'Really impactful': Ex-Bears player Christian Jones tackles the publishing world with new book on African history

CHICAGO (CBS) — Christian Jones may have as big a smile as anyone who’s played with the Chicago Bears in recent memory.

Now, he has a new reason to smile. He and his wife started a media company and they just had their first big release, one that’s close to their heart. CBS 2’s Matt Zahn explains.

Last year, when Christian Jones wasn’t making tackles on the field for the Bears, he was tackling a new challenge off it.

“It’s been fun. Cool to step outside of Christian Jones the football guy,” Christian Jones said.

Christian and his wife Liz started out writing a children’s book. They ended up creating a multimedia company, focused on bringing to life some of the untold stories of African history, and it all starts with their first graphic novel.

“We wanted it to be something that was not just for children, but for adults too,” said Liz Jones. “So we decided to go the graphic novel/comic book route.”

“A lot of the history is so cool, that we decided to take all these cool stories we found,” Christian Jones said. “How can we turn this into something entertaining? People can look at this. That’s how we came up with the concept.”

And now that their concept has turned into something tangible, and you can feel how much passion they have for this.

“It’s amazing. Holding it our hands for the hands for the first time. It’s pretty surreal. It’s way more that what we thought it would be,” Liz Jones said.

“It’s mind blowing. It’s people that look like us portrayed in a positive light. It’s pretty cool,” added Christian Jones. “I get kind of emotional just looking at it. It’s special. Very proud of it, the hard work, and the team. We think it’s something that can be really impactful.”

We finally got our hands on the physical copies of Queen Amani Renas – Protector of Nubia & now you can, too! We just shipped out the first batch of orders today, and hope you fall in love with Amani Renas’ story just as we did. Link in bio to order! pic.twitter.com/lmjSoZuhic

— lymarimedia (@lymarimedia) March 31, 2022

And they plan on this being the first of many of their projects to inspire, educate and have fun with. The Joneses worked with a history professor who did over 1,000 hours of research to ensure everything is historically and culturally accurate.

For more details or to order a copy of their first graphic novel, go to lymarimedia.com.

Source: ChicagoCBS