Andrew, how are you doing, Sarah great? Who's we're scheduled for eleven?
Right? Absolutely absolutely to be in this moment of releasing the book.
How did you picture it as you were starting to put things together in that
first chapter? Because so many times as writers we like to dream and dream
big, because even Gene Simmons says, if you don't think it's larger than
life, nobody else will think it either. Putting together the first chapter,
yes, well I actually put it together kind of all at one. There's
yeah, there's a vague idea when you know, when the idea for the
book is born, like you have a vague idea of the ending, and
maybe something in the middle comes up, and then you adjust the beginning to
account for all of that. It's, you know, an organic process with
a lot of pushing the pull to find the action because I mean so many
authors and things like that, they've they've got to see the action inside their
imagination first. But when you when you take your readers into a moment like
that, I mean it's like a surreal adventure and it would just be a
moment to just kind of savor forever. How do you get into that,
into that zone. It's uh okay. The way I get into the zone
is to get bored out of my mind. That's where a lot of the
best material I ever came up with was sitting in the university lecture hall board
out of my mind, or you know, waiting for a bus, waiting
for friends. It's just when you give yourself the opportunity to allow your mind
to wander and go different places, and also just never stopped consuming different sources
of inspiration. Listen to podcasts, watch documentaries. You never know where you're
gonna come up with new ideas. Yeah, I'm so glad that you brought
that up, because many times on iHeartRadio, I always call myself the silent
wolf. I'm sitting underneath the branches of a tree and I'm just watching life.
I'm taking it all in. Would you say you're a silent wolf as
well? Kind of Yeah, I'm a little bit of an introvert by nature,
ice, and I mean I like other people. I like being around
and just kind of seeing people, watching and taking it all in. So
yeah, certainly. Yeah. You know, it's what's interesting about your energy.
You call yourself like it's somewhat of an introvert. But you're not afraid
to bring reality onto that stage. That to me is that that's courage and
confidence. Oh yeah, I mean I like speaking my mind. I like
being honest and genuine and just calling it how I sees it. And I
mean beyond, it's a wacky and tactical world set in the afterlife, and
that's got ghosts and spooks. But you know, it's it's all. It's
a grim reality of the real world. It's holding up this big mirror and
showing like, Okay, here's here's some of the flaws and warts and all
of the world we live in. Yeah, and that's one thing I'm not
afraid of, is the afterlife. I mean, if you could see this
studio, I've got ashes, I've got Native American spiritual tools in here.
I mean, it's and maybe that's the reason why I'm so drawn to your
writing and the way that you bring your your your graphic novels together is the
fact that it's like, yes, this is someone who speaks my street.
M h. It's yeah. I like all taking the all different cultures and
imagery and pulling inspirations. So beyond, I'd say primarily the afterlife is maybe
inspired by Beetlejuice. H just the different colors and all these different people of
different backgrounds kind of being crammed together. But certainly it's like, Okay,
how can I take inspiration from Hinduism? How can I take from Christianity and
just kind of take all the parts that I think are the most interesting from
all of them. I'm like, well, yeah, there's there's truth and
all of it. That's so funny you bring that out, because you know,
being down here in the South and the southern part of the States,
you know this is Bible Belt country. People always ask me, so,
what do you study? I said, I study it all. And now
I'm on the phone with Andrew, who also studies it all. He's very
much aware of what's around us. Yeah. I I like the world,
yep. And I like history and I like science. That's my advice for
readers would be, never stop learning, never stopped growing, Always be curious,
always kind of fan the flames of that inner child of yours. When
when you when you bring a story like this together, how when a graphic
novel to me is so far greater than a comic book, only because I
don't want the comic book to end. Yes, a graphic novel does have
an ending, but I have something larger than life that I'm holding. What
I mean, how long does it take to put something like this together?
Because I mean it is a very long form story. Yes, Beyond.
I worked on that between twenty fifteen and twenty seventeen, and during that time
it was basically a full time job. During that period, I was a
really lousy student, by the way, And yeah, it takes a lot
of commitments and you do reach a wall at some point. It's about having
a good work schedule and just commitments. Really, you don't see drawing as
a profession. You still see it as a hobby. That's really interesting.
