Be like A-Town!!

I've always admired my friend and former roomie Aaron "A-Town" Krolikowski for his ability to get things done. My first recollection of him was an ongoing strip called If James Oglethorpe Went To SCAD which apparently the college wasn't terribly crazy about a parody of the founder of the colony of Georgia. But he had the guts to do it despite the college's disapproval. And you have to respect that.

(Aaron's being held by editor Alex Fox. I can be seen standing in the back at the far right mugging for the camera.)

Personally, I had a great time working with him on the student newspaper in college. We came up with some fun ideas as well. One of which was to have a meteor from his comic The Hounds of Hyperspace accidentally fall onto one of the characters from my comic at the time.

There was also our ongoing war in which we parodied each other in our strips. I even appeared in a Hounds of Hyperspace end of the school year strip as an actor who shows a kid around how The Hounds of Hyperspace is produced. Several of our friends also appeared in the strip.

For me, taking part in the school newspaper was a personal high point in my SCAD career. I had a great time and got to work with great people.

My favorite memory is pulling an all nighter to get the comic issue out. One of the crown jewel's of that issue is an interview Aaron did with JRR Tolkien. The person running the school newspaper at the time really didn't have the imagination to enjoy the whole idea of satire and insisted we print a disclaimer that this was not a real interview.
MAD Magazine doesn't have to print disclaimers every time it prints a movie satire or a parody of a famous commercial on the back. I mean it was already stated this was a comic issue of the paper!! But the great thing about Aaron as far as art-related projects were concerned was that he wouldn't just sit around thinking of an idea. He would get it done!! And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact he doesn't see himself as just a cartoonist but an artist. And I admire the fact that he's unafraid to try something.

Aaron had an idea for doing a night of Monty Python sketches. So he got a group of fellow students together and not only was the performance a hit, the group eventually became the Grand Deacon's of Erin Delaney who performed original plays like Stanley Can't Fly about superheroes. Aaron wanted to do music so he took many of the same people from the Deacon's and started Cho Young and the Davenports who recorded music and performed live.

I personally have to admit that one of my biggest regrets was not being able to take part in his Monty Python night. But that was my own fault.

Aaron's continues to put himself and his work out there in the Philadelphia area. from his ongoing series of short comics called Scribbles, his work with the Sketchbook Reporter to many performances pieces, gallery shows and offering his time to work with kids at Camp Can Do. He also takes part in a themed Halloween event he and his fellow Deacons put on every year out in Portland Oregon. The themes range from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure to WWE Wrestling.

Check out Aaron's work at Interview Press by clicking on the link below: