Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Eric Cluck. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Eric, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

Way back in the day when I my brain was figuring out whether it wanted to be logical, creative, analytical, etc., I loved to read, and I read a variety of mystery, comedic, and fictional books. The Hardy Boys, Calvin and Hobbes, Winter’s Tale, Orion, just to name a few. But when I started reading comic books…that was it…I was hooked on the art, the stories, and the action. And because of that one might think I headed down the creative path, but not quite.

I took the logical path and was of the mindset that I graduate high school, finish college and get a job, which I did. Fortunately, I somehow managed to keep the creative spirit locked in the back of my mind and let it come out to play from time to time. My senior year of college, I actually started writing a comic book. It was just the intro, but it sounded pretty good to me so I wanted to see what others thought about it. I read it to a few friends (who weren’t big fictional or comic book fans) and it seemed to catch their attention and keep their interest, so I figured I was headed in the right direction.

I don’t remember how long it took to finish but, finally, issue one had been completed. I know what you’re thinking, “It sure sounds like it took a long time to write one issue.” and you’d be right (no pun intended); however, writing it was just a fun thing to do now and then and I never intended on publishing anything. Over the years an idea would pop into my head, and I’d start writing another issue. Even though I never intended on doing anything with them, I had written and completed three issues over the years. It was just for fun and to get the ideas out of my head. But things in my life had changed, and my stories were about to take an entirely different direction.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Bridget Maxwell, who I loved dearly, had Cystic Fibrosis which is a genetic disease that causes a buildup of sticky fluid in several organs and prevents from them working properly. CF is mostly known as a lung disease as it affects a person’s ability to breathe 24/7 and, in turn, causes the lungs to deteriorate over time. A person with CF often ends up getting a lung transplant at some point in their life, assuming they can get one in time.

I wasn’t very familiar with Cystic Fibrosis, and Bridget played it down quite a bit; however, I would watch her fight the disease every day. Breathing treatments, medicine, coughing fits and sleepless nights, more breathing treatments, more medicine, weight loss, stares from people when she’d have a coughing fit in public, bloody noses, hospital visits, hospitalizations…it was truly remarkable watching her navigate her time, her treatments, her daily routine and to witness her fight through the misery with a smile on her face.

Well, in August of 2014, Bridget went into the hospital to get one of her bi-yearly “tune-ups”. While in the hospital, though, she had complications with her lungs and intestines. I remember it very clearly because we were going to meet at DragonCon, which is a fan favorite comic book/sci-fi/gaming convention that takes place here in Atlanta every Labor Day Weekend. Instead, I got a call from her telling me that she would be in the hospital and would have to miss DragonCon, but we’d figure something out for Halloween after she got out.

Well, a few days after that call she was placed in the ICU.

Bridget was one month from turning 40 years old when she took her trip to the ICU, and her time in the ICU lasted 40 days. Bridget put 40 years of fighting CF daily, into her last 40 day fight in the ICU to continue her fight to live. It was a battle that would have made any warrior, from any timeline, proud. She never gave up, she never stopped believing, and she never stopped fighting.
Unfortunately, on October 12, 2014, Cystic Fibrosis won the war with Bridget and Heaven gained another angel. I was there when she passed.

I grieved and grieved, and continuously wondered what I could have done to help Bridget and prevent this from happening to her. Then it hit me. I wasn’t able to help Bridget but I could immortalize her and, in the process, create awareness about Cystic Fibrosis and help people with the disease.

Right then and there, BrazFraz was born. A superhero that was not only fighting crime but Cystic Fibrosis, as well. We know, BrazFraz is a strange name for a hero, but we explain how she gets her name in the comic. After I created BrazFraz, I suddenly realized there was something I could do with the comics I had written over the years, so I revamped them and to include Bridget’s 40 days in the ICU and her time as the superhero BrazFraz.

After that, I formed the nonprofit, EchoVerse Comics. We are still working on the Published part but are about to make that a reality. Our Mission is to create a Cystic Fibrosis Awareness comic book and donate the proceeds from the sale of the comic to CF families and research.

