DANIEL KALBAN explores the past of AMERICAN DREAMS

Daniel Kalban, creator of American Dream, stops by to chat with Interviews Editor, Andrew Irvin, about his ongoing series, with issue #6 available on Kickstarter through May 23rd!

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COMIC BOOK YETI: Welcome to the Yeti Cave, Daniel! I hope all is going well up in Brooklyn as you wind up this latest campaign. Starting in 2021, you’re now on your sixth installment of American Dreams. I’ve just finished reading everything you’ve graciously shared, and without providing spoilers, it’s set in New York City near the end of the Gilded Age (1900 C.E.). For our readers at home, what makes this title stand out from the rest of the spandex-clad superheroes punching-away-their-problems landscape?

DANIEL KALBAN: In addition to being set in the Gilded Age (which helps hold a mirror up to today’s society), our main protagonist is both Jewish and an immigrant. In addition, placing it in an earlier time period and making it historical fiction as well as a superhero story allows us to include in our supporting cast some of the time period’s greatest luminaries and villains (and who is which could shift depending on your point of view). 

CBY: I think that sums it up nicely without giving anything away. In the collected trade volume you’ve shared, you’ve dedicated the work to the memory of immigrants to America, but particularly to Lashawn Colvin, one of your editors. With the opportunity to speak at greater length about her legacy, what would you like to share with our readers?

DK: Lashawn not only was an amazing editor, she was a fantastic comic book creator in her own right. She also was the first African American woman to open up and run a comic book shop in the Southern United States. I think the comic book industry is much less rich with her passing.

CBY: Hopefully this continued attention to her contributions helps her memory resonate all the more. Can you also introduce our readers to your creative collaborators on American Dreams thus far? Your other editor, Andrea Smith was joined by Dody Eka, Tebe Andry, Warnia K. Sahadewa, and Matt Bowers who have handled pencils, inks, colors, and letters for the bulk of the run thus far. How did you assemble the creative team in the first place, and what has helped you keep everyone together?

DK: Dody was recommended to me by a fellow creator, and Tebe is his frequent collaborator. Others recommended Warnia and Matt to me as well. Andrea was already working with Lashawn on projects and she became the assistant editor. With Lashawn’s passing, she’s become the head editor on American Dreams. Very often, teams come together on the recommendations of their past collaborators. 

CBY: Oh, definitely - known entities (ideally) introduce fewer variables and complications to a collaborative process. The collected vol. 1 includes the stories “Sandhog” and “The Art of Throwing a Punch” with art from Kurt Belcher on the latter and colors Tommy Shelton and Thais Diaz. What circumstances were involved in bringing them on for these entries into the American Dream canon? 

DK: Well, I wanted to add more stories to the book, to give those reading the collected edition a little bit more fun. Tommy has been a regular cover colorist for me, and we’ve been trying to collaborate on some interiors for a while. So it was the perfect time to bring him in for the “Sandhog” short. Thaissa was actually recommended to me by her husband, Netho Diaz, who has done a lot of covers for me and is now doing an amazing job on X-Men! Again, a lot of this came down to knowing people and timing.

CBY: Serendipity should never be discounted for its influence on the manner in which reality unfolds. American Dream begins the story with the immigrant family of your protagonist, Yaakov - Jake - speaking Yiddish. You present the dialogue for an English-speaking readership, footnoting the source language. How did you decide on this approach to denoting the cultural spaces in which the story takes place, and have you considered other language editions (particularly for digital distribution) that enshrine the dialogue in its intended language without translation for readers who want to see their languages represented? There’s a lot of racial conflict within the plot, which bears relevance to the current conflations of antisemitism and anti-Zionism; as someone of Jewish-American cultural identity, how do we separate the American Spirit from its deeply embedded settler-colonial values? 

