TEHACHAPI, Calif. -- Ray Friesen started out small. At 12 years old, he started making Xerox copies of his first book and selling them to friends.

“I just drew it all by hand and brought it to Witt’s, the copy place, and had them staple it and make multiple copies and I bugged all my friends and made them buy them. Actually, the school let me have my first book signing there. I set up at lunch, in the middle of the quad and sold copies there for fifty cents each," Friesen said.

Proud of his first comic book, 12-year-old Friesen decided to start shopping his book to bookstores.

He said, "I went down to the Barnes and Noble in Bakersfield and said, ‘hey can you sell these books here?’ And they were very nice and said, 'we do not usually take Xerox books from people off the street. The books we sell in the store here need an ISBN number, usually they need a spine. They need these various sort of things,' and I said, 'OK, well I will do that!"

And that is exactly what Friesen did.

Although it took a few years, he created his own production company, Don’t Eat Any Bugs, teamed up with a distribution company and got his first book, “Cheese Related Mishaps” into bookstores when he was only 15 years old.

Now, Friesen is 21 years old and has published four books.

“I am very proud of all of my accomplishments, and it just warms my heart to see other people enjoying what I do,” said Friesen.

Friesen said if you put The Simpsons, Indiana Jones and Disney in a blender, you would get his books. Filled with comedy, adventure, innocence and fun.

He said, "Any kid can read my books. Parents can feel completely safe letting them read mine. They are all about funny, all about adventure, pirates and penguins, and sword fights and talking birds, and random hat expeditions. And just sillyness, I am very silly.”

You can expect to see many more books from Friesen in the future.

He hopes to eventually publish three to four books a year and also try his hand at animated cartoons.

If you would like to find out more about Friesen, you can visit his Web site at www.donteatanybugs.com

Friesen will also be having a book signing at Barnes and Noble in Bakersfield on March 21.