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Sensory: Life on the Spectrum An Autistic Comic Anthology

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By Soph Myers-Kelley   Referencing Autism Connections, the prevalence of autism in the United States is estimated at 1 in 44 births (CDC, 2021). More than 5.4 million Adults in the U.S., or 2.2 percent of the U.S. population, are on the autism spectrum (CDC and Disability Scoop, 2020), and about 1 percent of the world population has autism (CDC, 2014). These numbers are likely on the lower side, as many autistic people don’t have access to diagnosis due to a lack of insurance or aren’t evaluated appropriately for autism due to inappropriate stereotypes about their gender, race, or age. The stigma… Read More

Something Different About Dad

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Review by Soph Myers-Kelley   Something Different About Dad by Kirsti Evans (illustrated by John Swogger) is a book meant to help educate children between 7 to 15 years of age who might be confused or frustrated with the differences they notice in an adult they know or live with who is autistic. I was especially interested in reading it as a late diagnosed autistic and ADHD person. This kind of content is important- especially when it covers aspects of the relationship that a child might find negative AND the parts that are positive. Often autism is portrayed as an… Read More

American Splendour (sic)

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A real-life file clerk in a Cleveland hospital, Pekar has been documenting the quotidian idiosyncrasies of his day-to-day life and work since 1976 in the cult comic series American Splendor. One of the first writers to think that everyday life could provide the basis for comic book stories, Pekar is interesting in the way he goes about making comics, writing the storyline , hiring various cartoonists (most notably Robert Crumb) to do the drawing, and then publishing and distributing the comics himself. British cartoonist Colin Warneford, who has Asberger’s syndrome (or “high functioning” autism) contacted Pekar and they collaborated on… Read More