturday in May) when I would first meet MLP Cover Artist and New Hampshire native Sara Richard at my local comic shop, Double Midnight Comics.

I owe a lot to DMC. Not the least of which is them ordering my MLP Comics for the last 7 years. For those unaware, DMC had 6 exclusive covers for the My Little Pony Micro-Series. These six covers were all illustrated by Sara Richard. These six covers were also Sara's very first professional comic gig and she was coming to DMC for FCBD to sign their exclusive covers (in addition to meet everyone who came in).

Sara was the first artist I ever introduced myself to. Prior to this I had always treated artists at conventions like small little store fronts selling their wares, not someone whom I should get to know.

I am ashamed to admit that, but lying about who I was at the time is not something who am today can tolerate. Lying about oneself doesn't help with growing past that part of your life.

Lying about myself is for my best selling autobiographical political novel! You know, for after I become President of the United States!

With Sara, it was important to me that I tried something new. I loved her work on the micro series thus far, and she was actually local--kind of--to me. Perhaps if I let me guard down just a little bit, I would be able to possibly make a friend?

To say our first meeting was awkward would be a massive understatement. I blew so many freaking social norms when introducing myself to her. I'm still surprised to this day that Sara didn't ask DMC to have me leave.

But she didn't. She was taking requests for free sketches that day (all of the artists at the shop were) and I asked her for a sketch of Rainbow Dash. She was pumped to illustrate RD because RD is her favorite pony.

I spent a few hours at DMC for FCBD and checked in with her a number of times while I was waiting on that sketch and few others I had requested from artists there. I picked up the sketch, was blown away by how awesome it was, and we parted ways.

It was by far one of the best days I had ever had. I had actually introduced myself to someone, made a complete fool of myself, and yet that person didn't ridicule me. That person didn't mock me. That person actually laughed at a couple of my terrible jokes.

I know some people are going to point out that Sara was just being nice to me because she was working during the show and scaring away a client is never a good idea. And for those who point that out, I say "I don't care what you think."

This day was important to me because for the first time since I was 7 I finally had an in-person social interaction outside of someone in the family that didn't either blow up in my face or result in ridicule or scorn. I had Sara to thank for that.

I had Sara to thank for what happened next.

"…sharing kindness…"

Well, both Sara and Sethisto.

Shortly after Free Comic Book Day, Seth made a post on Equestria Daily announcing that he was going to bring in new blog authors. He hadn't quite figured out how at the time of the post but he said he would most likely be using what the prospective blog authors wrote for articles and brought to the site as criteria for bringing on new people.

As soon as that post went live, I did something I hadn't done before. I sent someone, not a corporation but an actual person, who I did not know an e-mail to ask them a question.

What I asked Seth was if he would let me conduct an interview on the behalf of Equestria Daily with one of the comic artists.

Mind you I had next to no experience in actually interviewing anyone. I had no experience as a reporter. Writing non-fiction (or prose in general) is not something I do very often. I prefer writing in short bursts.

Come to think of it that explains my day job perfectly…

So to sum up, I asked Seth if I could represent Equestria Daily to conduct something with which I had zero experience with an interview subject I did not have lined up and had no idea if, let alone how, I could get.

If I had done that to any professional new publication at the time I would have been laughed right out of the building.

However to my immense shock Seth said "yes." Apparently me consistently sending in the information about the IDW Comics was enough to get him to give me a chance.

A chance which I knew I couldn't blow. So I put my English degree to work and researched everything I could about how to conduct a proper interview. That took a little over a week and a half. And the most important lesson I kept seeing from all that literature over and over and over again was to get to know your interviewee well enough so you have a pretty good idea what their answers are probably going to be.

With that lesson learned, I just had to figure out who to interview and how to get them to agree. At that point in my life, I only knew one person from the MLP Comics. I had her business card from FCBD. So I shot Sara an e-mail and asked if she would like to be interviewed for the MLP fan blog Equestria Daily. I had explained to her that Seth had given me permission to conduct this interview on his behalf, proposed a couple of formats, and gave out a few sample dates for a possible Skype interview.

Then I waited. I was nervous, of course, but I also really didn't keep it in my mind too much. I had my day job to worry about and not get fired from!

Two days later, she responded to me with a "Yeah, totally!"

I did the interview with Sara. Repeated the process with Agnes Garbowska after the first one was well received on the site. Repeated it again with Heather Breckel. Then by the time I interviewed Amy Mebberson Seth had invited me on board Equestria Daily.

