By Angela Howard
Ezayah Oliva, 5th Grader at Westwind, is a very talented comic book maker. He started drawing when he was quite young, but his friends began to take notice of his work and started begging him to draw things for them when he was in the second grade.
He has been inspired by authors Dave Pilkey and the former Stan Lee to make comic books. After the passing of Stan Lee, Ezayah wanted to make a tribute to him by making some new Avengers comics. This turned into something much bigger.
Ezayah has developed his own line of comic books called EZ Comics. When the main character, Frost Bite (also known as Merrick), was fourteen years old, he found a magical ice crystal. Unaware of its life changing powers, Frost Bite crushed the crystal. Out poured the magical powers that Frost Bite now has. Frost Bite is a superhero who is strong (but not super strong), lives in a futuristic city, and wears futuristic goggles. Ezayah made Frost Bite a teenager because Ezayah feels like it would make this character more relatable to all kids. Ezayah and Frost Bite have a few things in common. They both dream about crazy things, like the color blue, and like cold stuff (like eating ice cubes).
When interviewed, Ezayah said it takes him three days to make a comic book because he has to think of the storyline, plot, setting, characters, and back story. When coming up with the storyline, Ezayah thinks of things that have happened to him but thinks of them in futuristic terms. He likes to create space aliens, robots (coming up in future editions), etc. He told his friends they are welcome to help him come up with ideas. Sometimes, they bring him some drawings which he makes into larger than life characters.
The students at school anxiously await reading the next edition of his comic book series. He is in the process of creating a series that will be published in the Young Author’s section of the Westwind Library. (He pointed out that there is an “x” on Frost Bite’s forehead, but the only way to uncover the mystery of that “x” is to check the comic book out of the library and read it for yourself.) He hopes that one day, he will be professionally published.