Advertisement

Great Grad: Strawberry Crest senior's comic strip is an antidote for stress

 
Published June 1, 2016

VALRICO — It's a given. Students enrolled in Strawberry Crest High's challenging IB Program are subject to stress.

Senior Will Leech is no exception. Earning a weighted 6.86 grade point average and being named a National Merit Scholarship Finalist have by no means been easy feats.

But the 18-year-old, who graduates Tuesday, has found an uncommon way to counteract the day-to-day rigors of studying.

He creates two-panel comic strips for the Bloomingdale Gazette, a Tampa Bay Times monthly publication that reaches the 5,200 homeowners in the Valrico community south of Bloomingdale Avenue between Lithia Pinecrest Road and Bells Shoals Avenue.

"It's one of those things where I can just sit down and relax doing it," Leech said.

Its title is Michigan, a moniker he has given the strip's main character, a teenage female he describes as immature and a bit crazy.

"She breaks the stereotype for what a typical high school girl is like," he said. "She's out there."

Leech, the son of Tom and Miriam Leech, has had a penchant for both art and comedy since early childhood. While he has never had any formal art lessons, he performed as a standup comic in his school's annual talent show the past three years.

"I've been really surprised how much people say they like it (the comic strip) and I want to go wherever it takes me, maybe being an animator or perhaps doing more comic strips or comic books," Leech said.

Miriam Leech, a senior writer for the Bloomingdale Gazette, said getting the consent of editor Joy Boisselle to run her son's work was an easy sell.

"Joy said she had been thinking about having a comic strip," said Miriam Leech, noting that Boisselle has given her son free rein with each of his creations that have run monthly since September 2015.

What impresses Miriam Leech most is that her son is able to accomplish just about anything he sets his mind on.

"He's methodical and he's patient, and I admire his perseverance," she said.

Will Leech's dad describes Will, the younger of the couple's two sons, as the kind of kid who doesn't let obstacles get in the way of achieving whatever he sets out to do.

"The way I look at it is that he has an incredible talent he can develop on his own," Tom Leech said. "He pursues things almost to perfection, and he'll get there by trial and error."

Strawberry Crest fellow senior Kristin Cash has been a classmate and friend of Will Leech since elementary school. He has even given her some drawing lessons.

"He's really good at it and his drawings have gotten better over the years," she said.

Kristen Gaertner, a junior at the school and another friend, describes him as a talented artist, especially in the genre of realism.

"He also has a great sense of humor, and I look forward to seeing what he's got in store," she said.

Although Leech plans to attend Florida State University in the fall he intends to continue the comic strip. It is, after all, his main mode to chill.

Contact Joyce McKenzie at hillsnews@tampabay.com.