Quick Facts
Biography
Jeffrey A. Krell is an openly gay American cartoonist, known for his long-running syndicated comic strip Jayson. The strip is about Jayson Callowhill, a skinny farm boy who moves to Philadelphia searching for a job and a man, and has been described as "the gay Archie".
Career
Krell created the comics strip Jayson in 1982, and it began appearing in Philadelphia Gay News the following year. New strips were created for Gay Comix starting with issue #6, and reprints appeared in most volumes of Meatmen, two of the most-read anthologies of LGBT-themed comics. The strip was syndicated nationally beginning in 1989. Collected editions of selected stories from the strip began in 1997, including Jayson: A New Collection, Jayson: Best of the 80s, and Jayson: Best of the 90s. Original graphic novels published since 2008 include Jayson Goes to Hollywood and Jayson Gets a Job.
In 1998, Krell collaborated with singer/songwriters Romanovsky and Phillips on an off-Broadway Jayson musical comedy, which ran for 10 weeks at The 45th Street Theatre in New York City.
Krell translated into English a few works by German gay cartoonist Ralf König (Maybe...Maybe Not, Maybe...Maybe Not Again!, and Down to the Bone).