Waiting for Nerdrotic is pop culture YouTuber Gary Buechler’s surprisingly honest account of a life of drug addiction and the serious crimes of his youth. He couples this with high praise for the support mechanisms of Alcoholics Anonymous. Alongside telling you why Marvel Comics matter, he’ll also tell you the secret of not getting murdered in the exercise yard at Folsom prison. Like any good story, his comes with a redemption arc.
Gary Buechler, better known as Nerdrotic, has well over a million YouTube subscribers and double that in regular viewers. His latest video is The Force Awakens – How Disney Destroyed Star Wars. He is one of the more visible pop culture commentators on the social media giant who’ve grown to prominence over the last decade fighting at the forefront of the culture war. They’d typically ask if you’ve noticed the decline in the quality of film and TV, before happily explaining why Hollywood’s forced diversity and hostility to traditional fanbases has reduced once billion-dollar movie franchises to notoriously low-quality shows locked away on streaming platforms nobody watches. Buechler’s extended circle of contributors are former TV executives, retired filmmakers and practicing screenwriters. Their appeal is credible insider insights and commentary that are more entertaining than the material they’re criticising.
Despite his success and following, Buechler’s autobiography is far from the sensationalist self-aggrandisement you might expect. He tells us more about his failures than his triumphs. Born in San Diego in 1969, he was adopted and says he displayed signs of addictive behaviour at a young age. He compulsively collected comics. His school performance declined and he ended up with predictable drug problems after he was sexually abused by a male teacher. He describes leaving school after punching a member of staff. Uneducated, unskilled and happy in his addiction to drugs, comics and movies, he broke into a house to steal money. A series of farcical events followed involving a small dog, a broken door handle and a homeowner who happened to be a champion military marksman. The arresting officer told Buechler he was lucky to be alive. He was sentenced to four years in Folsom prison.
Eventually moved to a less dangerous institution, his new cellmate talked him into attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. He says it turned his life around. He was released after two years. He married twice, the second time to an old flame, adopted her child and they had one of their own. He opened a comic shop in San Francisco.
After 17 years drug-free, his relapse began when he was prescribed highly addictive painkillers after an accident hanging a Superman Returns movie poster. After getting clean and relapsing a second time, his wife dumped him at the doors of a sober living community. It worked. After the chaos of years on cocaine and painkillers, he sold his comic shop and returned to selling car parts.
The routine of a regular job helped, but he’s clear the ensuing boredom is a bad sign for addicts. In 2014, he turned to podcasting, he says to keep the brain functioning. Thus was his Nerdrotic channel born. He makes it clear it was a coping mechanism for a sober addict with ADHD.
His book is not a sneering or self-congratulating I-made-it-big-on-YouTube story. It’s a sobering warning – and heartfelt advice – for fellow addicts. His relative fame is just the hook. It is, if you will, Alcoholics No Longer Anonymous – and he willingly accuses himself for the sake of others. His viewers will know how much he hates today’s fashionable victim narratives. The title Waiting for Nerdrotic isn’t a reference to his YouTube success at all. It’s self-recrimination. Addiction? Again?
The niche appeal of its author and the transcribed nature of the text mean the book is unlikely to be a bestseller or win any literary awards. Parts of it are drawn by famed comic book artist Kelley Jones. His inclusion anchors the book in comics culture, making it one for the fans. Buechler, unlike the mainstream, would take that judgement as the highest praise.
Waiting for Nerdrotic: From Prison to YouTube
by Gary Buechler
Legacy Launch Pad Publishing — available now
Lee Russell Wilkes 