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USED ADDICTIONS actually began way back in 1999 when it debuted, along with two other titles, on the “local talent” shelf at Comic Relief in Burton, MI. Back then, I was working 60 to 70 hours a week at a factory in Brighton, making door panels for vehicles I couldn’t afford to drive. I spent my weekends hunched over a small desk, creating worlds that helped me forget that I was a loser in real life.

I’d been making comic books since I was 10, but those comics back then were basically imitations of the super-heroes and villains I read about in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Savage Sword of Conan. While my guys never gained the popularity of those Marvel characters, they were, in my opinion, just as colorful. There was Snail-Man, a villain who flew around inside a snail shell and blasted people with snail slime; there was The Incredible Bulk, a grey clone of The Incredible Hulk who was just as strong and equally as dumb; and there was Klaw the Destroyer, a barbarian who traveled the fictitious land of Laru, chopping off heads and plundering gold, much like Conan. Although I never really got anywhere with these comics (the only person who ever saw them was a friend of mine who made his own comics), I did have fun making them in my basement room while listening to heavy metal and drinking ungodly amounts of Mountain Dew.

After high school, I grew interested in other things and forgot about drawing and writing. Usually when people give up on something like that, they return years later and try to pick it back up again, only to discover they’ve lost that part of themselves, and they’re never able to recapture the magic. I’m so thankful that it’s a part of me that never died.

When I resumed drawing, I wanted to do something original, something that had never been done before. I came up with 3 ideas: There was BUILDINGHEAD, a book about a construction worker who becomes possessed by the spirit of a landlord and winds up with a ten-story building for a head; there was BOOGER WALL, a book that focused on two guys who gain super powers when a batch of illegal drugs and a load of alien feces is mixed together in a gas station toilet; and the third title was USED ADDICTIONS, the story of a cigarette butt, an empty wine bottle, and a used condom, and their disdain for a world that created them, used them, and then tossed them to the streets like garbage.

I printed out some copies at the local Staples, and took them to Comic Relief where the owner at the time, John (I wish I could remember his last name—sorry, John!), let me sell them at his shop. After a couple of weeks, I returned to find that I’d sold one copy each of BUILDINGHEAD and BOOGER WALL. USED ADDICTIONS had sold out. And while it was only 5 copies, the feedback I got was inspiring. I was told of one guy who took his copy to the grocery store with him and got strange looks from other customers when he couldn’t stop laughing in the check-out line. I quickly drew up a second issue of each comic, but despite the initial success, my enthusiasm quickly waned, and I put the project on hold, eventually forgetting about it altogether.

Until now.

I’ve gone back and made some small corrections to the first issue, but the content is the same as what appeared back in 1999. Good humor is timeless, and I think Stubby, Longneck, and Latex Lad’s adventures are even more relevant today than they were when the comic first debuted. Click on the free preview and see for yourself. If you like what you see, order a copy. Share it with your friends. Tell them where they can get a copy. You can also purchase USED ADDICTIONS T-shirts, coffee mugs, and other cool items in our virtual store. We’ll be updating the Web site often with news of future issues, convention appearances, and the like, so check back every now and then to see what’s happening. You can also join our mailing list.

I hope you enjoy reading USED ADDICTIONS as much as I enjoy creating it. Thanks in advance for the support.