ADYNASTY0

It is seldom to find someone who actually uses their talents to edify their community. Sequential Artist and Emcee, Antonio L. Vaughan, does just that with his comic book series “Adynasty0: I Am Dynasty.” Vaughan paints a surrealistic autobiography with words and iconic imagery by mixing fantasy with real life experiences.” Though Antonio has always had an innate artisanship for the visual arts, his fascination with the expressiveness of hip-hop music and fashion, as he stated, “were another vehicle that I could use to entertain and inform through creativity.” His music harkens back to the days when there were no rappers just emcees, he states he wants to become a great storyteller. For this young Emcee and Illustrator, life was everything but a fairy tale. Complete with tragic events that would render any young mind damaged, Antonio’s background is full of adversity. After the passing of his mother, he was placed into foster care from seven years old to 18 years of age. Learning to cope with such hardships at such a young age must have been extremely arduous, but as Antonio proudly proclaims, “each day is a new sheet of paper and I had to throw the old one in the trash to survive.” His only escape from the "harsh realities of being a foster child," was his desire to express his innermost thoughts and feelings with art, music, and literature. Creating stories with these mediums has been a life long dream since he was a child. During this period, Antonio developed an insatiable appetite for painting portraits of the anger and anguish that he has endured throughout the years. So he attended college and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Norfolk State University in 2006. Then in the same year he attended Savannah College of Art & Design in Savannah, GA to receive his Master of Fine Art in Sequential Art. Even in the face of all of the disadvantages, Antonio rose to achieve excellence.