North County Man Creates Comic Book on Bullying

Devin Hughes grew up with an alcoholic dad and mother who smoked crack. In addition to substance abuse, there was domestic violence in the home. Outside of the home, in school, Hughes felt isolated for being bi-racial and for being in a special needs class for being dyslexic.

As a victim of bullies, Hughes finally found a way to dig himself out a dark lonely place. “I learned to use self talk,” Hughes explained in an interview last week. “I found channeling trigger words like ‘I am,’ ‘I can,’ and ‘I will,’ or ‘I’m good enough,’ and ‘I’m strong enough,’ helped me.”

Hughes is now sharing his method of self talk through a comic book he released about a month ago.

“The comic book is more of a tool or resource for parents and educators to review with children who may feel isolated, alone and disconnected whether it be from a bully situation, or because they are different for reasons including autism, having a learning disability or not being in the ‘cool crowd,’” explained Hughes.

Hughes also has a memoir on the market, and is planning on coming out with a series of comic book. “I might do the next one of tolerance,” he said.

Hughes has four daughters in Carlsbad elementary schools and his wife is a teacher in the same district. He hopes to get the comic book into as many hands as possible nationwide.

“It’s personal, I’m not trying to get rich off of it.”

The comic book is available for $2.99 at Barnes and Noble (Nook Book) and Amazon.com (Kindle Edition). Or a hard copy can be purchased for $6.99 on his website devinhughes.com.

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