HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Saying good-bye to 2024, and HELLO to 2025!

Hello all,

Ramón Pérez here — de facto cat herder at RAID.

As the year is coming to a close, I wanted to say a share a few words.

RAID has been a part of my life for the better part of 18 years! I was the first non-founding member invited to join, and as original members moved on and new ones came aboard, the responsibility of running the studio fell to me — or perhaps I eagerly took up those reigns of responsibility. It was a role I embraced because I saw RAID for what it truly was: something special. As someone who first admired it from the outside and later experienced it from within, I realized that RAID wasn’t just a studio —it was a community. A place where creative individuals could connect, collaborate, grow, and build friendships that would last a lifetime.

Eighteen years later, I’m just as passionate about RAID as I was the day I joined. In 2018, we left our roots in Toronto’s Little Italy neighbourhood (I’ll admit, I do miss the accordion player serenading us during the Taste of Little Italy festival!) and moved to Toronto’s vibrant Parkdale neighbourhood. With this move came significant changes. RAID needed to incorporate — to become its own entity. This was necessary to sign the lease for our new space. This new street-front location gave us an incredible opportunity to connect with the public in a whole new way. This led to the creation of the RAID Gallery & Café, with the studio itself expanding into a 4,000-square-foot space behind it.

Our studio now hosts workstations for creatives from all walks of life — animators, VFX artists, concept designers, graphic designers, writers, illustrators, comic book creators, and more. We’ve created meeting spaces, lounge areas to unwind, and soon (fingers crossed), we’ll even have a small gym to stretch both body and mind.

The pandemic hit us hard, but strangely, it also delivered us the opportunity to survive and grow. It pushed us out of our comfort zone and into new ventures like publishing and creative services. These endeavours have brought incredible new faces to RAID, including our first-ever employees — people who believe in our vision to build something truly unique: a creator-driven ecosystem.

RAID is more than a studio to me — it’s my family. I’ve made lifelong friends here, and as I look toward the horizon, I’m filled with excitement for the future. The road isn’t easy—we’re bootstrapping this entire endeavour ourselves — but that also means we’re the captains of our destiny. We steer the ship.

To everyone who has supported us over the years: thank you. RAID wouldn’t be what it is today without you. I wish you all a very merry this holiday season, whatever it may mean to you.

Here’s to the journey ahead.

Much love,

Ramón.

PS / As RAID continues to grow and evolve, so does our need to communicate more effectively with you—our incredible community of fans, creators, and supporters. To help us achieve this, we’re excited to announce a new direction for our newsletters.

We’re streamlining our main newsletter, It’s a RAID World, to keep it clean, focused, and easier to digest. This newsletter will remain your go-to for all things RAID, giving you a monthly update during the first week of each month on what’s happening in the broader RAID ecosystem, including studio news, events, and exciting developments.

But we wanted to give RAID Press—our growing publishing arm—the spotlight it deserves. That’s where HOT OFF THE PRESS comes in. This new newsletter will focus exclusively on everything RAID Press: our books, the incredible creators behind them, upcoming projects, and insider updates you won’t find anywhere else. It’s your backstage pass to all the creative energy and passion that drive our publishing initiatives.

By dividing our newsletters, we hope to keep you better informed with focused content that keeps you in the loop and inspired while showcasing the amazing work being done at RAID and RAID Press.

HOT OFF THE PRESS would land in your inbox mid-month, alternating with IT’S A RAID WORLD. Subscribe now and join us in 2025 as we share our journey, celebrate the creators driving it all, and invite you to be part of the story we’re building together!!