Aaron Mak Of Cynation Comics Talks Kickstarter Campaign For ANA #1

By Chad Burdette

on March 2, 2025

Now funding on Kickstarter ANA #1, the second comic book from Cynation Comics, from the creators of the highly successful Kickstarter Campaign, GODS AMONG MEN

Cynation Comics is a young boutique Australian indie company, (founded by Josh and Aaron Mak aka The Mak Bros.) with unmatched tenacity, work ethic, and constantly expanding ideas that go against convention.

Josh has been an avid reader and writer from a young age, amidst his tenacious pursuit of his goals in the music world. In addition to his writing & executive duties on Gods Among Men, Josh is a dedicated musician who currently composes and plays lead guitar in the symphonic metal band, ANA and has been working alongside his brother, Aaron, since 2017 creating various music films, short films and web-series episodes.

Aaron has spent the past 7 years practicing filmmaking, and is a big fan of storytelling through visual mediums.

Their latest creation is ANA #1, is a Manga-inspired Storytelling x Western Art Style that blurs fiction and reality as the inter-dimensional goddess, ANA, arrives in our world, seeking out the greatest champions this world has to offer. Her intentions are yet to be revealed, but one thing is clear – all who stand in her way shall be obliterated

Her team comprises of lost souls around the globe, stuck in the all-too-familiar grind of monotony. They are eager and skilled but inexperienced, and they must be tested. For a threat looms on the horizon – an ancient foe with modern capabilities, and an insidious plan that will change the fabric of our reality… perhaps it already has.

ANA #1 was fully funded within 17 hours but as with any campaign, every new member of the ANA family grows our collective strength and enables us to bring the people more stories, more consistently.

Cynation Comic’s Aaron Mak sat down with Comic Watch to discuss the project:

Comic Watch: What was the inspirations for ANA and what would you say the elevator pitch for the book is?

Aaron Mak: ANA #1 is our answer to the question: “What would manga-inspired storytelling look like told with Western art-style? It’s an action-packed, super-powered, comedic yet poetic, official band comic book where fiction collides with reality, music fuses with comic books, and cats are introduced to violence.

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Comic Watch: Who are the main characters and what is the overall story for the comic?

Aaron Mak: The inter-dimensional goddess ANA comes to Earth with her two mystical cat companions – DAISY and LOLA, seeking out its greatest champions – JOSHKA from Tokyo, TORI from Cairo, CLEVELAND from Rio de Janeiro, and MAFFEW from an unknown part of the world.

Thrown straight into the fire, their first test commences to test their mettle. For only the strongest prevail, to face a sinister force that threatens the trajectory of our reality.

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Comic Watch: How did you come to know about the band ANA and what about their music appealed to you?

Aaron Mak: There’s a quite the string of connections that link me to the band. The other Mak Brother, Josh Mak is not only the co-founder of Cynation Comics along with myself, but also the guitarist for ANA.

I’m personally a big fan of progressive elements in music, the balance of heaviness with a delicate touch. ANA was once described as “really heavy pop”, which I can’t help but admire. After one has tasted the catchy melodies and danceable rhythms, they can savour the compositional complexity that lies beneath.

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Comic Watch: What about the book/concept appealed to you?

Aaron Mak: I love the idea of being able to enrich the experience of engaging with the band by creating a lore through a comic book (speaking as a fan of KISS: Psycho Circus). However as the trend begins to grow of bands dipping their toe into the comic book realm, the intention is crucial for us that the series should be able to stand on its own feet as an alluring story with stunning artwork.

Having said that, there is something uniquely rewarding about seeing your work so sought after by fans of ANA at a concert. One of my other duties is as the Head of the Merchandise Department at ANA, which enables me to tour with the band within Australia and internationally. There’s a special glimmer in the eye of a fan receiving their comic book after an ANA concert, that I’ve never witnessed before at any convention we’ve attended – it’s pure magic.

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Comic Watch: How did the creative process work with the band?

Aaron Mak:It was a refreshing collaborative process having contributions by Anna Khristenko (lead singer of ANA and co-story writer). She provided a perspective from beyond the realm of comics, benefiting us with the perspective of understanding better what would appeal to mainstream audiences beyond our niche community.

My approach in writing the script was enriched by the band’s already diverse members in both appearance and personality, so I drew from that and amplified it to connect with more universal ideas, such as the desire to break free of a monotonous life.

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Comic Watch: Who is the rest of the creative team on the book and how did you get connected with them?

Aaron Mak: We love working with people who are strong team players, amazing at what they do and receptive to our wacky ideas… which is why we retained the same creative team as our first title, Gods Among Men.

Josh Mak & Anna Khristenko brewed the story, I adapted that into the script, Ben Sullivan on pencils and inks, Wilson Go on colours. Getting started on the project was seamless as production began right off the back of Gods Among Men, so we already had a great dynamic and momentum going.

For ANA #1, we did want to make a statement as it is the formal entry of ANA (the band) into the comic sphere. We therefore chose to work with French artist, KIBAR (Spawn, Superman & Lois, King Spawn) for the cover art to solidify this key moment for us.

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Comic Watch: Is this a limited series, ogn, or ongoing project?

Aaron Mak: Much like our favourite long form anime, Naruto, we do believe the story we want to tell starting with ANA #1 requires it to be an ongoing series. The team starts this issue off with their signature weapons, but as the story proceeds, they’ll upgrade their weapons and acquire special techniques.

Let’s just say that the antagonists introduced in this issue, are but the first. As in life, those who embark on impossible missions will find the obstacles increasingly scale-up. So, the team will have to scale-up their abilities accordingly.

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Comic Watch: What lessons from Gods Among Men did you take away and apply to this project?

Considering Gods Among Men was our first foray into the comic world, there was undeniably a lot learned from the process. By the time we got to ANA, we’d expedited our production process, and we were better prepared in launching and fulfilling a Kickstarter after our last successful campaign.

A key thing that was a new challenge, was actually working with action sequences, which Gods Among Men (a grounded true-crime drama) did not contain. In the same way that we took Ben Sullivan on walking tours to the actual locations in Gods Among Men, Josh and I would act out the scenes crudely in front of Ben so that he could visualise the composition and action of the sequences.

Needless to say – I was the one getting flying-kicked, but it’s all to make the art more enriched!

Comic Watch: Where can anyone interested in the book find it?

We are currently past the halfway mark on the Kickstarter campaign for ANA #1, so this would be interested parties’ way of getting in on the fun and secure themselves some campaign exclusives!

Although we do ultimately get our books into stores (at present Cynation Comics is stocked in 32 stores across 3 countries) and available digitally (e.g. Apple Books, Google Play Books & Comix.One), we believe in rewarding initiative from the fans, the collectors and the curious. Once the campaign concludes, the exclusive rewards… (to quote a catchphrase of mine in our videos) “once they’re gone, they’re GONE!”

Find the ANA #1 Kickstarter right here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cynation/ana-1-manga-inspired-storytelling-x-western-art-style

It has been a rewarding experience to witness the crossover of metal fans and comic fans in-person at ANA concerts, but it is something else to see it manifest on Kickstarter too!

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