Living the dream: MSU alum publishes award-winning graphic novel based on his grandmother

Before his grandfather Gene Overholt died, English teacher and two-time Michigan State University alumnus Jason Douglas promised him that the graphic novel he was writing based on his late grandmother Betty Jane Johnson would be published.

Douglas, 49, of Northville, kept that promise. Yet his road to publication has been just as remarkable as his grandmother’s story, which occurred in Plymouth during World War II. 

In 2023, Douglas self-published “Jane American,” illustrated by Annie Wright. Today, the book is published by Papercutz, an imprint of Mad Cave Studios, and distributed through Simon & Schuster.

In 2025, “Jane American” won the Ringo Award for best original graphic novel. It is the first fully self-published book to win in this major category. Wright also won the Ringo Award for favorite new talent. 

“‘Jane American’ now has a second life as a widely published book,” Douglas said. “This whole journey’s been wild!” 

Bringing comics into the classroom

Inspired by famous comic book creators Jack Kirby, John Byrne, Walter Simonson and Mike Mignola, Douglas described himself as “an ‘X-Men’ kid growing up.” He also read Marvel Comics’ “Wolverine” and “Spider-Man,” DC Comics’ “Batman” and Valiant Comics. 

A second-generation teacher for 27 years, Douglas has implemented his love of comics in his classroom to encourage his recalcitrant students to read. 

“The answer was in the comic shops I used to visit and the long boxes I left behind in my mom’s house. I started to bring comics into the classroom, and it literally changed their lives. Kids know comics are cool,” he said. “I was buying beat-up old comics. I’d take them to school, remove the staples, put them on the paper cutter, separate them into individual pages, run them through the laminator, and bind them. Those things are still in my classroom today because they became nearly indestructible!”

The first comic that made a huge difference with his students was Image Comics’ fantasy series “Tellos,” co-created by the late Mike Wieringo, the namesake of the Ringo Awards.

“This is one of those cosmic coincidences that makes me smile every time I think about it,” Douglas said. “That’s the award I won! It makes me smile and hurts my brain all at the same time!” 

‘Blissful ignorance’ and ‘irrational confidence’

In a roundabout way, bringing comics into his classroom resurrected the latent but lifelong dream Douglas had of creating comics. 

“One year, call it a midlife crisis, something was itching in the back of my brain. ‘It’s time.’ While my kids were at swimming lessons, I sat on a picnic bench and wrote the first half of my first book, called ‘Parallel,’” he recalled. 

“Parallel” tells the story of Landon, who abandoned his passion for music, leading to a life filled with deep regret, depression, self-doubt and a loveless marriage. His reality shatters when he begins experiencing intense visions and hearing voices. He discovers that a parallel version of himself from an alternate reality is reaching out to offer him a complete do-over.

“I did my due diligence. Very few companies, if any, take unsolicited pitches,” Douglas explained. “Two key phrases of this journey these last six years are ‘blissful ignorance’ and ‘irrational confidence’ because I didn’t know better.”

Douglas pitched “Parallel” to Source Point Press, which published it. However, it debuted during the COVID-19 pandemic and “flopped badly.”

“I was told, ‘It was a failure and sold even lower than we expected.’ What that means is you’re supposed to wash your hands of it and say, ‘Hey, I made it further than 99% of people who don’t follow their dreams. Nobody can take that away from me. Back to reality,’” Douglas said. “If you’re a professional, you move on to the next project. It was implied. So, with no hyperbole, over the course of the next 18 months, I did 70 interviews and booked them all myself. ‘Parallel’ caught on and eventually sold out. It even got some Ringo nominations. It made a teeny little splash, which was cool.”

An overriding promise

Source Point was supposed to publish “Jane American,” but the deal fell through.  Undaunted, Douglas went on to write it anyway.  

The titular Jane is living a life of stability and hope — until she’s not. World War II knocks at her door and brings tragedy with it, changing her in unbelievable ways.

