Meeet Leon: Protector of the Playground

Last year I went to the Baltimore Comic Con and caught up with an old friend, Jamar Nicholas. He was there with his amazing new graphic novel, Leon: Protector of the Playground. I'm going back this year and Jamar will once again be in attendance.

Just a side note: I try to go to the Baltimore Comic Con as often as possible. It's my favorite con.

It's close by.
It's still a comic con unlike San Diego and all of the various Wizard Worlds.
It's kid-friendly, so there's usually a lot of fun things going for fans of all ages and genres.
It comes at a great time of year, right between Philadelphia stuff and New York stuff.

Real quick rundown, Leon is a super hero with a pedigree. His mom is one of the best heroes in town. And Leon has a lot to live up to in his role as his school's protector of the playground.

In this debut graphic novel you meet Leon, his friends, his enemies. And you learn so much about his character and what it means to be a hero.

Leon really clicked with me as a reader. I could see him and Superchum being buds, because as you read through this story you'll see Leon demonstrate many of the same qualities a Befriender would. At the core Leon has the foundation of what all heroes need: Doing the right thing. But he also makes some mistakes and learns and grows. That's where the book really hits me as an older reader. Jamar is willing to have his characters learn from their mistakes and walk that journey that heroes need to walk. The backup piece on Broccoli Rob is also very powerful when you see how the villain becomes a villain.

As a fan of comic art, I want to take a moment to appreciate the things Jamar brings to the page. I'm a huge Jack Kirby fan. And one of the things I love most about Kirby's art over the years is the way even the objects in the environment are dynamic. Everything has a feel of energy, and of being larger than life.

You see that here in Leon. Jamar captures so much of what I like about old school Marvel and DC comics in this book.

I recommend Leon: Protector of the Playground for anyone who wants a fun read, anyone who likes energetic and vibrant comic art, or for anyone who wants to really understand what it means to be a hero.

I mentioned at the top of this that Jamar is an old friend. I first met him in the late 1990s, at the Small Press Expo. We bonded pretty quickly because he had been doing Detective Boogaloo comic strips and I was at the time doing Superchum comic strips. We had this connection because we both were doing comic book type stories in newspaper strip formats.

He then came to my friend's local shop to showcase his Jamar Chronicles comic book. He invited me to join a Yahoo! Group called the Indy Cred All-Stars, which was full of artists in the same boat: A strong desire to be a professional illustrator, and a need for kinship and community.

I don't think I've ever really mentioned this publicly, but the time I was involved in the I-Cred crew, I was living and working in Hong Kong, China. It was pretty lonely out there. So that group really helped keep me going, both with my art and with my life.

Jamar has gone on to do so many more things, including illustrating the amazing book Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence.

This is the best part about giving Jamar a shout out on my blog. His artwork speaks for itself! Go to his site, or look him up on Amazon. And check out his work. Then go to Baltimore this weekend, stop by his table and say hi. I'm glad I met him at a con more than 20 years ago, I think you'll be just as happy to meet him this weekend!