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Andrew, how are you doing,
Sarah great? Who's we're scheduled for eleven?

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Right? Absolutely absolutely to be in
this moment of releasing the book.

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How did you picture it as you
were starting to put things together in that

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first chapter? Because so many times
as writers we like to dream and dream

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big, because even Gene Simmons says, if you don't think it's larger than

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life, nobody else will think it
either. Putting together the first chapter,

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yes, well I actually put it
together kind of all at one. There's

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yeah, there's a vague idea when
you know, when the idea for the

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book is born, like you have
a vague idea of the ending, and

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maybe something in the middle comes up, and then you adjust the beginning to

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account for all of that. It's, you know, an organic process with

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a lot of pushing the pull to
find the action because I mean so many

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authors and things like that, they've
they've got to see the action inside their

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imagination first. But when you when
you take your readers into a moment like

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that, I mean it's like a
surreal adventure and it would just be a

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moment to just kind of savor forever. How do you get into that,

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into that zone. It's uh okay. The way I get into the zone

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is to get bored out of my
mind. That's where a lot of the

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best material I ever came up with
was sitting in the university lecture hall board

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out of my mind, or you
know, waiting for a bus, waiting

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for friends. It's just when you
give yourself the opportunity to allow your mind

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to wander and go different places,
and also just never stopped consuming different sources

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of inspiration. Listen to podcasts,
watch documentaries. You never know where you're

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gonna come up with new ideas.
Yeah, I'm so glad that you brought

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that up, because many times on
iHeartRadio, I always call myself the silent

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wolf. I'm sitting underneath the branches
of a tree and I'm just watching life.

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I'm taking it all in. Would
you say you're a silent wolf as

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well? Kind of Yeah, I'm
a little bit of an introvert by nature,

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ice, and I mean I like
other people. I like being around

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and just kind of seeing people,
watching and taking it all in. So

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yeah, certainly. Yeah. You
know, it's what's interesting about your energy.

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You call yourself like it's somewhat of
an introvert. But you're not afraid

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to bring reality onto that stage.
That to me is that that's courage and

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confidence. Oh yeah, I mean
I like speaking my mind. I like

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being honest and genuine and just calling
it how I sees it. And I

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mean beyond, it's a wacky and
tactical world set in the afterlife, and

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that's got ghosts and spooks. But
you know, it's it's all. It's

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a grim reality of the real world. It's holding up this big mirror and

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showing like, Okay, here's here's
some of the flaws and warts and all

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of the world we live in.
Yeah, and that's one thing I'm not

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afraid of, is the afterlife.
I mean, if you could see this

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studio, I've got ashes, I've
got Native American spiritual tools in here.

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I mean, it's and maybe that's
the reason why I'm so drawn to your

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writing and the way that you bring
your your your graphic novels together is the

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fact that it's like, yes,
this is someone who speaks my street.

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M h. It's yeah. I
like all taking the all different cultures and

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imagery and pulling inspirations. So beyond, I'd say primarily the afterlife is maybe

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inspired by Beetlejuice. H just the
different colors and all these different people of

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different backgrounds kind of being crammed together. But certainly it's like, Okay,

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how can I take inspiration from Hinduism? How can I take from Christianity and

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just kind of take all the parts
that I think are the most interesting from

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all of them. I'm like,
well, yeah, there's there's truth and

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all of it. That's so funny
you bring that out, because you know,

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being down here in the South and
the southern part of the States,

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you know this is Bible Belt country. People always ask me, so,

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what do you study? I said, I study it all. And now

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I'm on the phone with Andrew,
who also studies it all. He's very

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much aware of what's around us.
Yeah. I I like the world,

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yep. And I like history and
I like science. That's my advice for

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readers would be, never stop learning, never stopped growing, Always be curious,

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always kind of fan the flames of
that inner child of yours. When

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when you when you bring a story
like this together, how when a graphic

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novel to me is so far greater
than a comic book, only because I

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don't want the comic book to end. Yes, a graphic novel does have

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an ending, but I have something
larger than life that I'm holding. What

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I mean, how long does it
take to put something like this together?

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Because I mean it is a very
long form story. Yes, Beyond.

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I worked on that between twenty fifteen
and twenty seventeen, and during that time

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it was basically a full time job. During that period, I was a

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really lousy student, by the way, And yeah, it takes a lot

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of commitments and you do reach a
wall at some point. It's about having

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a good work schedule and just commitments. Really, you don't see drawing as

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a profession. You still see it
as a hobby. That's really interesting.

