I joined US anime fandom ten years ago because I did want to find more like-minded people that I could write to and discuss anime. As I have mentioned, Australian anime fandom was still fairly small, and I was interested in branching out further. was one of the clubs that really appealed to me, and I was a regular contributor to the fanzine that it publishes, The Rose. I wrote a few articles, but my main contributions were my fan art. Whilst I don't do as much fan art now as I did before, I keep my hand in (mainly because I also want to break in to the comics business) and do the occasional drawing.

      One person whose work I absolutely adore (and thus whose talent I am jealous of ?:-) is and (featured as a Guest Pick previously on the Anipike). In addition to being a great artist, both as anime and fine art, she has a wit so sharp that it's like those ACME knives in the cartoons, you know the ones they test by splitting hairs on the blade. Her is a hilarious piece of what fangirls should do when accosted by unwelcome male otaku.

      One of my good friends when I started out in anime fandom is . He edited a fanzine where one of my comics was published. Since then, he's written and drawn comics stories for Robotech and Star Blazers, and has been been fairly outspoken about anime fandom. He also owns two cats, a lot of books, and is a terrific friend.

      It is easy to lose yourself in the number of Japanese fan artist websites that are there- but one in particular that I love is . Ray's claim to fame is the : a combination of sailor fukus and the bunny girl, but what I like is his in his own distinctive and likable style, a cross between realistic and anime style.

      I can't really forget Scott Frazier's , if only to mention how much of a good friend he is. Scott needs no introduction, but his website certainly does! It's a site devoted to art work of cat girls, and several prominent fan artists, such as Joshua Lesnick, and pro artists, like Steve Bennett, have donated art to him, and he's always looking for more.

      One of my good friends is , who is a arts graduate at the Art Institute of Dallas. Apart from cel painting, Angee is also the the maintainer of the . Angee gathers links to web sites that feature doujinshi based on existing characters. If you are an artist and you have comic stories based on existing anime, manga or video and console game characters, please e-mail her!

      Finally, I must mention an Australian CG artist, . His work is gorgeous stuff, even though he tends to downplay it a tad too much. Mike specialises between mecha and cute girls, but it's his use of CG which I admire, and wish I could emulate.