I barely remember drawing AIR-RIDER #2.
One day I was going to the Kubert School, and the next was a living nightmare. One night of drinking and a WAY-TOO-BIG bong rip led to a spike of anxiety which nearly drove me insane. In short, I felt like I was dying for 2 weeks straight.
Follow that up with a bout of depersonalization/derealization which lasted 3 years (undiagnosed). I spent 1.5 of those years finishing up at the Kubert School.
I had lost all motivation to do anything by then. Drawing felt pointless, writing, a waste of effort. I felt my life ending daily, so I lost the will to do anything. Graduating school took everything I had.
I wanted to give up and live a simple life and ditch all my goals and ambitions.
I don’t remember much about my first two years out of the Kubert school. I don’t remember turning 24 or 25. Everything from 2021-2022 happened in a void.
By that point, I was drawing AIR-RIDER #2 on fumes of habit alone, and I eventually quit.
I decided a simple life of video games, work, and relaxation was the way to go.
Not a single soul knew about this (until now).
No one could tell I was going through anything. And who could I tell? Who would understand?
So I kept myself to myself.
Until one day, it all just sort of… ended.
I could feel it in my spirit. The sense of impending doom in my chest had just evaporated into nothing.
As if God had played a mean joke, then let off and said, “Just kidding.”
A little while later, AIR-RIDER #2 was complete and not long after that, I launched on Kickstarter.
All this is to say you never know what circumstances create a book. What troubles and turmoils it takes to birth a comic which ultimately equates to 10 or so minutes of entertainment for you to read.
To you, it looks like some cartoon, but to me it was a trial by fire.
A test of mettle when every fiber of my being had given up.
AIR-RIDER #2 shouldn’t exist.
But it does because it needs to.
Despite my best efforts to quit and become a hermit.
AIR-RIDER #3 is nearly done and #4 is in production and I’m getting ever closer to the point where all I have to do is work my day job, draw, write, & repeat.
That’s a simple enough life for now.
I cannot wait to show you what’s in store.
AIR-RIDER #2 is launching OCTOBER 14th, 2024
