Thank you all. It's time to move on.

Over five and a half years ago I signed into the beta of City of Heroes and dawned my first pair of virtual tights. Since then, I've suffered from a serious case of alt-itis and created well over 50 heroes and villains in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. I've defeated arch villains, visited alternate dimensions, and even saved the world more than a few times. Not bad for a virtual world.

On the real-world side of things I can happily say I've faired pretty well in the City of Heroes contests with "Best City of Heroes Fan Site", "Best Overall Comic" in the comic contest, and winner of the "Matrix Machinima Contest" all of that has granted me a couple of handfuls of video games, a number of sound cards, video cards, an iPod, a PS3, an Xbox 360, a DS, and a new car. I can safely say Paragon City has been good to me.

And still, that's not what I'm most thankful for in all my time in the game. It was around two and a half years ago that I stumbled across this section of the forum. I guess curiosity led me here as much as anything. I saw some of the great art here and decided to create a piece for my brother. It was the first drawing I'd done that was non-work, non-school related in probably ten years. It had been a very long time.

I met TA, Juggie, Kat, Wassy, DarkJedi, War Patriot and many, many others that were encouraging, full of advice, and a great influence for not only myself, but any other face that stumbled in as well.

Since then I've had the great honor of creating over a dozen other hero illustrations for both myself and others, and it has been a blast. I had forgotten how much fun creating art could be. And THAT is the single largest thing I'm grateful for...beyond words.

In a few days my CoX subscription will expire and I'll be moving on, but I wanted to say a special "Thank you." to the CoX art community for the good times, and to Paragon Studios for creating City of Heroes and carrying it on for the past 5+ years. It's been a heck of a ride.

I wish you all the very best. To the artists out there, experienced and aspiring, never stop creating. Never stop drawing.

Sincerely,
Todd (8 Baller)