Cleveland, Ohio – Cleveland’s Scott Kraynak and Gary Dumm have teamed up with a team of artists to create a collaborative new comic book, ‘A-Men,’ featuring pages of political criticism.
The comic, which features work by more than a dozen cartoonists, including Tim Switarski, Bruce Worden and Schlebzig, was designed in a Mad Magazine fashion, Krainak said. The style changes from page to page, bringing his zine feel to the project.
“Everyone was free to basically create whatever they wanted as long as the story continued,” Kleinak said. “Without so many great artists contributing and willing to participate in this, none of this would ever happen.”
The “A-Men” storyline is quirky, with villains like “Conald Dumpster,” “Reverend Hardon,” and “Kernel Kalvin Korn” boarding a plane. The plane crashes into a toxic swamp, giving each character super powers, which they plan to use for nefarious purposes.
The cartoon explains:
“Some passengers have been specially chosen to embark on wild adventures with forces beyond human comprehension…a plan to ruthlessly loot, rape, and ultimately destroy the world! Conald has been selected as the leader!!”
Each artist provided their own version of the story, but Krainak and Dam based their characters on real-life celebrities and politicians.
“Unfortunately, finding real-life villains to base these characters on was not difficult,” says Kraynak. “Who they transform into after transforming is based on their actual evil traits and behaviors.”
The A-Team mastermind, “Conald Dumpster,” was based on former US President Donald Trump.
“We cannot pass up an opportunity to mock the Trump administration’s trash can fires,” Dam said.
Dam is best known for working with Harvey Peeker over the course of 30 years on other projects such as the American Splendor series, The Shootie Beagle, Dan Turner: Hollywood Detective, and Students in a Democratic Society: A Graphic History. It is The illustrator regularly collaborates with his wife Laura Dam to add splashes of vibrant color to his work.
Klainak, an artist and park ranger whose books include “The heART of Cleveland,” “Animal Crackers,” and “27 Club,” said it was an honor to work with Dam.
“He created so many great things,” said Krainach. “It was fun collaborating and we agreed on almost everything. It was a really easy collaboration. Sharing, we took great pleasure in ridiculing and ridiculing these individuals.
Krainak and Dam said they drew inspiration from other political cartoons and graphic novels, including Art Spiegelman’s “Mouse,” Joe Sacco’s “Palestine,” and Marjan Satrapi’s “Persepolis.”
It’s important for comic book creators to continue exercising free speech through projects like ‘A-Men’, and they hope comic books can inspire social and political change in unique ways. .
“The characters represented deserve only the harshest and most powerful criticism,” Kleinak said. Given that, I think everyone should use whatever medium is available to fight for equality for all.”
The comic is available at Cleveland bookstores, including Mack’s Bucks, Loganberry and Carol & John’s Comic Shop, Krainach said. You can also find it on Gary’s website dummart.com, Kraynak on his website clevelandranger.wixsite.com/mysite, and on Distributor’s his Last Gasp Books.
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