Tony Weaver Jr. thinks everyone should be a weirdo.
โA weirdo is a person with the ability to make the ordinary extraordinary. What a world would we have if all of us stepped out every day with the goal of really living and embodying that,โ he tells TODAY.com.
Weaver is a multi-hyphenate author who believes that โstories are the most positive tool for social change in the history of mankind.โ And with a platform that draws attention to conversations about diversity in the nerd community, initiatives that serve to promote literacy and his debut graphic novel โWeirdo,โ heโs doing just that.
โWhen people read โWeirdo,’ I want them to feel seen, nurtured and inspired. The idea is that you should open (it) and immediately go, โOh, I belong in this world. I belong with these characters. These characters are like me. These characters are like my friends,โโ Weaver says. “‘They feel the same way that I felt.'”
‘A Deep Responsibility’
This section discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
โWeirdoโ is an Eisner Award-nominated, semi-autobiographical graphic novel memoir that combines nerd culture and magical realism to tell Weaverโs personal story of navigating bullying and self-doubt “but ultimately finding light on the other side.”
Weaver, who has been open about previously attempting suicide, says he felt a โdeep responsibilityโ to help kids navigate their darkest moments when he decided to write โWeirdo.โ
โWhat I like to say is that stories saved my life, so I like using stories to help other people,” he says.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 20.4% of high school students seriously considered attempting suicide, while 9.5% had attempted suicide.
โLooking at those staggering rates and having first-hand experience of how it feels to have to navigate those negative emotions, I felt like it was my responsibility to do something,โ Weaver says.
โThereโs something very humbling about the idea that thereโs a parent who loves their child more than anything in the world, and when that child, that person that they care about more than words can describe, needs help, they reach for something that has my name on it,โ he adds.
Weaver also believes that using a visual medium, like a graphic novel, can help readers understand feelings that they may not be able to express with words.
โThereโs a moment in โWeirdoโ where so much is going wrong in my life that it feels like Iโm losing all of the color in the world around me,” he explains. “So visually, we demonstrate that motif by literally having the colors drain from the pages until the comic is black and white.โ
Weaver also uses his extensive knowledge of manga and anime within the world of โWeirdo.โ From “Pokรฉmon” to “Ace Attorney” and “JoJoโs Bizarre Adventure,” there are at least 50 references in the novel โ with the first three pages having 12 alone. He calls the references the novelโs โstrongest advantageโ as it helps create a fantastical mirror of readers’ own world.
โI want kids of a variety of fandoms to look at what weโre making and say, โOh, I belong here. This guy gets it. These people understand me. I can be safe here,โโ he says.
But itโs not just kids who feel seen while reading Weaverโs work. Though โWeirdoโ is marketed as a middle grade novel, it has managed to strike a chord with adults as well.
โIโve had the privilege to speak to a lot of adult readers of โWeirdoโ and normally the story goes something like this: โI got it for my son, I got it for my nephew, I got it for my niece, and I sat down and read it before I gave it to them, because I wanted to vet it. And, man, I wish I had this book when I was younger.โ I think thatโs the highest praise that a person can receive,โ he says.
โI think that motivates me a lot as I create. What I say is that โWeirdoโ is for every person on their journey to self-love. Some of us take that journey when weโre kids. Others of us end up very far into adulthood before weโre able to take those steps. But itโs my goal that itโll be there as a support for everybody,” he adds.
In addition to being an author, Weaver is the founder and CEO of Weird Enough Productions, a media company dedicated to using anime to create positive representations of Black men and other minority groups. Through Weird Enough Productions, Weaver and his team, along with collaborators like anime distributor Crunchyroll, aim to boost reading proficiency among marginalized readers by helping them connect with characters in manga and comics.
According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, 33% of 8th graders are not reading at the NAEP Basic level, meaning “a third of 8th graders likely could not identify basic literary elements in a text.”
Literacy experts say that graphic novels can help promote reading comprehension among younger readers, as the combination of pictures and text can keep them engaged with the material. According to a survey conducted by School Library Journal in May 2023, out of the respondents, 90% of public librarians and 83% of school librarians say they suggested graphic novels to students who struggle with reading.