“At the end of the war, there’s a historical reality: Dad’s not coming home. Society’s determined that Mom can no longer be a Rosie the Riveter and support her family. That leaves young Jane with a choice: stay safe, stay hidden, or embrace who she truly is now and what she can truly do for the sake of everybody she loves,” Douglas said. 

The book contains universal, relatable and age-appropriate themes about identity, self-worth and being yourself in a world that tells you that’s not okay. 

“As I mentioned, it’s a deeply personal story for me because not only is it named after and inspired by my late grandmother, who went through all those things 80 years ago, but it’s very much dedicated to every kid who’s walked through my classroom in the last 27 years still struggling with those things,” Douglas said. “It’s also dedicated to my late grandfather because he was 99 when he realized he wouldn’t see 100 and made me promise the book he helped me research — he was key in the early research stages — would see print.”

According to Douglas, his grandparents married when they were 19, before his grandfather went off to fight in World War II. 

“Even though half the dream of this book has always been getting it into the hands of as many people as possible — schools, libraries, book fairs, stores — I knew the promise to my grandparents was the overriding promise,” he said. “That’s why I self-published it, knowing that I probably closed the door on the larger publishing options. Because of what the book did — even on its own and self-published — that opportunity to spread it far and wide is also available, which is so cool.”

Beating the odds at the Ringo Awards

Since “Jane American” was such a personal story for Douglas, he felt he needed to put it out into the world. Still, he was aware he was shooting himself in the foot by self-publishing it. 

“Once you self-publish, (traditional) book publishers won’t touch you with a 10,000-foot pole and won’t even talk to you if you don’t have a literary agent,” he explained. 

He organized Kickstarter and crowdfunding campaigns. He published a “Jane American” one-shot, which was the first chapter of the graphic novel told in a different order. 

“There is a big difference between Annie’s art at 21 and Annie’s art at 22. It’s as much growth as I’ve seen in a young person in or out of the classroom in my entire life. It’s amazing,” he said. “We did this one-shot as proof of concept. I was gonna put out hardcover and softcover editions, but such a campaign would cost $20,000 to $30,000. I don’t have enough favors, friends and family in the world to make that happen.”

Still, the one-shot did very well. Douglas launched a grassroots PR campaign, doing interviews and taking “Jane American” to comic-cons (including Capital City Comic Con in Lansing and Motor City Comic Con in Novi), comic shops and book fairs. Eventually, it caught the eye of the Ringo Awards committee and got nominated. 

“It won and beat a bunch of much bigger books,” he said.

At the awards ceremony in 2025, Douglas and his editor politely applauded without realizing they’d won.

“It didn’t sink in!” Douglas recalled. “On the video, it looks pretty normal. Here’s the announcement, here’s the applause, here’s us going up on stage, but we sat there, applauding the winner, not realizing it was our book. So, I went up there and did what I do every single day, five days a week, seven hours a day: speak on my feet. 

“When your job is to convince 180 teenagers that grammar isn’t boring, you have to have the ability to talk on your feet and make it sound pretty good or else they will eat you alive. I said what I was gonna say. It wasn’t a prepared speech because I didn’t want to jinx it, but it sounded good enough that people thought it was a well-prepared speech.” 

In the aftermath, Douglas received calls from publishers wanting to pick up “Jane American.” He got an offer from Mad Cave he couldn’t refuse. 

“Since this book beat the odds and won, the calls came to me,” he said. “Because the book already existed, I signed in January, and it hit stores this month. That’s an awfully quick turnaround. The book actually being done became a selling point for it, which is very atypical.”

His next graphic novel, “No Man’s Land,” a werewolf tale set during World War I, will be in stores next year. 

“No matter what you do or don’t do, tomorrow always comes, and life always goes on. There’s always something to do,” he said. “One of the most amazing things about this journey these last six years is everything that’s happened is happening to me for the very first time. The comics fan in me is doing backflips every time something new and amazing happens in this beautiful dream I’m pursuing.”

Visit instagram.com/jdouglaswrites.