Rebecca Ollerton

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.… (mais)

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 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.)… (mais)