Hey Andrew!
Thank you for doing this interview for the Rippaverse! We get the pleasure of working with you every day, so it’s really nice to be able to let the fans know exactly how awesome you are.

Q1. What was the character or comic book that was your gateway drug into falling in love with comic books, and why did it have such a strong effect on you?

I had the benefit and blessing of growing up at a time when a lot of superhero media was at its peak—Batman TAS, Superman TAS, Justice League, Spider-Man, etc. So, I started with those when I was probably around 5 or 6 years old.

Comic books specifically, however, were a two-pronged thing. I had always been a massive Sonic the Hedgehog fan, and had been reading and collecting those books from 7 (my dad even got me sealed copies of the #0 and #1 of the Archie miniseries before it became a full ongoing series). But superhero comics in particular had a special start for me. I had just turned 8, and my dad and I were at a yard sale, and he got me my first two: Superman: The Man of Steel #0 and The Flash #0.

So that’s a marathon route of saying that Superman and Flash were my gateway drugs into comics at large. Without diving too much into the weeds, both Supes and Flash had a sense of hope and optimism about them that you don’t see all the time and certainly not often today. Their striving and struggle to do the right thing and inspire hope in others who needed it got me through a lot as a kid, as I was almost always the smallest on the block and was bullied quite a bit as a result. But I was also always the fastest on the block, so I took to Flash (and Sonic) right away!

Q2. In your opinion, what makes a great hero?

The truly great thing about heroes is that there’s no “one size fits all.” Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and being a hero only takes one moment, one action, one choice—the desire to do the right thing and to inspire others when presented with that opportunity.

We see this play out in numerous ways in fiction, from your more brutal, take-no-prisoners types like Frank Castle or Hector Caballero (shoutout to Carrow’s boyfriend, The Horseman) to brighter and more lighthearted optimistic types like Superman. Sometimes, a character “isn’t the hero we need, but the hero we deserve,” and I do love Batman and Venom, but I tend to gravitate most towards the more hopeful types.

Q3. How did you meet Eric July?

I started following Eric’s YouTube channel circa 2017. I had just started getting back into reading and collecting comics within the last year or so after a few years’ hiatus, and I was…confused by some of the decisions being made with many of the characters I had grown up loving. I kept asking myself, “Did I miss something? Have I been away THAT long? Am I just old…?” I found Eric’s channel pretty quickly, and he did a great job of making me feel like I wasn’t crazy (or wasn’t alone) because he was saying what I was thinking.

I kept up with his videos and streams for years until 2021, the year before we launched The Rippaverse. Late that year, he hit me up (I had DM’d him a handful of months prior, just tossing my name in the proverbial hat if there was ever anything that I could help with and be a part of). He offered me part-time contract work as his social media manager and content curator for his channel.

I certainly wouldn’t trade The Rippaverse for it, but that was a blast, and I got to learn a lot more about the ins and outs of YouTube from Eric. Obviously, the next year, we launched the comic book company, and Isom #1 made $3.7M… and the rest, as they say, is history.

Q4. What is your favorite part (lol) of working at the Rippaverse?
laughs There are too many things about working here to count (I also suck at math), but a few things that immediately come to mind are being a part of something greater than myself that’s attempting to do something truly great.

Many of our now mainstream geek properties have gone sour in one way (or many) or another. But bitching about the problems when you have the ability to be a part of the solution doesn’t carry much weight for me. That’s why I’m so thankful and impressed that Eric put his own money where his mouth was and said, “I can do this commentary thing pretty well, but I can do this creation thing better.”

The other thing is that I love being surrounded by people smarter and more talented than myself. I am of the mind that if you’re always the smartest or most talented in a room, then there’s nothing to be gained or learned, and I’m blessed to be surrounded by such excellent and admirable creatives here at The Rippaverse.

Q5. How did you get the name NDAndrew, and why do you hate fun… er… I mean, spoilers?
RippaFan lore! This is one of the most fun things about being part of this community—the fans.

It started as a gag in the livestream chats when Eric or Y’ALL would start teetering on the edge of giving something away, and I would slap a big old “NDA” in the chat. The fans, as invested and enthusiastic ones are wont to do, took that and ran with it, so I leaned into it.

The moniker rolls off the tongue, and it became a fun gag (and an ironic one) to interact with our awesome fans over. The fans are king around these parts, and that’s why they get pigeons and hamsters as well.

And I do NOT hate fun. I must protect the secrets that need protecting. I’ve got love for y’all, but you’re seriously going to give me gray hair one of these days, and I’m not convinced I’d be a silver fox.

Q6. Who are your favorite Rippaverse characters, and why?
We have so many incredible characters that readers have only just begun to scratch the surface of in our stories. It’s genuinely difficult to nail it down to just one, but Yaira is absolutely up there for sure.

I love how she plays by her own rules but doesn’t shy away from the consequences of her actions when she makes a poor decision. She also has one of the coolest (yes, pun intended—I know what I am, and so do you) designs, so shoutout to Marcos for her ice-conic look (ok, I’m done) and to y’all for writing her!

I also love Michael Copper for all the wrong reasons, and I can’t wait for the fans to learn just how truly diabolical and dangerous he is in Sylvie’s book, The Black Eye Club.

My number one favorite, however, might have to be Bryan Solari as of right now. His drive and sense of duty are inspiring, and his backstory in The Great War of Separation has been a major highlight of our universe for me so far.