Wheeler Antabanez

Growing up in West Caldwell, New Jersey, Kent discovered the abandoned Essex Mountain Sanatorium near his parents’ house at a young age. He became obsessed with the decaying and damaged buildings and created a website in honor of the sanatorium. The site, ‘welcometohell.net’, later became the online home of Kent's developing alter ego, Wheeler Antabanez.

In September 2010, Wheeler co-hosted a live broadcast from the last working boat yard on the Passaic for Billy Jam's Put the Needle on the Record show on WFMU. Guests included WMFU's X-Ray Burns and Mark and Mark from Weird NJ.

Wheeler's adventures on the Passaic River caught the eye of NPR in late 2010. National Public Radio sent a two-person crew to NJ to travel the Passaic River and its shoreline with Wheeler as their guide. The resulting stories and interviews turned into a feature on All Things Considered with a radio segment, written article and video.

The Passaic River overran its banks in the spring of 2010 and again in 2011. For both floods, Wheeler was on-site to capture the destruction. In March 2010 Wheeler visited the flood zone near Willowbrook Mall and talked with those affected. Almost exactly a year later, the neighborhoods surrounding the river flooded again. Wheeler traveled the streets by canoe and followed the flood for seven days to create a short documentary, Following the Flood. Wheeler states in the video that he is currently filming a movie, Wheeler on the Passaic.

In early 2010, Wheeler uncovered writings from his youth and added them to Lucky Cigarette. Even in his childhood writings, it is clear to see the start of Wheeler's style and his flair for storytelling.

In March 2009, Wheeler returned to his roots writing online and began a photo-based novella, Lucky Cigarette. With a new photo and entry each day, the website is a combination of Wheeler's skills as a photographer/videographer as well as novelist.

Nightshade on the Passaic was released as a special issue of Weird NJ magazine in July 2008.

gasstationthoughts (2001) Nightshade on the Passaic (2008) [1] The Old Asylum and other stories (2016) [2] Full list of Wheeler's articles and books

On April 19, 2000 Kent was arrested in the lead up to the first anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre for his alter ego's writings about the school shooting on welcometohell.

Wheeler Antabanez is the alter-ego and pen name for Montclair, New Jersey-based writer Matt Kent (born January 31, 1977). Antabanez is best known as the author of best selling special issue of Weird NJ, Nightshade on the Passaic and gasstationthoughts and The Daily Journal of Wheeler Antabanez, published by Barricade Books.

Seeking out the worst possible places, Antabanez chronicles his exploration of abandoned buildings in Paterson, New Jersey, such as the old Colt Mill, which made approximately 5,000 firearms between 1836 and 1841. In addition to the river and the decaying structures that surround it, he also researched murders that involved the Passaic River, including the horrific case of Jonathan Zarate who attempted to dump the mutilated body of his 16-year-old neighbor in the river, but was thwarted by a police officer who happened to pass by at the time.