Adam Ellis (artist)

Adam Ellis
Born	Adam Ellis (1986-10-01) October 1, 1986 (age 39) Montana, U.S.
Education	Art Institute of Boston (BA in Illustration)
Occupations	Artist, writer
Years active	2013–present
Employer(s)	Self Employed (2018-present) Buzzfeed (2013-2018)

Adam Ellis (born October 1, 1986) is an American artist, and writer best known for his Twitter multimedia series titled "Dear David" from 2017-2018; in which he would post drawings, photos, and recordings of a supposed child ghost haunting his home. ^[1] His Twitter stories would lead to the 2023 film with the same title. ^{[2] [3]}

Early life

Adam was born on October 1, 1986, in a city in Montana. Adam was said to have grown up “relatively poor.”

Career

Adam worked at Buzzfeed from September 2013 until 2018, where he created or co-wrote 290 articles. ^[4] His viral ghost story, titled My Apartment Is Being Haunted By The Ghost Of A Dead Child And I'm Not Sure What To Do, was eventually turned into a full length film by Lionsgate in 2023. The film, Dear David, was released to poor reviews. On a Twitter post in October 2024, Adam revealed that he received no compensation from the film release since he had been a Buzzfeed employee when he wrote the story, which was technically legal due to BuzzFeed's contracts. ^[5]

In January 2018 Adam became a self-employed comic artist and illustrator, using Instagram and Twitter (now X) for most of his works. Since becoming a self-employed artist he has published five books.

Published Works

Adam mostly creates comics, publishing multiple books that he created and illustrated.

Title	Date of Publication	ISBN-13	Notes
Sudoku Puzzle Book Vol 1: 200 Puzzles	October 25, 2012	978-1479279364
Sudoku Puzzle Book Vol 2: 200 Puzzles	January, 18, 2013	978-1481958295
Sudoku Puzzle Book Vol 3: 200 Puzzles	January 24, 2013	978-1482055740
Books of Adam: The Blunder Years	July 9, 2013	978-1455516988	First published comics book
Sudoku Puzzle Book Vol 4: 200 Puzzles	June 27, 2014	978-1500244125
Tiny Hats on Cats: Because Every Cat Deserves to Feel Fancy	October 20, 2015	978-1455558131
Super Chill: A Year of Living Anxiously	October 23, 2018	978-1449491550
Fever Knights: Official Fake Strategy Guide	May 3, 2022	978-1524862862	Created to look like a real RPG video game strategy guide
Fever Knights Role-Playing Game: Powered by ZWEIHANDER RPG	November 7, 2023	978-1524867607	Role-Playing Game Co-authored with Daniel D. Fox, Anna Goldberg, Gabriel Hicks, Kate Bullock, and ARTeapot
Bad Dreams in the Night (Horror Stories by Adam Ellis)	April 15, 2024	978-1524887186
Let Me in Your Window (Horror Stories by Adam Ellis)	September 9, 2025	979-8881603243

Lawsuits

Since January 2023, Ellis has been involved in an ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit against Stability AI, over its text-to-image model, Stable Diffusion, being allegedly trained on his comics. ^[6]

External Links

adamtots - Official Instagram account

adamtotscomix - Official Twitter (X) Account

References

1. "The Unnerving Real Twitter Thread That 'Dear David' is Based on". Collider . October 13, 2023.
2. Verhoeven, Beatrice (June 6, 2018). "'Dear David': 'It' Producer, BuzzFeed to Develop Horror Film Based on Viral Ghost Story". TheWrap . Retrieved March 25, 2025.
3. Knibbs, Kate. "'Dear David' is the Final Gasp of a Dying Internet". Wired.
4. "Adam Ellis". www.buzzfeed.com. May 4, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2025.
5. Villarreal, Daniel. "Gay writer of viral real-life ghost story says he was paid nothing for film of his work". LGBTQ Nation. Retrieved December 29, 2025.
6. Gain, Vish (August 14, 2024). "Big win for artists' AI copyright lawsuit in the US". Silicon Republic. Retrieved March 25, 2025.