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When Chip Reece learned that his son Ollie had Down syndrome, the lifelong fan of comic books looked for one that featured a character with Down syndrome, with no success.
Reece then decided to create his own 10-page comic for family and friends. He worked on it while his Ollie was a baby, in an out of the hospital with a heart condition.
Word got out, a publisher took an interest, and Reece and illustrator Kelly Williams turned that booklet into a graphic novel about a father-and-son superhero team called Metaphase.
“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.”
“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 is included… specifically for people with Down syndrome, they can be anything they want to be,” Reece told KWCH12.
Last week Ollie, now 7, manned a booth with his father at the The Air Capital Comic Con in Wichita. Reece has plans for a sequel which he says, will bring Ollie’s “big personality” into the book.
“He’s a very happy kid. He’s funny. He can’t say things, but I can tell. He is a prankster, which might be because of me,” Reece said.
Metaphase is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
And today we celebrate...