Sensory: Life on the Spectrum: An Autistic Comics Anthology

Sensory provides an intimate yet emotionally expansive collection of short comics by autistic creators. An honest and affirming collection of windows into the joys and challenges of existing as a neurodivergent person in an allistic world. This was also filled with useful information for someone who is autistic or has autistic traits. It taught me what rejection sensitive dysphoria is and when I say my reaction was, “oh my god, that’s a thing? That’s not just one of my own personal failures as a human being?” I am not exaggerating.

I don't think this book is for people who know nothing or very little about autism. This is for people who are autistic themselves, know someone who's autistic and wants to learn a bit more, or if u think u might be autistic but aren't sure.

I'm autistic. Self diagnosed for now because it's very hard to get diagnosed. Especially for an adult woman. I've been on the wait list for years. My little brother was diagnosed with autism when he was a toddler and at the time they said it would be easy to diagnose me as well but it wouldn't be worth it, there wouldn't be much point or support because of my age (I was in late highschool at the time). A few years later when I finished highschool we realized that It really was worth getting the show more official diagnoses, we've been trying ever since.
When I finished highschool it was like I all of a sudden became a different much happier person. I had stopped 'masking' and truly became and showed who I actually was for the first time. My parents noticed the difference straight away and were amazed (I honestly didn't even notice until they told me how different I was then I like woah u right. Lol). They were so so happy. They and I knew school was hard on me but we didn't realized until it was all over just how much it was, probably because it was all I ever really knew.

Anyway this book is very very good. Very relatable and I'm so glad this book exists. I found some great tips to help me in my day to day life and also found some stuff that I do that is autistic and I didn't even realize, which I found pretty cool and funny lol.

I actually think this book would be an amazing thing for someone who is struggling to accept that they may be autistic. I denied being autistic for so long. 'i can't be autistic, I'm not diagnosed'. Once I finally accepted that I'm autistic it was like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Literally. Like I finally had a place. I belonged in this world. If I had this book a few years ago I think it would have helped me a lot in accepting who I am. And loving who I am and being autistic.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC show less

Informative and interesting insights into autism by creators who are autistic. It's an anthology of more than 50 short strips, so it has ups and downs from page to page but remains pretty consistently engaging. I was intrigued by the concept of self-diagnosis being an accepted standard within the community and any moments from day-to-day living that were shared.

I really wish a little more effort had gone into formatting and editing. The stories could really use title cards to help distinguish them as they can sort of run together with their variant lengths and sometimes similar art styles. And perhaps those extra pages would also have been great places to introduce the individual creators more fully right next to their stories. Most of show more the stories in the body of the book have no titles or creative names on them, resulting in a lot of flipping back and forth to the table of contents. I was also frustrated to see that the table of contents lists many of the creators by their proper names, but the Contributors section in the back of the book and online at https://asdcomix.com/contributors often lists only their online user handles / aliases/ pseudonyms, so it took a little digging to connect Hallowmations to Angelina Eddins and ebm to Kyle Lewis, to name just two. I've included all variations I worked out in the contents included below.

(An aside: I probably spent 4 or 5 times longer compiling the contents and adding creator credits to Goodreads and LibraryThing for this book than I did actually reading it. Happy obsessive time for me! Yay!)

FOR REFERENCE:

Bio profiles and social media links for all creators are available at https://asdcomix.com/contributors . Social media handles are included in brackets after the name that appears on the book's Table of Contents.

