(Black) Boy Wonder
BY FEATURED WRITER/ARTIST: JAMAR NICHOLAS
Jamar Nicholas, Leon, from LEON, Protector of the Playground, Skye-Dog Enterprises, DBA Kids Love Comics, 2017. Courtesy of the artist.
(BLACK) BOY WONDER
JAMAR NICHOLAS / FEB 2021 / ISSUE 5
Some would find it odd that American popular culture is geek culture. The time when only weirdo shut-ins cared about comic books, superheroes, giant dragons and sorcerer spells is over. One thing that has always stood out is the archetype of the Hero, which is bigger than all of that nerd stuff, right? Everyone knows who Superman and Batman are. You didn't need to hang around in a dimly-lit comic book store to know the cultural importance of someone who does the right thing, when it mattered most.
But there's a piece missing—what do you do when those icons don't look like you? Does that secretly make you want to become them, whole cloth? As a child, I enjoyed Spider-Man, but I didn't want to be a white guy sticking to the side of a building, I just wanted the sticky building.
Jamar Nicholas, from LEON, Protector of the Playground, Skye-Dog Enterprises, DBA Kids Love Comics, 2017. Courtesy of the artist.
That's what brings me to LEON, my middle-school hero whose superpower is common sense. I created him for a new generation of kids who weren't seeing themselves in the fiction they consumed. LEON is less about being a person of color and more about revisiting the childhood wonder of unravelling the strange rules of being a kid, having kid relationships, responsibilities and fears.
Leon is very real to me. Down to what's in his utility belt.
Jamar Nicholas, Leon’s After-school Utility Belt, from LEON, Protector of the Playground, Skye-Dog Enterprises, DBA Kids Love Comics, 2017. Courtesy of the artist.
The world is in a place right now where the doors are beginning to open for creators like myself who are bringing characters like Leon to kidlit, and I hope to be one of many fresh voices in future publications that are diverse, inclusive, educational and enriching.
Up up and away,
Jamar Nicholas
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Jamar Nicholas is an award-winning African American cartoonist, graphic novelist, and educator based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is known for original graphic novel, Leon: Protector of the Playground, and his graphic novel adaptation of Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun, a memoir written by African American social activist Geoffrey Canada in 1995. Nicholas's work discusses topics such as bullying and violence while providing alternative, positive portrayals of black individuals. Leon the Extraordinary, the first in a series of middle grade graphic novels, will be published by Scholastic in spring 2022.