Gameleon, during my very first chat session I had on EQD's Skype channel, asked me point blank if I wanted to go to Galacon next year. I virtually met just about everyone on staff at the time, started making plans for future articles and to actually start going to conventions around the US and the world… and the rest, as they say, is history.

Sara, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for agreeing to that interview all those years ago. I would not be where I am today without your kindness.

"…and magic makes it all complete."

At this point, there is only one thing left to do.

To Stars Tara Strong, Ashleigh Ball, Andrea Libman, Tabitha St. Germain, Cathy Weseluck, Rebecca Shoichet, Kelly Sheridan, Nicole Oliver, Peter New, Shannon Chan-Kent, Michelle Creber, Claire Corlett, Kazumi Evans, & Madeleine Peters…

To Recurring Guest Stars Brenda Crichlow, Vincent Tong, Lee Tockar, Sam Vincent, Chantal Strand, Kathleen Barr, Garry Chalk, Michael Daigerfield, Trevor Devall, Marie Devereux, Brian Dobson, Michael Dobson, Paul Dobson, Brian Drummond, Bryanna Drummond, Brian Doe, Andrew Francis, Maryke Hendrikse, Matt Hill, Lauren Jackson, Peter Kelamis, Maurice LaMarche, Erin Mathews, Scott McNeil, Kelly Metzger, Colin Murdock, Richard Newman, Bill Newton, Ingrid Nilson, Mark Oliver, Murry Peeters, Galvin Langelo, Katrina Salisbury, Sunni Westbrook, Mark Acheson, Devyn Dalton, Britt McKillip, John de Lancie, Ali Milner, Patton Oswalt, Weird Al Yankovic, Chiara Zanni, Scott Underwood, Giles Panton, Kyle Rideout, Alan Marriott, Diana Kaarina, Ellen-Ray Hemmessy, Ron Halder, Paul Dobson, Patricia Drake, Richard Ian Cox, Enid-Raye Adams, Rena Anakwe, Sharon Alexander, Lili Beaudoin, Ryan Biel, Doron Bell, Chris Britton, Sienna Bohn Jay Brazeau, Alexandra Cater, Patricia Drake, Ron Halder, Ian Hanlin, James Higuchi, Britt Irvin, Janyse Jaud, Ellen Kennedy, Tariq Leslie Zach LeBlanc Alan Marriot, Andrew McNee, Bill Mondy, Tegan Moss, Colin Murdock, Riley Murdock, Kelli Ogmundson, Iris Quinn, Jan Rabson, Rhona Rees, Jerrica Santos, Veena Sood, Andy Tothm Kira Tozer, Graham Verchere, Nick Wolfhard…

To Guest Stars Alistair Abell, Tony Alcantar, Michael Antonakos, Danny Balkwill, Adam Bengis, Paula Berry, rachel Bloom, Nicole Bouma, Jim Byrnes, Christine Chatelain, Jennifer Copping, Ian James Corlett, Felicia Day, Jason Deline, Charles Demers, Dolores Drake, Zara Durrani, Sarah Edmondson, Christopher Gaze, Mark Bibbon, David Godfrey, Marcy Goldberg, Mackenzie Grey, Emmett Hall, Lena Hall, Saffron Henderson, Alexis Heule, Fiona Hogan, Cole Howard, Rebecca Husain, James Kirk, Adam Kirschner, Stef Lang, Sidika Larbes, William Lawrenson, Ali Liebert, Max Martini, Madeline Merlo, Shirley Millner, Jinjara Mitchell, David Mongar, Blu Mankuma, Marcus Mosley, Caitriona Murphy, Maggie O'Hara, Trish Pattendon, Dave Pettitt, Sabrina Pitre, Sylvain Portelance, Adam Reid, Rondel Reynoldson, Russel Roberts, Elysia Rotaru, William Samples, Alvin Sanders, Jason Schombing, Shylo Sharity, William Shatner, Advah Soudack, Aloma Steele, David Stuart, Anie Sunderland, Alyssya Swales, Eva Tavares, Sarah Troyer, Arielle Tuliao, Travis Turner, Siobhan Williams, Collen Winton, James Wootton, Alex Zahara, Sylvia Zaradic, Charles Zuckermann,

To MLP: The Movie Guest Stars Uzo Aduba, Emily Blunt, Kristin Chenoweth, Taye Diggs, Zoe, Saldana, Sia Furler, Michael Pena, Liev Schreiber,

