Righteous by Xane Daniel

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Xane Daniel was a producer in the video game industry for over 20 years when he had his first Ayahuasca ceremony. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a psychedelic that originated in the Amazon jungle. The main ingredient is a compound called dimethyltriptimine, or DMT, which is manufactured by your brain anyway – the pineal gland. This compound is produced when you dream and when you die (many believe it is the cause of those fantastical near-death experiences.) The thing is, you normally can’t experience a DMT “trip” while you are awake because your body metabolizes it quickly. So you need another chemical – something that inhibits the body’s ability to metabolize things – to make it work while you are awake. 

During Mr. Daniel’s experience, he was visited by the spirit of Ayahuasca, who told him that he didn’t love enough and that he was being greedy.

Wait. As a producer in the video game industry? 

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No. Let’s back up. As a person who always pursued his life passions, he pursued a career in his childhood love – video games. He also created an Arena Football League website. An Aquarium business. Whatever he loved – he pursued. But then, in an effort to become wealthy, he pursued real estate. At the wrong time, no less. As the market was collapsing. Xane’s life had been going along swimmingly, and then suddenly he became stressed. Worried about his future. Fearful that everything he had built would come crashing down around him.

Enter Ayahuasca. Mr. Daniel insists that this changed everything. 

A few years later, he began creating a comic book called RIGHTEOUS. He says that if you look closely, you can see the protagonist in the story have an Ayahuasca experience of his own – within the first eight pages, and after reading it myself, I can see what he means.

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In RIGHTEOUS, the protagonist, Daniel Price, is quickly established as a greedy corporate stooge. He’s overconfident, bent on accumulating wealth and willing to do whatever it takes to get there. But very quickly, he’s visited by a mysterious being of light, who touches him on the forehead, changing him forever. Now Mr. Price can only help the downtrodden, and the biggest account of his career is suddenly intolerable.

Needless to say, his life begins to fall apart, and we as readers realize that he is now completely incompatible with the society he lives in. The society WE ALL live in. This realization is a type of epiphany that we all already KNEW. But when presented in this way, it’s just so OBVIOUS.

If you haven’t read RIGHTEOUS, you owe it to yourself to do so. Not only does it have a chance to open your mind, it’s also charming, well-written, and character development is top notch. The first chapter is quick, but it settles into a great pace as the chapters unfold. 

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At the time of this writing, RIGHTEOUS is engaged in its second Kickstarter and has some high-value tiers available, including physical and digital copies, getting your likeness used for future characters, and producer and executive producer roles.

Don’t miss out on adding RIGHTEOUS to your collection! It’s going to be a classic. 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kevmo/righteous-comic-series-volume-2-first-printing?ref=cviqal

 

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Posted on November 9, 2018 and filed under comic books, indie comics.