Cystic Fibrosis devastates both the patient and the family which has a life expectancy of about 49, which is up from infancy when it was first discovered, to 12 years of age, to 18 years of age, up to 37 years of age and, finally, to where it is now. The reason for the jump in life expectancy is due to a great new medicine call Trikafta. Essentially, it helps the gene that allows liquid to be removed from cells in the lungs and other organs function more effectively. That is the fortunate part. The unfortunate part is that it is a very costly drug. As part of our Mission, and in addition to donating to CF research, we hope to be able to subsidize people that cannot afford Trikafta or other items CF patients may need to improve their quality of life, such as oscillating vests.

To this end, EchoVerse has taken part in Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Great Strides Walks, which raise donations for CF research. We’ve held a fundraiser for a young lady that needed a lung transplant. We raised donations for CF with a virtual “Not So Fun” Run. The idea was to run a 5k and, at some point towards the end of the run, take part in The Strawfie Challenge. This is a challenge where you plug your nose and breathe through a straw for a couple of minutes. This will give you an idea of what it’s like to breathe while having CF. We incorporated it into our run so we could see what it is like to exercise and breathe with Cystic Fibrosis.

Lately our focus has been on getting published. We have created a Ballistic Boyz zero issue, which we are about to publish through either a crowdfunding campaign or an independent publisher. We have also created a BrazFraz zero issue which will be published shortly after Ballistic Boyz zero. These two comics tie into one another and, from there, we plan to run a twelve-issue story arc, “Ballistic Boyz and BrazFraz – In the Beginning” series. This team-up series will incorporate Bridget’s time in the ICU, the battle she fought against CF, and the friendships she has developed with the Ballistic Boyz team. It will also depict BrazFraz as she battles alongside The Ballistic Boyz as they fight crime and save the world. And, did we mention that the proceeds from the sale of our comics will go Cystic Fibrosis families and CF research?

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Cystic Fibrosis is a very unpredictable disease. Like clockwork every year, often twice a year, and sometimes several times a year, CF patients start feeling the effects of CF on their body and must go into the hospital for a “tune-up”. They get hooked up to IVs and are injected with a truckload of medication, enzymes, vitamins, and beneficial fluids. Ideally, this would be a two or three-hour process.

Unfortunately, these “tune-ups” uncover underlying issues causing CF patients to need the tune-up to begin with, and a two or three hour stay becomes a week stay in the hospital. A week stay can turn into two or three weeks. Sometimes it becomes a visit to the ICU. For others, like Bridget, the unthinkable occurs.

“Tune-ups” that become weekly, monthly, and ICU stays are very costly from an emotional standpoint, a keep/lose your job decision, and a “falling behind monetarily and not being able to catch back up” in life situation. These events can snowball into a loss of a second and much needed job, falling behind in life, foregoing the much-needed tune-ups and medicine a Cystic Fibrosis child and patient need, and missing out on life.

Our goal is to help Cystic Fibrosis children, patients, and their families. We plan on doing that through our Mission which is to create a Cystic Fibrosis Awareness comic book and donate the proceeds from the sale of the comic to CF families and research.

In turn, we hope to ease the monetary and emotional burden Cystic Fibrosis creates for Cystic Fibrosis children and their families, and to contribute to research that will change CF from Cystic Fibrosis to Cure Found.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I’m probably different than most in this aspect. The entire process of creating BrazFraz, creating my nonprofit EchoVerse Comics, coming up with the plotlines, writing the stories and their conclusions, have all been very therapeutic for me. The entire journey has helped me to work through my grief and sorrow and come to a healthy level of acceptance.

With that being said, however, I do love seeing how the artist interprets the description of the panels that are provided in the scripts. Watching the words come to life from the start of the rough draft, to the final pencils, then the inks, and finally seeing the colors bring it all together is a wonderful experience. It motivates me to keep the stories going and, dare I say, quite magical.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.echoversecomics.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evc_comics/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EchoVerseComics
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/EVC_Comics

Image Credits
All images are (C) EchoVerse Comics