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Meet Dillon Helbig, a young author who managed to make his 81-page graphic novel the most popular read at his local library.
One eight-year old found a clever way to turn his book into a hit sensation.
Over the holiday break from school, young Dillon Helbig drafted up “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis,” which stars the writer in an illustrated Christmas tale. He worked on the book for four days, but getting it published was a challenge, being that he is only in the second grade. However, as The New York Times reports, Dillon came up with a clever way to have his story reach shelves: placing it on one at the library.
While spending time with his grandmother, Dillon placed his novel on a shelf in the fiction section of the Lake Hazel branch of the Ada Community Library in Boise. When the young creator told his parents about what he had done, they called the library to see if they could retrieve it, but Dillon’s plan had worked. He had wanted to get his story out there, and the librarians catalogued it into their graphic novel section.
“It deserves a spot on our library shelves,” said the library branch’s manager, Alex Hartman. “It’s a good story.”
Dillon’s tale features a count of 81 pages, which is on par with the oversized issues put out by mainstream comic publishers like Marvel and DC Comics, with DC’s next one-shot, Strange Love Adventures #1, set to release in February. To put the comparison into perspective, Dillon’s “Crismis” adventure is actually longer than Batman: The Killing Joke, arguably one of the most iconic graphic novels of all time, but one that only features about 64 pages, with bonus content that is.
The story explores Dillon’s journey as he traverses holidays through exploding Christmas toppers and portals found in trees, very similar to The Nightmare Before Christmas and how Jack Skellington winds up at Santa’s workshop in the North Pole. However, unlike Skellington, Dillon enters a tree that takes him back to the very first Thanksgiving, rather than Halloween Town. The story has become such a hit that 56 people had put themselves down on the library’s waiting list to borrow the book by the end of January.
Not only has the graphic novel become a library success and pulled in media attention, but it has inspired Dillon’s peers to write as well, and may also get published. Local author Cristianne Lane has offered to get a children’s writing workshop together for the library, while publishers have reached out about officially publishing Dillion’s work. The young author’s mother, Susan Helbig (responsible for the photo above), has described the whole experience as a “whirlwind.”
If “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis” gets published, you may be able to pick up a copy for yourself, rather than joining a waiting list tens of people long. Dillon is also set on becoming an author, so this may not be his only success story in the future.
Source: The New York Times
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