But there is the persisting belief that graphic novels donโt count as “real reading,” and 59% of the school librarians surveyed said they’ve received opposition to graphic novels from teachers, parents and more.
โThereโs this idea that if I can read a classic piece of literature, that Iโm smart. Whereas, if I read 1,000 chapters of โOne Pieceโ and I understand the themes and whatโs being communicated, that thatโs low brow, and thatโs not as important,โ Weaver says.
โThe data is very clear about what graphic novels do to positively benefit literacy and get kids reading, and I think itโs a no-brainer why graphic novels are a great way to get kids excited about literacy and about storytelling,” he adds.
This back to school season, Weaver is raising money to purchase books for underresourced schools across the country. Weaver is hosting the fundraising campaign, titled Nerds for Literacy, on the Weird Enough website. After raising funds, Weaver will purchase a list of books โ selected by donors, literacy education specialists and young readers โ from independent bookstores and distribute them to schools.
“WHO WOULD WIN IN A FIGHT. EVERY NERD IN THE UNITED STATES OR THE YOUTH LITERACY CRISIS?!” states the donation page, which so far, has raised $25,000 in 48 hours.
In addition to producing his own graphic novel and running Weird Enough Productions, Weaver also uses social media to discuss hard topics in the nerd community, such as racism, bullying and mental health. However, he takes a unique approach.
โWhen I started creating content online, one of my largest gripes was that it felt like everybody was reading off of a cue card. The information wasnโt being presented in an engaging way, in a particularly intuitive way, or in an easy to understand way,โ he says. โA lot of it was super long winded. This video took 60 seconds, you couldโve explained this to me in 10.โ
With that, he decided to challenge himself. And what did he decide to do? Well, rhyme.
He calls himself, “Dr. Seuss without the racism,” as the children’s author’s legacy faced a reckoning in 2021 over the racist imagery in his books. In March of that year, Dr. Seuss Enterprises stopped publishing and licensing six of his children’s books and said in a statement they “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.”
Weaver says he canโt stop rhyming โ no matter how hard he tries.
โAt the beginning, the idea was supposed to be, I have such mastery over the information that Iโm trying to present to you that I can do it in a whimsical and rhyme scheme type way, and you still understand exactly whatโs going on. That was my goal,โ he says.
โUltimately, it reached a point where I actually canโt stop rhyming,” he adds. “I write stuff and my brain immediately is like, โCool, so weโll rhyme it like this,โ and Iโm like, no one said this had to rhyme. What are you doing?โ
And yes, he did try pausing this approach as an experiment. Letโs just say, people were not supportive.
โWe stopped rhyming for a couple of videos, and the people were like, โWhere are the rhymes?โโ he says. โThe people have spoken. They want the bars.โ
โWeirdo’s” sequel is currently in the process of being illustrated and will be released in early 2027, he says. The sequel will follow Weaver and his friends (and some new faces!) and connect to the events that occur at the end of the first book.
โItโs intended to grapple with some of these negative feelings that kids have around standardized tests and around the ways that institutions measure intelligence inaccurately,” he says.
While most of the experiences in โWeirdoโ were lifted right from Weaverโs life, heโs having a bit more “fun” with its sequel.
โThereโs a bit more of a divergence between what real life Tony experienced and whatโs going on in the world of โWeirdo,โ which lets us play around a lot,” he says.
Weaver is also trying to find new ways to add more “updated” references, but he’s admittedly finding it a bit tricky.
โIf you reference it in the last book, are you allowed to reference it this time?” he poses. “If you do reference it, do you reference it differently? How do you do it?… Are we talking about Fortnite in โWeirdo 2โ? Are there Battle Buses? Are they dropping on Tomato Town? I donโt know!โ
While we wait for the sequel, Weaver is keeping his cards close to his chest about what is happening between now and then.
โโWeirdo 2โ is going to be exciting, but you got to keep your eyes peeled. Sequels are always cool things to continue projects, but there are other ways that projects can continue to live on, you know?โ he says. โAdaptations are a thing, and thatโs all I can really say.โ
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988, or go to 988lifeline.org to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
