ASHTABULA — Jacob Westcott celebrated the completion of a comic book he has long been working Thursday at the Riverbend Hotel and Suites.
Westcott, who is supported by the Ashtabula County Board of Developmental Disabilities, has long had an interest in creativity.
“He’s created hundreds of characters, and he started writing stories as a young guy, probably 10-11 years old,” ACBDD President Lisa Ebersole, who is also Westcott’s mother, said.
The comic book focuses on Westcott’s alias, Larry J. Roberts, as he goes thorough various action-filled tales.
Westcott has attempted to write and complete stories and comic books before, Ebersole said.
“This is my first time [completing one],” Westcott said.
The Board of DD helped organize the celebration at Riverbend at Westcott’s request, Ebersole said.
“Jacob had been here one time before, when we had the DD Awareness [Month] kickoff, where they did the lighting of the bridge. He really liked it up here,” she said. “So, he didn’t get to come this year and he really wanted to come to an event here.”
Ebersole said the party was a way to celebrate Westcott finishing his work.
“We’re calling it a wrap party, because it’s a celebration of him finishing this comic book, and hopefully him moving on to publishing that comic book, and that being a way for him to have a livelihood and that to be something that he does,” she said.
Ebersole and her son are looking for either a publisher or to self-publish the comic book, she said.
“This is an amazing thing, and I think that Jacob is wildly talented and ... there’s an audience for what he does and what he creates and I want him to succeed,” she said.
Westcott was the reason Ebersole became involved with the Board of DD, she said.
“This makes my heart feel good, that he’s getting to do something,” Ebersole said.