We sit down with Aaron Nabus, founder of FilAm Creator Con and co-host of the Hall H Podcast, to talk Filipino American representation, independent creators, San Diego Comic-Con, podcasting, Filipino culture, and the importance of building community. We also dive into AI and art, supporting emerging creators, and why sometimes one person making a connection can matter more than the numbers.
What happens when a love of pop culture turns into a mission to give independent creators and underrepresented voices a bigger platform?
We sit down with Aaron Nabus, founder and president of FilAm Creator Con, a nonprofit convention dedicated to celebrating and empowering Filipino American creators. Aaron also co-hosts the Hall H Podcast, covering independent pop culture creators, comics, conventions, and the artists working behind the scenes.
We talk about Aaron's journey from launching Hall H as a blog focused on San Diego Comic-Con's Artist Alley and small press creators to turning it into a podcast that has spent a decade spotlighting independent artists, writers, podcasters, and other creators.
From there, we dig into the origins of FilAm Creator Con, how the pandemic delayed its launch, and how the event grew from its first convention at the National City Library into a much larger celebration of Filipino American creativity. We discuss the growing demand from exhibitors, the importance of public libraries as community spaces, and why supporting independent creators matters in an entertainment industry increasingly dominated by major corporations.
We also explore Filipino American representation in pop culture and why Aaron felt compelled to create a space where Filipino creators could be seen, heard, and supported. That conversation takes us into movies, comics, Filipino culture, Filipino food, martial arts, and some of the Filipino influences hiding in plain sight throughout Hollywood.
We talk about San Diego Comic-Con, Artist Alley, independent artists, community events, and Aaron's work creating opportunities for creators who can't necessarily get into Comic-Con itself. We also discuss the Filipino Creator Mini-Con, community Drink and Draw events, open mics, and the importance of partnering with Filipino-owned businesses.
As fellow podcasters, we get into the realities of building an audience in the age of algorithms. Aaron shares his philosophy that podcasting is ultimately about human connection rather than chasing numbers, along with his advice for creators trying to build genuine relationships with potential guests and collaborators.
We also discuss Aaron's Filipino folklore and mythology coloring book Kickstarter, which brings together Filipino American artists and gives creators another opportunity to showcase their work.
And because this is Never Seen It, we can't resist getting into movies. We talk about Filipino representation in films like Starship Troopers and Game of Death, Bruce Lee and Filipino martial arts, Asian cinema's influence on Hollywood, foreign films like Hero, and the movies we wish more people would discover.
Finally, we tackle one of the biggest issues facing artists and creators right now: artificial intelligence. We discuss AI-generated art, creative ownership, compensation, automation, the economics of AI, and whether technology should be augmenting human creativity rather than replacing it.
It's a wide-ranging conversation about movies, comics, conventions, podcasting, Filipino American representation, independent creators, community building, and what it means to create something simply because you believe it deserves to exist.
FilAm Creator Con is scheduled for September 19 in San Diego and is free and open to the public. Aaron also shares information about volunteering, sponsorships, the convention, and the Filipino folklore and mythology coloring book Kickstarter.
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