25 Feb CYF Grant Recipient in Profile: Jolly Biscuit

Grade 11 student and future Dragon Tony Xie is changing the world, one comic book at a time.
 
Xie co-founded Jolly Biscuit, an entertainment company encouraging young people to use their own forms of expression to help out the community. It started out with a web comic, but a $2,000 grant from Youth Central’s Calgary Youth Foundation has helped it expand to a full graphic novel and two apps.
 
“After working for a long year on the Jolly Biscuit comic book with a team of 15, we felt it was finally time to expand our operation. We turned to Youth Central,” says Xie.
 
“Youth Central was our first and most important sponsor. They’re the ones who brought our initiative out of infancy and into the light.”
 
After Xie received the grant from Youth Central, he was recognized by the CBC show Dragon’s Den as a Future Dragon and won an additional $5,000 to help grow his company. He plans to use the money to print more books, develop paid apps and new animations.
 
“Our goal at Jolly Biscuit has always been: ‘All we need is a pen, some paper, and a roof. Then we’ll do our best to brighten people’s days.'”
 
You can check out Jolly Biscuit’s comics and other works at jollybiscuit.com. Also, they are always welcoming creative and motivated people to join them, whether you’re interested in making music, programming, art, or even leadership in a team. If interested, email comments@jollybiscuit.com.