What makes a good heroic story? Well, to some of the ‘learned’ writers, it is taught that a heroic story consists of a person that suffers loss and hardship on their quest for redemption or fulfillment. In its most simple connotation this is true. I know that I live with a heroic figure by the prior definition. However, heroic sagas are most of the time reserved for the pages of fiction.
This young man is the real life example of the heroic saga. He lived a saga where he didn’t just talk about it, he did it. He published his own comic book. Many of you who know me personally know that is one of my most important philosophies. That those that do, even if they do it not so well, stand head and shoulders over those that just talk about doing things.
So, the next time any of us want to wallow in our petty miseries just think of Zachi who recently won his battle on this plane of existence to enter the next…
Allentown boy conjures his own comic book superheroes while fighting cancer
By Colin McEvoy | The Express-Times
on February 17, 2013 at 6:00 AM, updated February 17, 2013 at 6:12 AM 
Zachi Telesha created superheroes that are now featured in a comic book. Photo courtesy Rodale | TOM MACDONALD
In his five-year struggle with cancer, 12-year-old Zachi Telesha has found strength by inventing his own comic book superheroes.
While he can’t fight the illness away, the Allentown boy feels a kinship between his own hardships and the challenges his creations face in battling supervillains and saving the world.
“My superheroes are based on the struggles that can happen to anybody,” Zachi said. “There’s a bright side to every dark side. Just like every superhero has a good side and a dark side.”
Zachi was 7 years old when the bone cancer osteosarcoma was discovered in his left femur and spread to his lungs. Since then he has endured multiple surgeries and invasive chemotherapy regimens, and the cancer has relapsed four times.
But his imagination was never hindered, and during those same years he was conjuring up his own superheroes, members of a crime-fighting team called Hero Inc.
Zachi always had dreams of publishing his own comic book. And, last year, that dream came true.
With help from the McKinley Elementary School in Allentown, Zachi was able to publish “Hero Up!” — a 32-page comic that chronicles the origins and battles of Zachi’s slate of heroes.
“I honestly think it was a God-sent miracle,” Zachi said. “There’s no way I’d have been able to raise the money to get a publisher or editor. I’d probably have had to save my whole life’s allowance to publish just one book.”
A five-year struggle
Since his diagnosis in the summer of 2008, Zachi has had bones removed from his legs and replaced with titanium rods. His chest has been surgically opened so doctors could remove tumors from his lungs by hand, centimeter by centimeter.
But the cancer has persisted. Last month, his doctors found new small tumors in his lungs, and those already there had grown. And on Monday, treatment began on newly developed tumors in his neck.
About a year ago, a doctor said he probably only had 3 to 6 months to live. But Zachi felt otherwise.
“He said, ‘I kind of don’t think I have a short time, mom. I think I have a little while longer,'” said Susan Telesha. She and her husband, Marc, adopted Zachi in 2011.
He’s said before, ‘If I could only be my superhero, I could knock this cancer out of me and I’d be alright.'”
“Besides his limp, you would never know he’s still sick,” she said. “He’s a trouper. He’s been through hell and back.”
Zachi also faced difficult personal experiences.
Before he was adopted, his biological father, Alfredo Reyes Ortiz, beat his mother to death with a baseball bat. Ortiz pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in November 2010 and was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison.
But McKinley Principal Richard Kern said despite everything Zachi has faced, he has always maintained a positive attitude and enthusiastic spirit that makes him an inspiration to everyone around him.
“He’s a true definition of the word ‘resiliency,'” Kern said. “Even when he has dark days, he always seems to come around to find some ray of hope or some ray of light there.”
Publishing his own book
Speaking from his Lehigh Valley Hospital room, Zachi exudes unbridled excitement about the superheros he invented.
There’s Venom-Girl, whose incredible speed and agility lets her dodge nearly everything. And Venom-Transporter, the Hero Inc. leader who can paralyze his foes. Or Venom-Combat, an archer who received his powers when an aura surrounded him during a “difficult time in his life.”
“Sometimes he wishes he could be one of his superheroes, because cancer is this evil villain,” Susan Telesha said. “He’s said before, ‘If I could only be my superhero, I could knock this cancer out of me and I’d be alright.'”
Currently a sixth-grader at Trexler Middle School, Zachi was attending McKinley last year when employees from the Emmaus-based publisher Rodale Inc. learned of his dream to publish a book.
Rodale is a corporate sponsor with McKinley through its role as a COMPASS Community school, an initiative aimed at giving students access to resources and support through various community partnerships.
Rodale and McKinley officials worked with Zachi to collaborate on his dream book. He spent five months working with Rodale writers, editors and graphic artists, Kern said.
Thirty hardcover copies were printed for Zachi and his family, and another 1,000 softcover copies are for sale at Trexler for $10. All proceeds go to the Lehigh Valley-based nonprofit Angel 34, which supports children with pediatric cancer.
Zachi is expected to undergo surgery Thursday for the tumors discovered in his neck. They are pressing against his spinal cord and could lead to paralysis if left untreated, Susan said. But that hasn’t slowed Zachi’s imagination. He is still thinking up stories for his next comic book, and is maintaining the positive attitude he is known for.
“I guess it’s something God put into me that allows me to be positive,” he said. “I try to find the bright side in every situation, no matter what.”
You can purchase his book here: http://www.angel34.org/merchandise_main.php
