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. In 1996, Krell founded his own publishing company, Ignite! Entertainment. 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). Works Contributions Gay Comix no. 7 (1986) "Jayson Gets a Visitor" no. 8 (1986) "JaysonMan and ArenaWoman ...An Epicene Epic" no. 10 (1987) "Jayson Dykes It Out" no. 11 (1987) "Jayson’s New Neighbor" no. 12 (1988) "Jayson Gets Engaged" No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics "Jayson Gets A Visitor" Strip AIDS USA (1980) "Jayson" Graphic Novels Jayson: New Collection In 1997, Krell published his first graphic novel with his publishing company Ignite! Entertainment. He started this collection after he realized that he wanted to prove to investors who were interested in Jayson: A New Musical that Jayson had a track record. In other words, Jayson: New Collection contains every comicstrip that inspired the off-broadway musical. Jayson: Best of the 80s and Jayson: Best of the 90s After Krell had taken time off to work on Jayson the Musical, he decided to continue the Jayson series but first wanted to see if there was a market for the series. After putting together some of Jayson's popular stories from the 80s and 90s, the two collections were released in 2005. Jayson Goes to Hollywood In 2008, a day before Jayson comic's 25th anniversary, Krell