CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cleveland’s Scott Kraynak and Gary Dumm worked with a team of artists to craft a collaborative new comic book “A-Men,” featuring pages upon pages of political critique.
The comic, featuring work by a dozen comic book creators, including Tim Switalski, Bruce Worden and Shlepzig, was designed in the fashion of Mad Magazine, Kraynak said. Styles change page-by-page, offering a zine feel to the project.
“Everyone basically had the freedom to create whatever they wanted as long as the story was followed,” Kraynak said. “It certainly wouldn’t be what it is if so many great artists weren’t willing to contribute and be a part of this.”
That story within “A-Men” is outlandish, bringing villainous characters like “Conald Dumpster,” “Reverend Hardon” and “Kernel Kalvin Korn” together on a plane. That plane crashes into a toxic swamp, giving each character superpowers that they plan to use for nefarious purposes.
The comic explains:
“Some passengers have been selected specifically to embark on a wild adventure by forces beyond human understanding… a plot to mercilessly pillage, rape and ultimately destroy the world! And Conald has been handpicked as the leader!!”
Though each artist provided their own version of a story, Kraynak and Dumm crafted the characters based on real-life celebrities and politicians.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t hard to find real-life villains to base these characters on,” Kraynak said. “Who they morph into after their transformation is based on their real-life evil traits and behaviors.”
“Conald Dumpster” – the ringleader of the A-Team – was based on former U.S. president Donald Trump.
“Any opportunity to mock the dumpster fire that was the Trump administration is hard for me to pass up,” Dumm said.
Dumm is known for his three decades of work with Harvey Pekar on the “American Splendor” series along with other projects like “Shooty Beagle,” “Dan Turner: Hollywood Detective” and “Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History.” The illustrator regularly works with his wife Laura Dumm to add vibrant splashes of color to his creations.
Kraynak, an artist and park ranger who has published other books like “The heART of Cleveland,” “Animal Crackers” and “27 Club,” said that working with Dumm was an honor.
“He has created so many great things,” Kraynak said. “It was fun to collaborate, and we pretty much saw eye-to-eye on everything. It was a real easy collaboration. The story just came naturally, and off we went. We share a lot of the same views and opinions, so we both took great pleasure in ridiculing and mocking these individuals.”
Kraynak said that he and Dumm found inspiration from other political comics and graphic novels, including Art Spiegelman’s “Maus,” Joe Sacco’s “Palestine” and Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis.”
The comic book creator said that it’s important to continue exercising free speech through projects like “A-Men,” and that he hopes the comic book can, in its own way, inspire social and political change.
“The characters represented deserve only the harshest and most powerful criticism,” Kraynak said. “I think with the current threats to our freedoms and personal liberties, especially toward women, the LGBTQ community and people of color, everyone needs to use every medium available to fight for equality for all.”
The comic can be purchased at Cleveland book stores, like Mac’s Backs, Loganberry, Carol & John’s Comic Shop and more, Kraynak said. It can also be found at Gary’s website dummart.com, Kraynak’s website clevelandranger.wixsite.com/mysite and through their distributor Last Gasp Books.
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