Keiko Kobe: With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child (Volume 3)

McCloud (1993) in his seminal book, Understanding Comics, provides us with clues as to why Japanese manga graphic novels, such as With the Light, are so popular among higher functioning individuals on the autism spectrum. He refers to comics as “sequential art” that ‘strips down an image to its essential meaning and can amplify that meaning in a way that realistic art can’t’ (p. 30). McCloud feels that comics are visual iconography which approaches a form of universal communication. Comics are ‘a mono-sensory medium, which relies on only one sense to convey a world of experience’ (p. 89). For individuals on the autism spectrum that have sensory integration issues, this may help prevent sensory overload. Furthermore, this medium uses symbols and backgrounds to represent emotions, inner psychological states, and even non-verbal communication which help individuals on the autism spectrum better understand social interactions. For example, the use of bolding of words in comics are more direct and “…require lower levels of perception and are received faster, more like pictures.” (p. 49). In manga, emotions are represented uniformly and follow rules that are easy to understand (e.g. sadness is always drawn with tears in the character’s eyes). Anger is represented by a character bearing sharpened teeth, hair standing on end, sharply angled eyes, and flames or steam emanating from the ears. Unlike Western comics, Japanese manga are quite lengthy (e.g. With the Light = 527 pages) and there is less pressure to pack a great deal of meaning into a single frame. Manga, according to McCloud, can devote dozens of panels to “…portraying a slow cinematic movement or setting a mood.” (p. 80). This allows a young person on the autism spectrum to decipher the intent of characters in a slow and deliberate manner. The style of this art is also clearly 2 dimensional in manga. Western style comic books are often drawn in 3-D and with a great deal of superfluous background detail which may overwhelm some individuals on the spectrum. …