Autistic comic book fans sought for Cambridge University study

Autistic comic book fans are being invited to participate in a Cambridge University study looking at how best to support neurodivergent people to enjoy cartoons.

The project, led by academics at Cambridge’s Faculty of Education, aims to develop guidance to help make comic communities as inclusive and accessible as possible for autistic people.

Autistic people who enjoy comics, who are aged 18 and over and in the UK, are being invited to complete an online survey as the first part of the study.

Research by the Comics Cultural Impact Collective (CCIC) indicates that hundreds of young people self-identifying as neurodivergent are involved in Britain’s comics community, either as fans or creators.

The collective describes itself as an independent group of professionals within the UK comics community working together with the aim of raising awareness of the cultural impact of comics.

It suggests that neurodivergent comic enthusiasts often find spaces like fan conventions, comic book stores, online communities and the comics industry less than welcoming, and frequently feel “siloed”.

The survey hopes to find answers on how to address that – and what it is about comics that attracts so many autistic people in the first place.

Professor Jenny Gibson, an expert in neurodiversity and autism and one of the project’s academic leads, described it as “kick-starting a wider conversation about comics and autism”.

“Comics seem to have massive appeal for a surprising number of autistic people, and many of them are not just fans but enormously talented cartoonists, artists and illustrators,” she said.

“This is something the comics community is increasingly aware of, and there is a lot of enthusiasm for becoming better allies for autistic people.

“What we lack is information about how we can best do that, partly because we don’t know enough about the perspectives and experiences of autistic comics enthusiasts.”

Co-lead Dr Joe Sutliff Sanders said: “Comics have the power to spark a particular kind of obsession and passion among fans.

“They enable a sort of flow state; that pure joy that comes from losing yourself in something that you find interesting and engaging.

“They are almost ready-made for accumulating knowledge and sharing it with like-minded people who will really value what you have to say.

“The problem is that, like so many other parts of society, fan conventions and communities – and the comics industry as a whole – can sometimes inadvertently brush aside neurodivergent people.

“We need to understand what we can do differently in order to make this world as inclusive and accessible as possible.”

The project, called The Collaboration For Comics And Autism, will work with partners including the CCIC and the Lakes International Comic Art Festival.

It will also work with specialist publisher Dekko Comics which supports neurodivergent learners, the Association of Illustrators, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration and autistic cartoonists Bex Ollerton and Eliza Fricker.