The Past

I was 7 years old when I started learning to draw in class at Gibbs Elementary School in Washington DC. Later I was transferred to Neval Thomas Elementary School in Washington DC so I could learn better. As a teenager I learned life drawing, and my cousin Joyce taught me even more about artwork.

Grandma was cooking. Aunt Stacey was across the table. I was eating soul food.

I did not know it then, but this ordinary kitchen would become the first location in my universe. Family Kitchen is still the room every character is born in.

In elementary school, I cut squares and circles to build my first art. Then, in fifth grade, I began drawing.

A piece of notebook paper. One character. I did not know I was drawing the beginning of a business.

Then came the memory of chasing an ice cream truck with Stacey while the neighborhood lined up for something sweet.

That memory gave the drawings a home. The ice cream truck became the first vehicle for a world built from original characters, childhood joy, and the belief that happiness should show up on purpose.

A kitchen. A bookshelf. An arcade room. And a world hiding behind the screen.

The boy stepped into the forest. The lake reflected another sky. Skate ramps appeared between the trees. And somewhere ahead was the Silver Sword.

The squares and circles taught me how to build pictures. The drawings became characters. The characters became worlds. The worlds became stories. And eventually, the stories became something you could wear.

Nothing here is licensed or borrowed. Every dragon, eagle and cosmic cafe scene is drawn in house, given a name and a home in the universe, then printed on heavyweight cotton in small, deliberate runs.

Hi, I am Mellisa T Brown. I spent four years building Crave Happy while working full time jobs, driving Uber and earning my degree. No investors, no shortcuts, no diluted vision.

The hoodie is the doorway. The story is the point. This is Year Zero. You are not late. You are early.