0:12BSee that?
0:15AIt’s my creative framing strategy. And so I’m here with Eric Cooper.
0:18BYes, I am Eric Cooper. Yeah, so I’m a born and raised Trenton native in New Jersey, and I am an author, writer, Optician by trade and also chauffeur. And what do you want to know, I guess?
0:32AWhy? Why? Why? Why is this what you’re doing?
0:36BYeah, well, number one is being of this Nolan kind of feel. Most people don’t think that we do the nerdy sci-fi stuff. We do. Now, do we actually publicize it enough?
0:51AWe don’t.
0:51BSo that’s why I became a writer. Mainly I got into it because I was going through depression in my life and writing this character was a way to express myself. But also I use his backstory as my own backstory to create the character. So you got to get to really read about me. And so he got his powers and of course it branches off. But the main character, if you are a fan of Alien, the Predator, Mortal Kombat, Underworld, I’m more of a mixture of 2 different genres. I love mixing sci-fi along with supernatural and creating the world that I do.
1:24AMm-hmm.
1:24BAnd nice thing about Nightseeker is actually Triton’s-- actually New Jersey’s first true superhero character. And the book takes place in Triton, branches off to New York City, it goes to Philadelphia, and also to Delaware and other surrounding areas. So it’s a very cumbersome tri-state type of feel for the genre that I do.
1:42AAnd what has it been like? How has your understanding of what it means to be like a world builder, like at this scale, right? You’re going to New York, you’re going to New Jersey, you’re going to Pennsylvania, you’re going to Delaware. And you’re creating, you know, a lore inside of that, you know, how has your understanding of what that takes evolved inside this process?
1:59BThe understanding is that there are so many different genres of people in the world and around our area. And to highlight the different aspects--
2:08AWhat do you mean genres of people?
2:09BWell, mainly everyone, everyone is a persona. Everyone has a different take on life. Everyone has a different aspect of what they, who they are. So what I love about my world is that I bring all different ethnicities into my world. To make it more like you feel like you’re really at home.
2:24AMm-hmm.
2:25BAnd you get to feel-- you get to see what they go through in their lives.
2:28AMm-hmm.
2:29BAnd you read it and it’s like, oh my God, it’s like I’m actually there.
2:32AMm-hmm.
2:33BAnd I love that impact where each book has a different scenario that you go through. So the first book is about foundation, about understanding your potential in this world. It’s a saga of books. The second book is about your faith, what you believe in. The third book is about your moral-- your morality, what you, what you, what you stand for, what you believe, and, um, what you will tolerate. And it’s a reflection upon yourself and about the people around you. So my, my thing is about world building about, about you, your society, and how you deal with your, your unusual circumstances and your problems. And you learn how to-- it’s learning how you grow from it. Every time you read a book, you should take something from it that adds to your life and to your being as an individual and to expand and share with others also. It’s about sharing what you’ve learned in this life, because once you live this life, you know, whatever is going on to the next, whatever. But it all is always about sharing our stories, especially being Black. It’s about sharing our stories, about being individual, about knowing about your family’s history and know about-- Your-- actually, your community. How does your community contribute to the world society? Because everything branches off, no matter which way you look at it. We’re all part of this whole economic system, this whole geo system. We’re all part of it. But you got to share it. You can’t just hold back. You got to share it. You were meant to share in life. And that’s about what-- that’s why I write, right?
4:02ARight.
4:02BI’m sharing my depression. I’m sharing my triumphs. I’m sharing my issues. And learning how to go about my life and being a contributing person, artist to it. It makes me feel whole again. It’s all about sharing and making yourself feel whole. Yeah.
4:20AOh, that’s powerful. Yeah. And I think it’s powerful for you to be sharing about like your own journey with mental health as well.
4:24BBig time.
4:25ASo I just acknowledge being a Black man doing that and creating, you know, like transmuting it, right? And it really impacts people and culture and culture in a way that we don’t really have a lot of presence, I would say.
4:35BYes, correct. Yeah. And I love the opportunity meeting different celebrities such as, unfortunately he’s not here today, Chadwick Boseman, the original Black Panther for the movies from MCU. Patrick Stewart’s part of my work, Jean-Luc Picard. Jonathan Frakes from Star Trek. Also Avery Brooks, which I call my uncle. Every time I see him, he calls me nephew.
4:55AMm-hmm.
4:55BBut I grew up with Star Trek. That was my thing. But also Ray Park from Star Wars, Darth Maul. He’s actually in my books also. Kate Mulgrew from Voyager. I get to hobnob with Sigourney Weaver. She’s in my books as well. And Kevin Grievous from Underworld, the raised werewolf. I get to talk to all these celebrities and they love the characters I do for them. And they say, keep on writing your books because we love them. And it’s a great thing to say.
5:21AThat’s incredible. Congrats. And you do this Black Comic-Con?
5:26BYeah, it’s called Black Label Comic-Con. So we The first show we had was in 2019, but of course the pandemic hit. That was fun, 2020. So we skipped 2021 and we did ’22 and ’23. So we did 4 years of it. I’m taking a break now. I’ll probably get back into it maybe 2027, ’28 latest, but I’m feeling more 2027. I might be here in Trenton. I wanna start small again and then build my way back up. But Black Label is about showing off other independent authors. Not-- they don’t work for the big companies. They have their own independent books, authors, and comic book artists. So we all come together and show the community the works that we do to have other people get involved with what we do, to build a fan base and to build a community of artists and writers. That’s remarkable.
6:15AAnd where can we find you online?
6:16BUh, either type in either Night Secret, as you see it, and I think nightsecret.com or blacklabelcomiccon.com. Either or will get straight to me. I’m on Instagram, on Facebook. Anytime you type me in, you’ll see me pop up.
6:28AIt’s all Night Seeker spelled that way? Yes. Any-- it’s just one word on Instagram?
6:32BOne word. Yeah.
6:33ATikTok everywhere?
6:33BYep. Nightseeker.com. And YouTube? Uh, YouTube, uh, yes.
6:37AAll--
6:38Bit’s all Night Seeker because that’s pretty much my main, my main character. He’s my flagship character. So anytime they type that name in, my name will automatically come up.
6:47AThat makes sense.
6:47BYeah.
6:48AI have my AI transcribe and even tag people on social, so I just want to make sure they’re getting the right thing.
6:52BYeah, and then for-- oh, what is it? You’re leaving? Yeah. Oh, and also for Instagram and Facebook. Yeah, Instagram and Facebook, if you want to keep it simple, just eric.cooper.353. That’s on Instagram and Facebook. That directly contacts me. The other ones are more business contacts that circulate to me, but those are more direct to me.
7:14AOkay, awesome. It’s very nice to meet you. A pleasure. Thank you. Do you have any message to, to the nerds?
7:19BOn the nerves is, look, whatever you believe in, whatever your self-reflection is, whatever you believe in for yourself, conquer your fears and let life play itself out. But don’t be afraid to fail. You got to fail enough times before you succeed. You got to fail, but keep going because life has so much more in store for you than you believe.
7:41AOh yeah.
7:42BAll right, man.
7:43AThank you.
7:43BAll right.
