Hayley Yeager's Portfolio Blog

  Jon Adams has Asperger Syndrome, which is a condition on the autism spectrum, and suffers a neurological condition called Synaesthesia, which stimulates one sense that starts to automate uncontrollable reactions in the second sense. One example would be that he can "see sounds". His work studies sense and sensitivity through the "hidden" and performs with observations of ordinary and the isolated. Interview with Jon Adams: https://www.learnfromautistics.com/autism-interview-113-jon-adams-on-autism-art-and-the-flow-observatorium/ Jon Adams Website: https://www.artscatalyst.org/artist/jon-adams Jon Adams: Autistic Identity and Culture - Autism Ambassador Conference 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-IKo2qeSbM

  Jon Adams is from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He even has worked in digital media, sound, drawing, performance, and poetry.  He even quoted, "Although I was diagnosed later in life, being autistic has influenced my arts practice positively. I became a geological and archeological book illustrator using my skills in 3D and love of detail. I was able to work to deadlines and enjoyed the solitariness of self-employment. I started making conceptually and socially engaged projects using my synaesthesia, systemising and literalness as artistic tools. I mapped two million minutes of my life in a ‘geological metaphor’ during the London 2012 Olympics. Autistic creatives are mostly invisible and unsupported. I’ve set up Flow Observatorium to push for recognition and cultural inclusion." Link:  https://desis.osu.edu/seniorthesis/index.php/2019/09/13/these-artists-prove-autism-is-no-barrier-to-creativity/  

  Articles That Talk About Him: Dave Kot: http://autism-light.blogspot.com/2016/03/david-kot.html Dave and Angie Kot, Autism at Face Value: https://geekclubbooks.com/2014/03/dave-angie-kot-autism-at-face-value/#:~:text=Dave%20Kot%20is%20the%20founder,for%20autism%20awareness%20and%20acceptance.

  Michael is a comic book character, created by comic book scriptwriter Dave Kot, who is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. He is a hero with a mathematical brain, has a gift in art, and a profusion of kindness. According to Face Value Comics, it says that Michael is the first comic book hero with the disorder amongst comic books. World’s First Comic Book Hero with Autism Created by Man on Spectrum (Article):   https://www.epicheroes.com/2018/12/20/comic-book-hero-with-autism/ The World's First Autistic Comic Book Hero (Video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=ZmnpolBC7oI&feature=emb_logo

As of 2012's  Fantastic Four Season One  graphic novel by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Reed Richards has diagnosed himself with autism, though he is also developing a cure for it. We can talk about how this representation is problematic, how it seems unlikely an autistic person as successful in life as Reed would consider curing himself (keep in mind a cure for something that affects his entire brain would basically rewrite him into a completely different person), or about the controversies over self-diagnosis (too much to get into here). But despite all that, the simple fact of the founder of the Fantastic Four being autistic is cool.   Reed Richards, born in Central City, California, and the only son of Nathaniel and Evelyn Richards, was a child genius with special ability in mathematics, physics, and mechanics. Evelyn eventually died when Reed was just seven. Reed registered college at age fourteen and had four degrees in engineering, math, and physics by age eighteen. By a...

Johnny Do was a severely autistic pyrokinetic child in the comic  Psi-Force , which was among the eight comic book runs in Marvel's short-lived "New Universe" of earth-148611 that only took from 1986 to 1989. Johnny was badly abused as a prisoner of the Russian Siberian Project and was treated in the same way as an animal and menaced with a lobotomy. Another prisoner, supernatural vampire Thomas Boyd, escaped the Project and freed him, and later adopted him as his own child. As Johnny was still nonverbal and severely disabled, Johnny began to grow well and began to open under Boyd's caring security, running together with him as a role of the Medusa Web undercover ops corporation. Possibly reader would have seen Johnny develop even further if the "New Universe" had not been a huge disaster and ruined immediately as soon as it was launched.

The David Hyde, AKA Black Manta, who debuted in Aquaman #35 (1967) is considered autistic (until a retconned in 2003 of issue #8 of the 2003 Aquaman comic series stated that he was "cured" of his disorder and became a supervillain, which had gotten a ton of negative criticism because autism often comes with gifts and harmless differences as well as disabilities, and the more disabling indications can be dealt with independently).   David was an autistic youth who was born in Baltimore, Maryland and adores playing by the sea. During his childhood, he was abducted and compelled to take a shot at working on a ship for an unknown amount of time. Later at a certain point, David apparently witnessed Aquaman with his dolphin friends and attempted to get his help by signaling him but he did not show up. He finally was forced to protect himself with a knife by murdering one of his victimizers. David began to hate the sea (especially Aquaman, who he saw as its representative) and the c...

  David Haller, AKA Legion, is the son of Charles Xavier, who is the founder of the famous Marvel superhero team the X-Men, and has d issociative identity disorder, which means that he has  numerous alternate personalities that each possess its own powers.  However, each of his personalities has some mental problems of their own. But that's not the only disorder that Haller is diagnosed with. Haller is also diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.  In his first appearance in " New Mutants  #25," Moira MacTaggert described him as "first catatonic, now autistic."   

 I was thinking of fusing my two theme ideas, "autism" and "superhero", together because I thought it would be a great idea to inspire autistic people like myself and even other disabled people. I do not see very much comics that introduce autistic characters in comics like DC and Marvel such as Black Manta, Legion, Johnny Do, M-Twins, Dummy, Pathway, Xaos, Goblyn, Nuklo, Agent Deems, Mark Shiffron, and, most surprisingly and recently, Mister Fantastic, and other autistic comic book characters.  I decided to create a superhero vigilante named Khalifa Rose, also known as “TelepathSage”. The name Khalifa means “leader” in Arabic and could foreshadow her character development as a hero. Khalifa Rose has been a name that stuck on me for quite a long time, but I never used it. I wanted her to have mind powers because autism always happens in the mind no matter what kind of autistic disability that an individual has. She is an autistic teenaged girl who starts out having ...

It was tough to choose which comic book that I enjoy reading since there are dozens of comic books. For example, the "DC Dark Knights: Death Metal" by  Scott Snyder  and  Greg Capullo  are what I am currently reading, and it is a really great comic book crossover. But one of my favorite comic books that I am going to share is "Spider-Gwen" by  Robbi Rodriguez .  I just love both the art style and the storyline of this Marvel comic book and Spider-Gwen has been a popular character since 2015. This takes place in an alternate universe known as Earth-65, which is a what-if universe, contrasting to the mainstream continuity universe that Earth-616 where most of Marvel's comics take place, about what would happen if a teenaged girl named Gwen Stacy got bitten by a radioactive spider and became a spider costume hero instead of Peter Parker.  Robbi Rodriguez is a comic book artist for the Marvel comic, "Spider-Gwen" and is currently working in DC comics....

There are three ideas I was thinking about using for the senior thesis. One of the theme ideas that I chose is called "Autism," which is the disability of what I am diagnosed with. The reason why I chose this theme is that I wanted to show the viewers how autistic people see the world and that they should not be oppressed just because they are different from everyone else and instead see them as special individuals. Another theme idea would be the coronavirus pandemic or "COVID-19" since it is the current virus outbreak that caused the deaths of billions of people worldwide and left many homes, schools, and other places quarantined. The third theme idea is superheroes because I enjoy reading comic books such as DC and Marvel comics that includes many popular superhero stories and it would be a good idea to make a comic that can involve a superhero or at least a protagonist of a story.