Florida A&M University grad Jaylen Christie is set to release his first comic book, “Stink Bomb Man and The Brain Kids.”
Scheduled to be released during Black History Month, “Stink Bomb Man and The Brain Kids” is a tale featuring three Black superheroes who work together to stop a nefarious business tycoon in a fictional city called Princeton Bay. While “Stink Bomb Man” is a super-powered alien doubling as an intergalactic peacekeeper, the brain kids Brittany and Jesse McBrilliant, have no super powers and fight using their intelligence.
The first volume of the comic book contains three stories from three different time periods of Christie’s life. The first story, a 10-page comic titled “Much Ado About Secret Identities,” serves as the introduction into the world of the characters while the second story, a 30-page comic, is titled “Changing Faces/High-Speed Races.” Finally, “Escape from Terror Cave” is a short story included as the finale. Although they were created at different times of Christie’s life, they all originate from an idea that he had as a boy.
Christie is a graduate of FAMU’s School of Journalism & Graphic Communication who now lives and works in the Orlando area.
Bringing the comic book “Stink Bomb Man and The Brain Kids” to reality has always been a dream of Christie’s.
“I created the characters as a child due to the lack of representation I was seeing in superhero cartoons,” Christie said. “Given everything that transpired in 2020 along with recent current events, I felt now was the ideal time to revisit these characters and bring them to life.”
Bringing it all together wasn’t an easy task and it took some time to put it all together.
“Bringing ‘Stink Bomb Man and The Brain Kids: Volume 1’ to life was an uphill journey,” Christie said. “I originally wanted to complete it a decade ago … as I wrote the first short story when I was just 13 years old. Life be lifin’, you know?”
Christie isn’t new to overcoming life’s obstacles. He has won several awards in his time including the Orlando Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, an International Hermes Creative award, a dot COMM award, and most recently the 2022 Trailblazer of the Year award from the Public Relations Society of America.
For more information relating to Christie and “Stink Bomb Man and The Brain Kids,” check out his website: Jaylenchristie.com