Leold was created by father and son team, Roger and Simon "Salem" Salloom. The cartoon panel was inspired by a drawing of a tall very thin humanoid type character, purposefully devoid of any noticeable facial characteristics, drawn by Salem when he was 13 years old. Roger, wondering what the character was thinking wrote some words to go along with the picture. The combination was put into a tall and long panel, unique in the world of print cartoons, submitted and consequently published in the Valley Comic News.

The strip was first syndicated by Syndicate X and then by Tribune Media's College Press Service, eventually reaching a peak syndication of approximately 500 papers across the United States. The cartoon was produced as a bi-weekly feature for about ten years. The strip had an alternative bent, existential, fatalistic, with a sometimes social justice factor-- yet funny, peculiar, sometimes profound and always plain old weird. With its popularity among college students, it has been speculated that Leold's periodic summation at the end of his monologues of "Life is good," inspired the clothing company. The panel was hugely popular at Umass Amherst when the founders of Life is Good were enrolled.

Eventually, in 1998, an animated pilot episode of the popular comic strip was produced. This pilot episode was written by Mike Scully & Julie Thacker of "The Simpsons" and Roger & Salem. Animation by acclaimed Olive Jar Studios, famous for the MTV interstitials and exceptional television commercial animation, Executive Producers, Wes Talbot and Fred MacDonald. Voices by Simon "Salem" Salloom, Tom Savoy, Rachel Haas, and Wes Talbot. Music by Jared Faber.

We hope you enjoy this site which has the intention of keeping the fond memory of this unique and whimsical character.