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I mean, yeah, even though
I work drawing all day, I work

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for an animation studio. I got
my side gig making web comics and doing

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commissions online. So it's that I
live and breathe arts. But it's just

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kind of you know, if you
do it you love, then you're not

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going to work a day in your
life. So true, so true.

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I have an iHeartRadio channel that's called
creativity is the addiction? Do you believe

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that it's an addiction? Oh?
For me, certainly. I am a

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bit of a workoholic. Yep,
I'm a bit of a workaholic, and

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I definitely need to find a better
work life balance. I need to make

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time for other hobbies. But I
mean it's not the worst because and for

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me to be in right right,
yeah, because like you said, you're

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doing what you love. I mean, that's that's like me and radio.

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I mean, I've been in this
business for forty four years, and people

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go, when you're going to retire, And I said, I'm not telling

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that fourteen year old kid inside of
me that I'm going to retire. That

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kid still has fire. Oh no, no, no, no, yeah,

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if you still have that passion and
drive, like, hold onto that

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and don't let go. Would you
say, Andrew that you are a pioneer

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in the way of doing web comics, because when I was growing up,

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there was no such thing as web
comics. Me, I'd say, I'm

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like the second generation of web comic
artists. I started making content in the

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early twenty ten and certainly there was
people in the two thousands and even the

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nineties that came before me, and
I drew inspiration from a lot of them.

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Viewers out there, if you're familiar
with gun Show comics and Casey Green

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or Saturday Morning Brickfast Cereal like those
are some of my biggest inspirations. And

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those guys are very well established and
we're around at least a decade before me.

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How do you how do you keep
that content going? Because so many

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times people say, oh, I'm
going to do this, and yeah,

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you get I'll give you a good
example, someone that wants to do a

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podcast. I'll do seven episodes and
then they'll stop and it's like, no,

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that's not a podcast. It's got
to be the same thing for online

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comics as well, or even writing
graphic novels. You've got to keep pushing

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the buttons. M okay, okay. Step one, don't have hobbies.

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Step two, don't have no no
no. I started making content while I

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was still in high school, and
I went through an experimental phase where I

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was kind of testing my limits and
seeing what I could do every single week.

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And yeah, I play around with
that for half a year and I

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got into a comfortable groove and it's
like, all right, I can do

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one comic strip or one page every
week, or so okay, this is

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a good, steady, regular upload
speed. And you know the Internet and

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algorithm demands consistency and demands at least
a weekly So if you can pull that

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off, that's great. And then
the rest kind of evolves from there where

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once I get good enough and once
my skills are developed, it's like,

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okay, I can squeeze something else
in there time to work on beyond.

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You see, this is every bit
the reason why I created View from the

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writing instrument on iHeartRadio, and the
reason being is because we get we get

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to read your words, we get
to see the pictures that you paint,

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but we don't get to hear your
story. And today you're sharing that and

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that's because I want listeners to go, oh my god, I live his

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life, but I hide all the
stuff that I create. It's a lot

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of people don't have the opportunity to
create. I think I came from a

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pretty privileged, middle middle class background, so I had the opportunity to kind

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of create. But obviously, you
know, if you're struggling and you need

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to work a number of jobs.
So I you know, I kind of

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got lucky. Yeah, yeah,
in a few ways. But it's also

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now that I'm out and on my
own, and uh, you know,

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I gotta pay rent and pay the
bills and get groceries. You gotta put

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on your big boy pants. Yeah, not a kid anymore. Yeah,

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I'm more sympathetic to other people,
I guess. But I I got a

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good start. Yeah, I got
a good start, and then I was

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able to establish myself. I had
the breathing room in the wiggle room to

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experiment with arts, and then that's
kind of propelled me in the position I

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am now. Oh, I love
where your heart is. Where can people

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go to find out more about you, to support you, to give you

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love, because knowing you, you
probably have things that they can purchase and

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they can add to their own personal
lives. Yes, so I have the

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books obviously people can buy beyond.
Everything you need to know about me can

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be found at jolly biscuit dot com. I have a store page where you

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can find my books and some prints
and posters. I have an about page

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with all my social media and all
the different places you can read my comics.

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So jolly biscuit dot com and I
Love the Man. Please come back

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to this show anytime in the future, Andrew, the door is always going

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to be open for you. Absolutely. I'm working on a science fiction so

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fingers crossed, I can maybe get
that done within the year. All right

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man, I expect to have that
phone call absolutely all right man, will

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you be brilliant today? Okay,
you too, Yeah, take care,