Contents:
• Introduction / Bex Ollerton [Rebecca Ollerton and Schnumn]
• Better Now Than Never / Emma O'Friel [Moodypidge]
• Two Bridges Apart / Arian Sebastian Farzad [CSomeoneH and CertainlySomeoneHere], story; Laila Ahamad [Laila Portrays], art
• Consent Is Beautiful / Suzanne Wdowik [MargaretWind]
• Overwhelm / Chloe F. McKay [AcidKeyLime and Wren]
• How I Found Sense / Allie [AllieIllustrate]
• Cover for Me / Alice Williams
• Things That Help / Matt Crane [Mattihase]
• Greater Understanding / Buddy O. Baker
• 54321 / Dean McColl
• Until There Was Nothing Left / Noel Fox [Hexed Boy]
• Masking and Mirroring / Bex Ollerton [Rebecca Ollerton and Schnumn]
• Fly / Jo Svensson [Mr. Squidgereen]
• Autism and Me: What You'll Find / Rhia May-Byrd [SaltedGayFish]
• Behind the Wheel / Angelina Eddins [Hallowmations]
• How I Fit into the World / Charlie Watts
• Home / Almond
• Halfway / Dominique Morris [Newtsoda]
• The Truth Behind Asperger's / Micaela Wainstein [Tismoonie]
• Masking in Autism / Mell Stansel [DandelionLambs]
• Going Outside / Jinx Peregrine
• Retreat / Alicia Wdderburn-Graham [Leesha] and Bex Ollerton [Rebecca Ollerton and Schnumn]
• Things I Didn't Know / Laila Ahamad [Laila Portrays]
• Special Interests: The Ups and Downs! / Ash Ortiz
• Accepting My Autism / Reloaxa [Morgan Jordan]
• Compliments / Kayla Gilliam [Konnichibot]
• Theatre / PJ Fairweather [PJ Draws]
• Autigiography / Jo Blakely
• Burn Out / Kyle Lewis [ebm]
• Clothing Language / Lindsay Miller [Seacow Soda]
• Battery / Nova Kahan
• Tips for Autistic Adult Life / T Catt [Tea]
• The Special Interest Suplex / CJ Barrett and Toria McCallum
• Infantilization of Autistic Women / Alexandra McCarthy [One_In_Hundred]
• Meeting My Needs / Molly McCracken [SheepEtc]
• Music Waves / Michiums [Michi]
• Sparks / Katie Cunningham and Alice Williams
• Of Fairy Lights and Change / C. A. Crisóstomo [Et Fictor]
• Autistic Joy / Taylor Reynolds
• Autism Soup / Cy Popps [Cypopps]
• Getting Autism Diagnosed / T Catt and Allie
• Self-Diagnosis / Bex Ollerton [Rebecca Ollerton and Schnumn]
• Hurting and Helping / Shay Commander [Cadaverkeys]
• Autism and Jobs / Rhia May-Byrd
• Triple-A / Jo Svensson [Mr. Squidgereen]
• Autistic Person / Cy Popps
• Autistic Burnout / Dominque Morris [Newtsoda]
• Seeing Ourselves / Kai Mycelium [Shroomy and uboaappears]
• Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria / Bex Ollerton [Rebecca Ollerton and Schnumn]
• Community: On Autism, Race, and Representation / Alicia Wedderburn-Graham [Leesha] and Micaela Wainstein [Tismoonie]
• What Day Is It? / Dominique Morris [Newtsoda]
• Sharing Your Story / Arian S. Farzad [CSomeoneH and CertainlySomeoneHere], story; and Alexandra McCarthy [One_In_Hundred]
• The Wrap Up / Alicia Wedderburn-Graham [Leesha]
• Autistic Pride / Bex Ollerton [Rebecca Ollerton and Schnumn]
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements show less

This anthology was organized by Ollerton for Autism Acceptance Month 2021. It features comics (some very short, some several pages) from a variety of autistic creators. If I understood things correctly, the comics were originally posted online and got a positive response that inspired a Kickstarter for a physical book.

Quite a few of the comics are focused on the authors' emotions - what being autistic feels like to them, how they feel about how neurotypical folks interact with them, etc. Several of the comics talk about masking and autistic burnout, and some of them include tips for other autistic people about managing potentially difficult things like dealing with tasks, sensory overload, holding conversations, etc. There are also a show more couple comics that cover things like being an autistic POC and dealing with non-suicidal self-injury.

Anthologies are hard to review/rate because it's rare that I gel with everything in them. As is usually the case, I liked some comics more than others, either because of the artwork, or because I could relate to the content more, or because a particular author's overall writing style appealed to me more.

That said, for something like autism, where experiences can vary so widely, an anthology is probably the best way to go. There's almost certainly something in here that readers can relate to and/or find useful, even if other parts fall flat for whatever reason.

One thing I wish had been done differently: the "want more information" bits at the end include QR codes but no URLs. I really would have preferred URLs. Another thing that would have been nice: some sort of transition between the different comics or other clear indication that a new comic had begun. Even when it was obvious, it was jarring to see vastly different art styles from one page to the next with no other indication that a new comic had begun. Also, sometimes the art styles weren't quite different enough, and I found myself trying to read two authors' comics as though they were one.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

graphic nonfiction - collected comics from 50-some different autistic creators showing their various experiences. Lots about masking, mirroring, burning out from spending so much energy trying to fit in with neurotypicals, coping with overstimulation, finally arriving at diagnosis, etc. Recommended for people with autism as well as those without (we owe it to our friends to try to understand their experiences better).

This collection of short comics written by those with autism helped me to understand life with autism in a new way.