Breaking Character: Behind the Cosplay Model

Hey there MeSseD Comics fans, loved ones and co- conspirators to the larger cause of creative expression. My name is Xu Chau, character model and social media strategist here at one of the coolest projects I’ve ever been a part of.

Anyways, enough with the sentimental mush. I am sure you’re wondering what happenstance brought three unlikely people together: freelance illustrator and rockstar Dylan Speeg, Founder of Know Theatre turned author Jay B. Kalagayan and a former Vietnamese refugee and cultural transplant from Florida into the same room.

I met Jay unofficially while he and his wife had their young girls enrolled at a preschool/ daycare where I was working as a preschool teacher. Our interactions were brief, often simply exchanging greetings as Jay picked up his girls after work. Who knew our paths would cross in such a way!

I met Dylan almost immediately after I moved to Clifton, the college town here right next to the University of Cincinnati. He’s a main character in Clifton. Dylan is a family man, rockstar of Heavy Hinges, bartender and unrealized stand up comic at Murphy’s Pub. We met in the neighborhood in passing and deepened our acquaintance at the bar through witty banter. I may have even interacted with him up a few times from behind-the-counter of a convenience store I briefly worked at.

Words started to circulate among similar friend circles about these two former colleagues, Dylan and Jay, who were storyboarding an original comic book concept. The descriptions of the main protagonist, Lilliput, and who her character model ideally should be so intrigued me I said yes almost immediately. A story of a subterranean world, sewer monsters, with a character that happens to be Asian American at the helm? Count me in!

So began an incredible journey. In our current manifestation, we travel the comic con circuit and various literary festivals in the tri-state area slinging comics and world building along the way.

Where to from here? We want the entire world to know about the world beneath our feet.

Later, no gators

Xu Chau