Whether you’re a fan of sarcasm, recovery, or bored as hell and procrastinating, welcome. You’re officially on the Pink Cloud now: no incense, no fluffy robe, and absolutely zero required belief system. What you will find here is stories, recovery, and a slightly weird sense of humor. It might not even be funny to you, but it helps me navigate my recovery, and I hope it gives someone else a little relief too.

Pink Cloud Comics started as a doodle in my sketchbook during outpatient group therapy and turned into something bigger. It is about healing, laughter, and finding bits of joy in all the unknowns, especially if you are in recovery or love someone who is. It is a love letter to that strange middle zone between “my life exploded” and “I am slowly rebuilding from the rubble.” It is for anyone who has ever thought, “Okay, cool, I didn’t die… now what?”

Recovery is not all hand-holding, kumbaya circles, and spa robes. If you have been through it, you know it is messy, awkward, and deeply uncomfortable. It is facing shame, guilt, and all the things you tried to bury. It is sitting in a chair wondering how the hell you got here and realizing you cannot out-think your way around your own patterns.

Humor is the tool that keeps me here. When everything feels impossible, laughing at how absurd it all is sometimes feels like the only honest chance I have. Pink Cloud Comics is my reminder that recovery is tough, but it does not have to be soul-crushing. You can take your healing seriously without turning into a walking motivational poster.

This is my walk through the rooms: trying different meetings, programs, working the steps of a 12-step program, and giving my honest take in real time so it maybe feels less scary for someone else. The comics are not high art and they probably will not make you roar with laughter. They are more “half-smile while you stare at your phone in a parking lot” funny. You can look at the colors, wonder if I used AI, or scroll through them while your brain slowly relearns how to fire.

I have sat in detox watching someone microwave a burrito still wrapped in foil. Sparks did in fact fly. Imagine a room full of sedated zombies trying to evacuate during a fire alarm. That is the energy we are working with here.

Poking fun at life is part of who we are, and recovery is not here to change that. If you came in afraid recovery would sand off every rough edge and turn you into a beige version of yourself, relax. It might make you more considerate and a lot less malicious, which is an upgrade. Laughter is the coping mechanism many of us did not know we needed, as vital as therapy or any big “aha” moment.

Walk into a meeting and you might be surprised by the noise. People are laughing, talking, catching up. It can be annoying as hell when you are new and hanging on by a thread. Those people are excited about something you might not feel yet. They nearly lost everything and somehow learned how to live, screw up, and still laugh without pretending everything is fine.

And yes, even now, I still find a lot of those people really annoying. I would not have hung out with most of them on my worst drinking days, except maybe to feel better about myself. That is not why I go to meetings now, although there is always that one guy, Derek.

So why a comic strip? Because comics break down complicated emotions and make them easier to hold. They take messy baggage and turn it into something you can look at from a safe distance. Laughing at yourself is another “step” in realizing your past does not get to run your future. Pictures with punchlines can sneak past the defenses that a hundred pages of self-help bounce right off. If you see yourself in a panel, wince, and then snort-laugh anyway, that is low-key transformation.

To be honest, when I started drawing these, I thought they would be funnier. Right now they live in that “mildly entertaining, occasionally clever” zone. That is fine. They are honest, and they keep me showing up.

Pink Cloud Comics aims to normalize recovery. It is okay to be messy here. Whether you have struggled with addiction, mental health, or life in general, recovery is a rollercoaster. You scream, you cry, you sulk, and then sometimes you throw your hands in the air and laugh because what else are you supposed to do. Around here, relapse scares, awkward amends, starting over again, and sitting in the back of the room wondering if you belong are not moral failures. They are part of the path.

Whatever program, non-program, therapy, or stubborn DIY route you are on, if it honors human dignity and does no harm, there is room on this cloud.

Recovery is a long, tough gig, like being the opening band and realizing the headliner did not show up. You end up playing your three original songs, then crashing into covers while most of the crowd leaves. You keep showing up on that stage anyway, tuning the same three chords, hoping one person in the back hears something that keeps them alive one more day. That is recovery: repetitive, humbling, and somehow still worth it.

Pink Cloud Comics is about finding humor in the grind: the meetings that blur together, the self-help books that read like they were written by an uptight alien, the doctor handing you a list of everything you need to fix. It is about the group share that goes completely off the rails, the inspirational quote that makes you roll your eyes so hard you see your past lives, and the moment you realize you are, in fact, the common denominator in your own chaos.

It is about making light of those moments and remembering that even at our lowest, there is still room for a laugh. Not because what happened to us is funny, but because we deserve to feel human again, not like a stack of case notes.

So, stick around. Keep reading. If you want more weird, awkward, self-deprecating honesty, keep coming back. Recovery does not have to be doom and gloom. We are here to find the funny in the dark and the light in the mess. Read it, share it with your people, or rage-read it in a meeting parking lot while you pretend to answer email. However you use it, you are welcome here.

If we can laugh at ourselves, we have already started healing. If we can tell the truth, own our mess, and still laugh, that is recovery with teeth. I am not here as an expert, I am walking this thing in real time. Come along if you want.