To show writers Charlotte Fullerton, Amy Keating Rogers, M.A. Larson, Meghan McCarthy, Cindy Morrow, Dave Polsky, Chris Savino, Mike Vogel, Merriwether Williams, Corey Powell, Teddy Antonio, Josh Haber, Ed Valentine, Betsy McGowen,, Natasha Levinger, Scott Sonneborn , Noelle Benvenuti, Nick Confalone, G.M. Berrow, Joanna Lewis, Kristine Songco, Neal Dusedau, Michael P. Fox, Wil Fox, Dave Rapp, F.M. De Marco, Kevin Burke, Chris Wyatt, Jennifer Skelly, Sammie Crowley, Whitney Wetta, Josh Hamilton, Becky Wangberg, Kevin Lappin, May Chan, Brittany Jo Flores, Rachel Vine, Nicole Dubuc, Barry Safchik, Michael Platt, Brian Hohlfeld, Kaita Mpambara, Kim Beyer-Johnson, Gregory Bonsignore, Katherine Chilson, Whitney Ralls, Jim Martin, Kelly D'Angelo, Kate Leth, Julie Prescott, Christopher Godfrey, Joe Ballarini, Rita Hsiao, Kara Lee Burk, Laura Hooper Beck, Nina Daniels, Gail Simone, & M.J. Offen…

To Producers Sara Wall & Devon Cody…

To Season 1 & 2 story editor Rob Renzetti…

To Directors Jayson Thiessen, James Wootton, Jim Miller, Ishi Rudell, & Katrina Hadley…

To Animation Directors Denny Lu, Thom McKenna, Tim Stuby, Lean Lagonera…

To Voice Director Terry Klassen…

To Composers William Anderson, Steffan Andrews, Caleb Chan, Daniel Ingram, John Boyd, Mason Rather, Bill Sherman, Chris Jackson, Trevor Hoffman, Kelly Davidson, Kristopher Gee, Caleb Chan, & Lisette Bustamante…

To Music Editors Jillinda Palmer & Marc Perlman…

To Song Mixer Paul Shatto…

To Guitarist David Corman…

To Storyboard Artists Sabrina Alberghetti, Jeffrey Amey, Francisco Avalos, Ed Baker, Andy Bartlett, Alex Basino, Roxana Beiklik, Kelli Bort, Johnny Castuciano, Kaylea Chard, Karine Charlebois, Christine Cunningham, Kat Dela Cruz, Marta Demong, Emmet Hall, Jae Harm, Ward Jenkins, Sherann Johnson, Michelle Ku, Steve LeCouilliard, Hanna Lee, Lih Liau, Elie Klimos, Tim Maltby, Raven Molisee, Carrie Momborquette, Mike Myhre, Kenny Park, Mincheul Park, Patricia Ross, Tom Sales, Morgan Shandro, Elise Stevens, Cat Tang, Jocelan Thiessen, Corey Toomey, Thalia Tomlinson, Sam To, Scott Underwood, Nicole Wang, Mike West, Dave Wiebe, & Megan Willis…

To Storyboard Revisionists,  Marshall Fels Elliot, Carrie Momborquette, David Wiebe, & Nabie-Ah Yousuf…

To Character Designers Robin Mitchell, Mike Gilbert, Nicole Gauss, Kora Kosicka, Lynne Naylor, & Rebecca Dart…

To Prop Designer Ted Wilson…

To Location Designers Phil Caesar & Dave Dunnet…

To Development Artists Martin Ansolabehere & Paul Rudish…

To Color Artists Kellie deVries & Alexandra Jones…

To Cleanup Artists Jared Bennet, John Beveridge, Chris Mizzoni, Kent Reimer, Jacqueline Robinson, & Garnet Syberg-Olsen…

To VFX Designer Gregory Roth…

To Animatic Editor Margaret Ried…

To Offline Editors Aaron Saunders & Ryan Vaugh…

To Online Editor Tom Harris…

To Educational Consultant Jordan Brown…

To Layout Supervisors Brad Gibson, Joel Dickie, Michael Vatcher, & Chito Bernardo…

To Key Layout Artists Brent Bouchard, Jason Campbell, Sean Covernton, Matthew Herring, Jason Horychun, Christopher Leinonen, Randy Santa Ana, Dana Smith, Mike Tisserand, Andy Tougas, & Carlyle Wilson…

