When Portland police detective Andjelko Napijalo was a young teen, he and his family were forced to flee Croatia after war had consumed the country. They were homeless and on the run for four years before coming to the U.S. in 1999.

Andjelko says in a WCSH.com report that he became a police officer because he wants to protect children and families from having the same dangerous experiences he had as a child.

Andjelko created the comic book “Nightmare Warriors.” The story follows a young teen named Gage who is recruited into a secret agency after his parents are killed in an accident. He becomes a Nightmare Warrior with the ability to travel into other people’s dreams. With the help of some unique characters – a wise but skittish owl, a sleepy ninja koala, and a mad scientist who invents all sorts of weapons – Gage is able to fight off the nightmare monsters in the dreams of other children.

“Gage is basically me,” Andjelko explains. “As a kid growing up and having these nightmares, I was praying constantly, I just wanted them to go away.”

Andjelko is currently crowdfunding until March 28 to raise enough money to print the first copies of “Nightmare Warriors” by this summer. He needs $5,000 to print, but says if he doesn’t make the money by his deadline, he still won’t give up.

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