What happens when all neurotypical people are abducted from planet Earth and only autistics remain? Why, a band of autistic heroes forms to rescue them, of course! In this interview, we talk with Daniel Wolther and Jaime A. Heidel of FreeKing Comics about their new comic book series, Autism vs Aliens!
Q: Where did the idea for this series come from?
FKC (Dan) – I was a fan of a TV show where one of the characters was autistic, and he was immune to mind control because of it. Realizing that logic, I immediately imagined alien mind control and autistic people fighting the aliens. It was surprisingly automatic, for how complicated the idea was.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish with this series?
FKC (Dan) – I’d like to inspire autistic people by showing them and others that not all autistic people are the same, and that we can all do amazing things if we set our minds to it…generic as that sounds.
Q: How will this series be different from other autism-related stories?
FKC (Dan and Jaime) – We focus more on the story than the fact that the main characters are autistic. Other media tend to focus on one type of autistic person (ie: savants or non-verbal people who outwardly stim).
However, seeing as the entire main cast is autistic in our story, this forces us (the writers) to draw attention to their individual differences as autistic people instead of only showing one stereotypical definition of autistic traits.
In fact, we don’t have a single main character who is not on the spectrum (since all of the neurotypicals have been captured by aliens), so we have a fully-autistic cast. We don’t know of any other media that depicts autistic characters that does this.
Q: Favorite Character(s)?
FKC (Dan) – Jaime’s favorite character is Nikki because she’s basically a younger, stronger version of herself, and Caleb, because he’s “adorably awkward and squishy.” And I… can’t decide.
Q: What can we look forward to in future episodes?
FKC (Dan and Jaime) – More Characters, emotional growth, more adventures, aliens, relationship development, and, possibly, there will be a dinosaur in there… somewhere.
Q: Let’s pretend Autism vs Aliens becomes a full-fledged animated series. Who would play the characters?
FKC (Dan) – Robbie Daymond as Jason, Yuri Lowenthal as Rex, Laura Bailey as Nikki, Johnny Yong Bosch as Caleb, and Redd Pepper as ‘the big bad guy’! Can’t say names yet. I feel like we could throw in some Cumberbatch as well… but it’d be crazy hard to book that guy!
Q: I gotta ask, how did you come up with the name “FreeKing Comics?”
FKC (Jaime) – Oh, that story is adorable! Dan and I were throwing around ideas for what to call our publishing company, and he just got this look on his face and blurted out, “How about Free King comics?”
I looked at him and was like, “Really, Dan?” And, in pure, innocent Dan fashion, he looked at me and said, “You know, like a king who is free!” He had no idea that it sounded like “freaking” until I pointed it out! The name stuck, and here we are.
Q: How can people get their hands on the book?
You can get our eBook version on Amazon.com here:
You can get our paperback version on Lulu here:
Q: How can people show their support for FreeKing Comics and Autism vs Aliens?
Follow us on social media, share our stuff, and give us feedback, we REALLY want to hear what you have to say.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autism_vs_aliens/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theautisticarmy/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCilV0ZXDS47LDLCJZC3tGjQ
Website: https://www.freekingcomics.com/
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3 Responses
Thanks so much for doing this interview with Dan and I. We had fun!
Being autistic (although I didn’t know it at the time) may well be what saved me from being brainwashed by a political cult in my adolescence.
A “problem with authority” is thinking for oneself,not being a dumb cow