To Layout Artists Tim Bennett, Lee Beer, William Bradford, Johnny Castuciano, Kuan-Fu Chen, Daniel Dinnendahl, Andrew Hogan, Chad Jones, Norm Kritsch, Dennis Levesque, Karen Poon, Jen Regan, James Richards, Kat Stenson, Wataro Uno, & Allen Wu…

To Animation Revisionists Paul Johnson, Sebastian Lee, Aidan McAteer, & Edwin Poon…

To AFX Artists Ben Galewitz & Jason Ross Belyea…

To Studio B Animators Sarah Jargstorf, Marco Li, Sebastian Lee, Graeme MacDonald, Stephanie Mahoney, Erica Pitt, Richard Rose, Holly Giesbrecht, Steve Wedel, & Jayron Zolfaghari…

To Top Draw Animators Jeannie Abille, Marko Alauig, Patrick Aguelles, Jeffrey Bolalin, Eric Buyser, Noriel Castillo, Crispin Castro, Veronica Dela Cruz, Zarah Fransisco, Wesley Go, Arnel Padios, Arnel Nollora, Ed Rosario, Clenth Sanchez, John Irving Prudenciano, Jann Elmer Tinio, Aries Anonical, Christian Albino, John Breneis, Karen Dacallo, Ong Rey Firmalo, Gerry Guinto, Siegfred Liongson, Larry Lopez, Bryan Pabuhat, Peter Sison, Stanley Sison, Jenny Sy, Ryann Sy, Jeff Tenfilo, Romeo Timbang, Orville Vencer, & John Marin Wong…

To Production Manager Angela Belyea…

To Design Coordinator Kimberly Small…

To Layout Coordinator Alicia Camarta…

To Animation Coordinator Chris Bevacqua…

To Recording Engineer Jason Fredrickson…

To Sound Editors Todd Araki, Marcel Duperreault, Jason Fredrickson, Adam McGhie, & Roger Monk…

To Foley Artists Ian Mackie & Don Harris…

To Foley Recordist Rick Senechal…

To Background Supervisor Hubert Vitug…

To Comic Illustrators Andy Price, Agnes Garbowska, Tony Fleecs, Brenda Hickey, Sara Richard, Jenn Blake, Amy Mebberson, Jay Fosgitt, Tony Kuusisto, Ben Bates, Carla Speed McNeil…

To Comic Writers Katie Cook, Heather Nuhfer, Ted Anderson, Jeremy Whitley, Christina Rice, Thom Zahler, james Asmus, Ryan K. Lindsay, Barbara Randall Kesel, Georgia Ball, Rob Anderson, Alex de Campi, & Paul Allor…

To Comic Colorists Heather Breckel, Lauren Perry, Ronda Pattison, Jenn Manley Lee, Bill Mudron,

To Comic Letterers Robbie Robbins, Neil Uyetake, Tom B. Long, Gilberto Lazcano, Christa Miesner, & Shawn Lee…

To Comic Cover Artists Mary Bellamy,  Stephanie Buscema, Jill Thompson, Melanie Tingdahl, J. Scott Campbell, Nei Ruffino, Amanda Conner, Paul Mounts, Dan Parent, Sina Grace, Bill Forster, Chad Thomas, Dana Simpson, Zander Cannon, Alison Blackwell, Diana Leto, Katie Longua, Jennifer L. Meyer, Casey W. Coller, Chan Chau, Paulina Ganucheau, Kaori Matsuo, Paul Abstruse, Yasmin Sheikh, Abigail Starling, Anthony Hary, Charles Paul Wilson III, Stewart McKenny, Lea Hernandez, Summer Cruz, Caytlin Vilbrandt, Meridith McGinty, Matt Frank, Nicoletta Baldari, Valentina Pinto, Christine Larsen, Billy Martin, Sophie Scruggs, Magdalene Calbraith, Jeff Egli, Kurk Kasparian, Elena Barbarich, Penelope Gaylord, Derek Charm, Monica Grover, Trish Forstner, Nidhi Chanani, Low Zi Rong, Melody Often, Jamie Tyndall, Stacy Raven, Zachary Sterling, Mike Vasquez, Jennifer Hernandez, Meaghan Carter, Philip Murphy, Justyna Babinska, & Konrad Kachel…

To Comic Editors Bobby Curnow, Megan Brown, & Alonzo Simon…

To Book Author Mary Jane Begin

To Series Creator Lauren Faust…

Thank you for changing my life.

---

Twitter: The Illustrious Q