An 8-year-old made a comic book, hid it in a library. Now there's a waitlist to read it.

Scott Gleeson, USA TODAY
·2 min read
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Second-grade student Dillon Helbig has taken self-publishing to a whole other level. The 8-year-old boy has garnered national attention over social media for his adorable, handmade comic book that he conveniently left on bookshelves at his hometown library.

Helbig's 81-page book, "The Adventures of Dillon Helbig's Crismis" by "Dillon His Self," has gone viral. The young boy wrote about a Christmas adventure, using a red-cover notebook and illustrating it with colored pencils.

"I wanted to put my book in the library center since I was 5, and I always had a love for books and libraries," Helbig told Good Morning America. "I've been going to libraries a lot since I was a baby."

When Dillon's mother, Susan, asked him why he conspicuously left his book at the Ada County Library in Boise, Idaho, when no one was looking, his answer was simple: "I wanted people to read it," Dillon said. That prompted a phone call to the library to notify staff the book wasn't misplaced and that it was, indeed, a gift to their shelves.

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Alex Hartman, the branch manager at the library, processed his book and catalogued it under graphic novels. According to The Washington Post, now there's a 55-person waitlist.

An image of Dillon Helbig's original comicbook that made its way to a wait list at a local library.
An image of Dillon Helbig's original comicbook that made its way to a wait list at a local library.

“We’re just hoping that … children find inspiration to write their own stories and share those with other people,” Hartman told The Post. “I just think it’s a good demonstration to share with other kids.”

The library gave Dillon its first Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist, a category the library created for him.

Don't expect Helbig to be a one-hit wonder, though. The aspiring author has created a "Dog Man series and his next book is tabbed, "The Jacket Eating Closet," based on a true story Helbig said he's drawing from when in kindergarten.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Idaho boy's comic book 'Adventures of Dillon' spurs library waitlist