Sensory: Life on the Spectrum: An Autism Comics Anthology By Ben Ollerton

This anthology gives a lot of really valuable information of individuals on the autism spectrum. I was able to be immersed in their stories in subtle ways. From the artwork of the birds in the story, Fly where a bird is struggling to fly on its own. When they fall they find other birds similar to them. It was a beautiful way to show how if one way of flying doesn’t work, there are plenty of ways and other birds they can lean on. They aren’t alone in a world where so many others that only view ‘flying’ as one way. It’s a beautiful demonstration of one person’s journey in a world where we aren’t understood as much as we would like. However, rather than want pity/sympathy from others, we face the challenges head on and face them with perseverance and strength.

Something this anthology does really well is provide information on different aspects of autism that aren’t as obvious. The authors and editors were able to dive deeper into the history of facts (e.g. Hans Asperger and the origin of where the term Asperger came from). I didn’t realize, up till reading this the origins of certain terms and it was fascinating to me. They also dive into POC and WOC that are on the spectrum. This is critical because sadly we don’t see a lot of representation of POC/WOC on the spectrum. All we see are white males that are either intelligent or emotionless (e.g. Sheldon from Big Bang Theory or Shaun Murphy from The Good Doctor). This section did draw me more into the anthology and wish we got more accurate female representation who are on the spectrum.

One thing I wish I got more from this anthology was more development from the stories. I understand this is an anthology, so the stories could only be so long. Despite this, the stories felt rushed at times and I wish I was able to see a more grounded level of them because every single story that the creators told deserved a bigger platform, not just a couple of pages/sections.

Finally, be prepared for the resources are mostly from the UK. It was a great shift because most of the time the statistics we get are from the U.S. and even then might not be accurate, so it was nice to see research being done properly and the effort made to educate us about autistic individuals in the UK. Overall, great anthology and highly recommend for Autism Acceptance Month!