California teen with autism creates comic book available online

LOS ALTOS, Calif. -- A true entrepreneur is coming out of Silicon Valley, but this one is special. He's just 14 and he's published his first book, and he's also living with autism.

Jonathan Ebel can sit in this corner for hours doing what he loves. As a child with autism, he learned to draw just four years ago. Then one day his mother took his large scale drawings and stories and put them into a comic book format.

"My favorite part of drawing is sketching off the details of my own characters," Ebel said. "This one is my favorite pictures because they're really happy in this picture.".

The plan was to simply print one copy of "The Magic Pencil, et al." for fun, but then people started noticing and wanting copies to buy and it turned into something else.

"To something that seemed more like a real little business for him," said his mother Anne Ebel.

Comic book sales are strong and so are online sales on Amazon Kindle where "The Magic Pencil, et al." has gotten five stars.

"I'm really proud," Anne Ebel said.

The reality is Jonathan comprehends at a third grade level, so to write, illustrate, and yes, even star in a 17-page book is remarkable.

"I hope these books are popular and they were popular, I wish and I just try my best," Ebel said.

Jonathan isn't just resting on his laurels, he's already working on book two of the comic book series, due out in 2017. At the same time, he's turning the comic books into individual soft covers.