Akimbo:  Raised by a single mother in a world not too different from out own – driven by the engine of capitalism and saturated with injustices – Akimbo has dreamed of only one thing: following in the footsteps of “The Best” and becoming known as the greatest fighter to ever live.  However, life rarely gives such things easily.  Hardened by the world into a person he never wanted to become, Akimbo holds onto the one thing in his life that has been close to constant. He knows nothing of where he came from, only what lies ahead.

Dewey: Jaded by decades of working in the system of “The Game” and seeing dozens of hopeful competitors fall short of his standards, Dewey does little but satisfy his own needs. His concerns are good liquor, expensive cigars, and enough money to gamble away. However, some deep fire – the passion that brought him to The Game in the first place – may just be rekindling. 

“The Game”: Football, boxing, the Olympics, every measure of professional human sport has fallen by the wayside except one: The Game, a brutal and bloody series of deathmatch style tournaments. The poor play The Game like a lottery – risking their lives for a chance to escape the prison of poverty. At higher tiers, however, winning and losing is about much more than survival. It’s about people speaking your name. Reaching the heights of fame in The Game means you never have to be afraid again.

Where it started: Don’t let your parents tell you that video games are pointless. For a solid year, Mathias Hanten and friends dedicated their free hours outside of university and employment, grinding on their ranks in Halo 5. In order to get hyped up and get the blood pumping before a match, the hip-hop playlist dubbed “KillaMix” was created. Slowly, the mixture of competitive arena combat and hip-hop lifestyles began to stew. Then one day, like a bolt of lighting, an image came into existence – one that was eventually discovered to lay at the end of a long and complex story. A few years later, when Radical Dreamers Creative Development was formed, this story begged to be told.

How it got made: Like all RDCD projects, Acclaim spent years in the story development stage – enhancing the characters and history of the world, establishing the arc of the narratives, and questioning every aspect of the tale that could be taken for granted. When RDCD went searching for artists to take up the mantle of illustration, the first and final choice was Ken Krekeler. Within minutes of meeting, RDCD knew it had found a collaborator – someone that could understand the story and bring texture to the world. It took nearly a year in production as RDCD learned to rely on Ken more and more – slowly learning it was time to take its hands off the wheel, and let this story learn to walk on its own.

The end of this story is already written, roughly planned to occur in issue #28 if all goes well. The second issue is written, paneled, and blocked out. RDCD has everything we need to get started except for one thing: money. It costs a significant chunk of chance to make, print, and ship comic books. Additionally, the illustrator for this series, Ken Krekeler, makes his living creating art, and as much as he loves this project, he has to pay rent. Once we can get enough support from you (our audience), Radical Dreamers Creative Development will be able to return Ken to the fold and provide him the compensation his labor deserves. So if you love this story as much as we do, please offer whatever support you can – buy merch, tell your friends, and keep your eyes open for the next issue of Acclaim, ” A Second Chance”. We’ll see you there.