DK: I decided, in part, to do that to be easier for the reader to understand. Sometimes, expediency is what is best for the story. A Yiddish edition, obviously, would lack the footnote. In American Dreams Issue 6, we introduce a Chinese-American family that speaks Cantonese and the same footnote rule applies. If I did an edition in Cantonese, that footnote would be, of course, excised. In addition, if there was, for example, an adaptation of American Dreams on film or TV, obviously I’d prefer them to speak those languages with subtitles for the readers. 

Unfortunately, the Gilded Age was an era rife with ethnic tensions, especially as different groups vied for space in fetid tenements. It also didn’t help that past waves of immigrants looked down on the newcomers, even within the same ethnic group. For example, the Sephardic Jews (who were the first to be in New York City) looked down on the German Jews, who in turn looked down on the Jews fleeing Eastern Europe. 

To me, the American Spirit is the idealistic vision of all people living with the same rights and same opportunities that unfortunately too many in power attempt to deny or pervert. While it’s hard to separate the ideals from the reality, the American Spirit, the American Dream, should be for all people and not just a limited few. And making the avatar of that spirit an immigrant I think makes the call for that idealism ever stronger.

CBY: I think that's a sentiment shared widely, and a reminder of the inclusive, egalitarian aspects of American ideals should certainly be amplified as the best aspects of this country come attack and are being structurally dismantled by those looking to stratify power and control further. There is an incredibly salient image of the Statue of Liberty you added to preface the story of issue #1, set in 1886, in which Jake’s grandfather says of the nation, “There you can grow up and be whoever you want to be! You can live your dreams in America!” It picks up in 1900, and by that point in the late Gilded Age, wealth disparities are immediately apparent. The idea of freedom to enjoy “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in America remains a highly qualified statement qualified by a variety of intersectional structural disparities currently being laid bare by an openly non-democratic regime. As the former often limits the latter, particularly in America, can you speak a bit about how American Dream explores the relationship between identity and opportunity?

DK: Many of the characters, especially Jake and his family, are still struggling for that opportunity. Others, such as Morgan, Edison, and Houdini, have had that opportunity. However, note that of those three, Houdini was the one who had to work the hardest for his success, as he was a Jewish immigrant himself. Unfortunately, a lot of immigrants were sold the Horatio Alger “Streets of Gold” narrative and were utterly unprepared for what was to come. In our first volume, we meet Jake as a struggling sweatshop worker who also fights in a gang. However, he does dream of being something more, but he’s frustrated by being stuck in his current situation. But at the same time, he doesn’t want his younger brother (who is the only “native born” American in the family) to be caught in that trap and to stay in school. Jake becomes the avatar of the American Dream because he wants things to be better and he knows things should be better. Even if it’s an uphill climb for so many, he’s fighting to make it more of an even playing field. This means protecting the various immigrant communities of New York. And with volume 2, this means going up against some very powerful people who are very willing to use prejudice and fear against vulnerable people. 

CBY: To this end, as mentioned, you have taken the opportunity to craft your fiction around very real figures of the New York Gilded Age; J.P. Morgan, Thomas Edison, Emma Goldman, and Harry Houdini. What led to your decision to draw from the well of history instead of, say, creating parallel fictional analogues to these figures such as Blacksad’s Solomon, who, (as noted in discussion with Diana Schutz) draws clear inspiration from Robert Moses? 

DK: I think having the actual historical figures of the era enriches the story, as well as helps provide a great supporting cast and rogue’s gallery for our hero. Some will appear in stories more than others, depending on the tale, but each brings an interesting point of view for what is going on. Some of their points of view are pretty horrid (Morgan’s greedy, Edison’s vain, Goldman can be a zealot who might not always see eye to eye with Jake/Liberty), but each brings a different perspective on this version of the Gilded Age.

One of the inspirations for the series was the musical Ragtime (as well as the novel it is based upon), which also uses historical figures as perspective on the action as well as part of a “Greek Chorus” of citizens.

