I first got to know John Staton in the lobby of the Days Inn Penn State in State College, Pennsylvania at the first ever Otakon in the summer of 1994. It was the heady early days of anime internet fandom in the US, and I was still getting used to having a college email account and usenet access, making friendships among other college anime fans across the internet and dipping my toes into the murky waters of anime fanfiction and fanart, especially the realm of the self-insert and original characters. But John was unique even for the time period - an African-American fan of both manga and comics, a recent graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park fine arts program, who had a steady hand on a pencil and pen and an already established long-running serialized comic strip - "Daniel Dukke and Ferdinand Fox" - in the campus newspaper, The Diamondback. While I was waiting for my con roommate to wake up (before we packed up to drive back home), we got to talking about what we'd experienced during the weekend and various fandoms we were involved in, and about my own attempts at creating characters and writing stories, showing him what I'd been working on in my sketchbooks and my printouts.
It was later that year, when I had become a customer of the College Park comic shop, The Closet of Comics, in pursuit of translated Masamune Shirow manga and the initial issues of Fred Perry's Gold Digger, that he offered to make a drawing for me in my sketchbook:
Fig 1.Aerianne Connor Leaps Into Action!, by John Harris Staton, 1994.
To put it bluntly, I was stunned. I had never conceived that anybody else would want to draw my characters, that this was even a thing that could be done. He just smiled and gave my sketchbook back to me, and encouraged me to continue drawing and creating on my own.
And thus began a long-running friendship through the medium of the comic shop longboxes of downtown College Park and the artist alley tables of the anime conventions of the east coast. A friendship built on sharing fandoms, creating characters, and making stories, original or derivative. This was the era of Star Trek TNG and DS9, Stargate SG-1, and Babylon 5; of Macross/Robotech and Gundam; where serialized sci-fi was the thing to emulate. And while I hooked my wagon to Eyrie Productions' fortunes, John was working on his own creative IP's, while still working for the comic store on Route One, assisting at Insight Studios Group, and boostering the medium of comics and manga to anybody who came through the store's door. It was thanks to John that I got introduced to the wider world of mainstream comics, and making connections with the comics creators who would visit the store (before diving into the deep end with attending Baltimore Comic Con).
Through it all, when the opportunity presented itself and the stars aligned, I would get more commissions from John for the online writing and roleplaying I was involved in (such as This Year's Model and Way of the Warrior for EPU, and Daughters of Ember and A Day At The Office for the Amber DRPG) and practice my own coloring skills on the scans, but the most mindblowing instances were when John would make art of my characters unprompted and spring it on me:
Fig 2.Terp Valk, by John Harris Staton, 2011.
So I definitely wasn't complaining when it occurred! And so things continued in a companionable manner for several decades, with fandoms being shared, discussed, and celebrated online and in person, and the occasional art commissioned or exchanged... up through the present day.
Godspeed, John. Live Long and Prosper. We'll miss you.
--- Philip Moyer (1/13/2026)
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Philip J. Moyer
Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios
"Sir, the purpose of this gathering confuses me."
"Oh? How so?"
"I find my thoughts are not for Tasha, but for myself. I keep thinking, how empty it will be without her presence. Did I miss the point?"
"No you didn't, Data. You got it."
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