Merck | Mega Zen

When you’re a kid, being shorter than your friends can be a big deal. It can affect your confidence, make it harder to join in and leave you wondering whether you can do the things everyone else does.

Merck’s brief was to promote its treatment for childhood growth hormone deficiency. I came up with the idea of a comic book, wrote the story and led the project creatively. I wanted to give children something they’d enjoy reading, with a character they could see a bit of themselves in.

Meet Zain. He accidentally discovers a comic called Extraordinary Champ, which opens up a world of adventure and gets him thinking differently about what it means to be a hero. The thought behind it was simple: heroes come in every shape and size, and being small doesn’t have to make your world smaller.

I remember the client being so happy with the comic that they arranged a call with the mother of one of the young patients. She told me her son loved reading it. Apparently, he thought Zain was a bit naughty, but he’d still like to be his friend. Knowing he’d connected with a character I’d written meant a lot to me.