A dad created a comic book character with Down syndrome in honor of his 7-year-old son, and the book is now gaining traction in the mainstream.
Chip Reece, who participated in the Air Capital Comic Con on Sunday, told KWCH-TV that he searched for a comic book character that his son Ollie, who has Down syndrome, could relate to, but could not find one.
"I've just been a comic book fan all my life, and I started looking for comics of characters who had Down syndrome when we found out my son had Down syndrome," Reece, of Wichita, Kansas, told KWCH-TV.
"I think it's just important for anybody to see characters like them represented because they're able to see that they're included just like everybody else … specifically for people with Down syndrome, they can be anything they want to be," Reece added.
Reece teamed with illustrator Kelly Williams to make the comic book with the Down syndrome superhero Metaphase for just family and friends, but when a publisher heard about it, the book was developed about a father-son superhero team, KWCH-TV wrote.
In what is now a 10-page graphic novel, Ollie, a boy with Down syndrome, wants to have powers just like his superhero dad, CBS News wrote. The father, worried about Ollie's heart defects, tries to hold his son back.
Meta-Makers, a company run by an egomaniac, tells Ollie that it can give him the superpowers he craves, CBS News wrote.
"As a kid it's the thing you dream about — being a superhero," Reece told CBS News. "I wanted my son to think that he, too, could dream just as big as I dreamed when I was little kid."
CBS News wrote that nearly 1,500 copies of Metaphase, which can be purchased at Barnes and Noble, have been sold, with one reaching Ollie's school library.
"He's had kids come up to him at school yelling, 'It's the superhero kid!' It's pretty cool. I love that it has given people a reason to approach him," Reece told CBS News.
Reece and Metaphase have also started to win fans on social media.
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