Linus (Het geheim van de ruimtelift)

Linus is a character in the Belgian comic book Het geheim van de ruimtelift (The Secret of the Space Elevator).

Character creation
Author Erik Thys is a psychiatrist. The comic was creation in cooperation with Autisme Centraal.

Autism
The back cover states that Linus has an autism spectrum disorder.

The comic describes itself as "the very first comic about autism", a statement that may be contested. With the Light, a Japanese comic about a family with an autistic child, predates Het geheim van de ruimtelift by 8 years. American comics by that point also had around half a dozen minor autistic characters, though none of the stories were ostensibly about autism aside from perhaps Special Forces. As far as European comics and graphic novels go, Het geheim van de ruimtelift does seem to be the first of its kind.