Jamar Nicholas: Hello everyone. My name is Jamar Nicholas, author, illustrator, and creator of Leon the Extraordinary. An interesting tidbit about creating Leon some people may not be aware of is that I am not Leon. I've been asked that question and I have to tell them, "Unfortunately, no, I am not Leon," yet I take a lot of instances from when I was a young boy growing up with my mother. My mother was a single parent, and we lived in a pretty small two-bedroom apartment. One of my favorite things about that time was just feeling like it was her and I against the world, and that made me fearless. And I think you'll see some of that in Leon.

What I think makes Leon extraordinary is that even in a world of super powered people and people who can read minds and look through steel and run super fast, Leon can't do any of that stuff. But what he does have is a really good heart, a really great sense of friendship and pride in his community, and my favorite, common sense.

I have two very good tips for young people who want to create their own comics. One is, I don't know if you're ready for this, start paying attention to things. It's very important when you start drawing that you can be able to draw everything. Start paying attention to your world. My second idea for young people out there is to keep a journal of some sort. If you're used to writing down your thoughts, Dear Diary, Dear Journal, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, try doing the same thing, but instead of writing out your entry, draw it. But one of the coolest parts about that is if you keep all of that stuff, years later you can look back and have a very interesting story to read to yourself. But it'll also make you a stronger artist.

I am going to describe to you a few pages from Leon the Extraordinary.

The first page I'm going to describe is what we call in the business, a splash page. It's one giant illustration on a page of our graphic novel where we see Leon waking up in the morning with a big stretch and a "Yawn." And we see and hear... You can hear with your eyes, his alarm clock going off at 5:35 in the morning. "Beep, beep, beep."

On the next page, we see Leon walking down his hallway after taking a shower. "Oh man, why does it have to be so early?" The second panel is Leon going into his closet in his bedroom. Inside his closet we see a lot of green colored clothes because green is his favorite color. And also some curious things like a box of BRICKO bricks, a pair of green goggles and a utility belt. Leon says, "Hmm, which uniform should I pick today? Everybody loves a classic look."

The next page has two panels, a closeup of Leon's stomach in his gloved hands where he's attaching his utility belt with the word, "Connect," going across. "Utility belt equipped." The next panel is him pulling down his goggles, "Goggles, goggled." And the last page I'm going to explain to you is another splash where Leon is looking at himself in his closet mirror and he says, "Looking extraordinary and ready to face another week of fifth grade. Nothing could stop me. Not even, ugh, Clementine."