I mean, yeah, even though I work drawing all day, I work
for an animation studio. I got my side gig making web comics and doing
commissions online. So it's that I live and breathe arts. But it's just
kind of you know, if you do it you love, then you're not
going to work a day in your life. So true, so true.
I have an iHeartRadio channel that's called creativity is the addiction? Do you believe
that it's an addiction? Oh? For me, certainly. I am a
bit of a workoholic. Yep, I'm a bit of a workaholic, and
I definitely need to find a better work life balance. I need to make
time for other hobbies. But I mean it's not the worst because and for
me to be in right right, yeah, because like you said, you're
doing what you love. I mean, that's that's like me and radio.
I mean, I've been in this business for forty four years, and people
go, when you're going to retire, And I said, I'm not telling
that fourteen year old kid inside of me that I'm going to retire. That
kid still has fire. Oh no, no, no, no, yeah,
if you still have that passion and drive, like, hold onto that
and don't let go. Would you say, Andrew that you are a pioneer
in the way of doing web comics, because when I was growing up,
there was no such thing as web comics. Me, I'd say, I'm
like the second generation of web comic artists. I started making content in the
early twenty ten and certainly there was people in the two thousands and even the
nineties that came before me, and I drew inspiration from a lot of them.
Viewers out there, if you're familiar with gun Show comics and Casey Green
or Saturday Morning Brickfast Cereal like those are some of my biggest inspirations. And
those guys are very well established and we're around at least a decade before me.
How do you how do you keep that content going? Because so many
times people say, oh, I'm going to do this, and yeah,
you get I'll give you a good example, someone that wants to do a
podcast. I'll do seven episodes and then they'll stop and it's like, no,
that's not a podcast. It's got to be the same thing for online
comics as well, or even writing graphic novels. You've got to keep pushing
the buttons. M okay, okay. Step one, don't have hobbies.
Step two, don't have no no no. I started making content while I
was still in high school, and I went through an experimental phase where I
was kind of testing my limits and seeing what I could do every single week.
And yeah, I play around with that for half a year and I
got into a comfortable groove and it's like, all right, I can do
one comic strip or one page every week, or so okay, this is
a good, steady, regular upload speed. And you know the Internet and
algorithm demands consistency and demands at least a weekly So if you can pull that
off, that's great. And then the rest kind of evolves from there where
once I get good enough and once my skills are developed, it's like,
okay, I can squeeze something else in there time to work on beyond.
You see, this is every bit the reason why I created View from the
writing instrument on iHeartRadio, and the reason being is because we get we get
to read your words, we get to see the pictures that you paint,
but we don't get to hear your story. And today you're sharing that and
that's because I want listeners to go, oh my god, I live his
life, but I hide all the stuff that I create. It's a lot
of people don't have the opportunity to create. I think I came from a
pretty privileged, middle middle class background, so I had the opportunity to kind
of create. But obviously, you know, if you're struggling and you need
to work a number of jobs. So I you know, I kind of
got lucky. Yeah, yeah, in a few ways. But it's also
now that I'm out and on my own, and uh, you know,
I gotta pay rent and pay the bills and get groceries. You gotta put
on your big boy pants. Yeah, not a kid anymore. Yeah,
I'm more sympathetic to other people, I guess. But I I got a
good start. Yeah, I got a good start, and then I was
able to establish myself. I had the breathing room in the wiggle room to
experiment with arts, and then that's kind of propelled me in the position I
am now. Oh, I love where your heart is. Where can people
go to find out more about you, to support you, to give you
love, because knowing you, you probably have things that they can purchase and
they can add to their own personal lives. Yes, so I have the
books obviously people can buy beyond. Everything you need to know about me can
be found at jolly biscuit dot com. I have a store page where you
can find my books and some prints and posters. I have an about page
with all my social media and all the different places you can read my comics.
So jolly biscuit dot com and I Love the Man. Please come back
to this show anytime in the future, Andrew, the door is always going
to be open for you. Absolutely. I'm working on a science fiction so
fingers crossed, I can maybe get that done within the year. All right
man, I expect to have that phone call absolutely all right man, will
you be brilliant today? Okay, you too, Yeah, take care,