Isaac M. Baranoff

Cartoonist, composer, writer, comedian and filmmaker Isaac Mendel Baranoff was born in Orient, New York on February 15, 1990. At age 13, he created the long-running cult hit comic strip Horndog, which was published independently by various publishers throughout it's 17+ year run. The strip follows the surreal adventures of a group of anthropomorphic animal friends as they face off against supernatural, fantasy and alien challenges in story-lines that satirized various events in popular culture, politics and society, through the perspective of Bob the Dog, an Irish-American Labrador/beagle, his African-American, half-Jewish Bombay cat girlfriend Charlene Kat, and friends Freddy the Rabbit, Tommy the Rat, and Leonard, Bob's best friend and a African-American Bombay cat. The Horndog comic books, regularly published from 2003 until 2014, were full of satirical, button-pushing, politically incorrect and absurdist humor with scatological, profane, vulgar and sometimes nonsensical punchlines and featured stories which send up political figures and ideologies, pop culture events, religion and societal movements. In addition to pushing boundaries, Horndog blended genres and tones, utilizing elements of dark comedy, romantic comedy, horror, fantasy, science fiction, adventure and drama. Horndog also dealt with a number of recurring topics including governmental incompetence, how interfering in the lives of others often made things worse, toxic relationships, unrequited love, the failure of hedonism and the negative impact of societal stupidity and collectivism on individuals. Isaac Baranoff grew up in Southern Florida, where he developed a great love of movies, comedy, music and comic books. His love of music led him to try his hand at singing, rapping and assembling hip-hop instrumentals, but his first professional career was as a cartoonist, getting his first comics published at age 13, and achieving an unprecedented level of national success for a teenager, especially with material that was subject to much controversy, due to the age of it's author. Baranoff's music career shifted from hip-hop to progressive rock, and he began to demo his auto-didactic compositions before releasing his debut album, The Root of Money, in 2017. In 2020, Baranoff began releasing a series of documentaries on rock and hip-hop music. Isaac Baranoff is a life-long opponent of racism. Baranoff is also an advocate for free speech, individual rights, capitalism, and limited government.