CBY: Your hero’s powers are tied to the strength and American spirit and believe in the American Dream. You’ve got a range of other titles including; Cthulhu Invades Wonderland, Knightwrath, and Rook & Knight - is there any connection between American Dream and the rest of your writing? Given the state of things in the United States; the abrogation of the Constitution, the empowerment of a paramilitary organization (ICE) to snatch people off the streets and disappear them, and the open assault on the American Dream as an aspirational ideal for all, how does it change the way you prioritize your fiction writing? How does what is happening in America impact your approach to the medium and your work? 

DK: American Dreams, Knightwrath, and Rook & Knight are all part of my Libertyverse, which is my superhero universe that I am slowly building up.

When I wrote the first draft of American Dreams’ first issues, it was 2016 and a lot of that political backdrop inspired that first arc. It also was me wanting more Jewish representation as well as to hold up a mirror to today through yesteryear. I didn’t expect youknowwho to win the election, let alone the story to be so precedent as I was writing it during that time period. Our second arc delves deep into people being rounded up, their rights violated, etc.…but I was also writing that before the 2024 election. I don’t know if that means I've got strange timing or if I’m somehow a jinx. 

It also means that Jake/Liberty and the aspirational ideal of the American Dream is going to be in for a rough time in this upcoming story arc. It may affect how things will go down in Volume 3, as our second volume is entirely written and drawn already. The third volume is currently still being brainstormed, so we’ll see what happens as that is being planned.

CBY: It will be interesting to see how it shapes up, and to what degree it deviates from and provides commentary upon, the trajectory of America's current journey as a nation. When I saw the premise of American Dream, the 2001 Werner Herzog film, Invincible, which was loosely inspired by Zishe Breitbart, the Polish-Jewish Strongman of the interwar era. I don’t know if it played any role inspiring American Dream, but what other influences can you cite as points of reference in building your fiction? For new readers, what aesthetic and cultural touchstones would help them understand what this story brings to the comics landscape? 

DK: As mentioned earlier, the novel (and musical) Ragtime is a major influence on the series (I actually had the lightbulb moment for the series while listening to a symphonic suite based on the musical’s score). A subsequent, and more recent, musical influence was the musical Rags by Stephen Schwartz and the recently departed Charles Strouse. That musical focuses more on the Jewish immigrant experience. As for additional literary influences, among them are the early chapters of Harpo Marx’s autobiography Harpo Speaks, as well as Sholom Aleichem’s Motl, the Cantor’s Son, which I first heard as a recorded audio book. 

Other than that, a lot of it is my own love for history. 

CBY: Those influences provide a good transition into our conclusion, where we always provide creators with an opportunity to share some work unrelated to their project that has been providing them with inspiration. What other comics, film, music, art, literature, etc. has been catching your attention lately?

DK: I go to a lot of theater, and I recently went to see Pirates! A Penzance Musical, which is a revival of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, set in New Orleans. It has a fantastic cast (with David Hyde Pierce as the Major General, Ramin Karimloo as the Pirate King, and Jinx Monsoon as Ruth). The adjusted book is still funny as ever, and it ends on the kind of optimistic note I hope to give readers with American Dreams. Plus sometimes it’s nice to see something to recharge your batteries. However, it’s a limited run, so go see it now if you're in New York.  

I also recently read Batman: First Knight by Dan Jurgens and Mike Perkins, which is a fantastic Batman tale set during the Golden Age of comics which also has prevalent Jewish themes. It’s nice to see more of those shine in Big 2 comics these days.

CBY: They've certainly got space to explore and frame new stories with familiar characters in exciting ways. Daniel, thanks for stopping by today! If you’ve got any portfolio, publication, or social media links for our readers to check out, now is the time to share!

DK: You can go to danielkalban.com which will lead to all my socials as well as ways to learn about and get copies of American Dreams and other books. In addition, we have a few days left on the American Dreams issue 6 Kickstarter, so you can join in Jake Gold’s latest adventure as Liberty and catch up with past issues. 

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