Cartooning draws out autistic Macon man's thoughts

When Phillip Bushey reached age 2, he stopped talking.

“We knew something was wrong, but they never diagnosed him with autism,” said Donna Bushey, his mother. “They just put him as developmentally delayed.”

After the family moved to Macon when he was in the second grade, a doctor recognized a form of high-functioning autism that alters Bushey’s ability to speak and connect with people.

“He can’t talk,” his mother said recently. “He can’t get his thoughts — which are awesome — out of his mouth.”

About 20 years ago at Union Elementary School, a teacher noticed his exceptional talent.

On a blank book, the little boy drew a dinosaur on the front cover and continued the image on the back.

“That’s such a high concept that most children don’t have,” the teacher told Bushey’s mother.

“I kind of knew that art was his forte, his gift from God, at that point,” Donna Bushey said.

Phillip Bushey’s passion for drawing has given him a whole new way of communicating in his mid-20s.

For nearly two years, he has been drawing a comic strip that highlights the everyday struggles of people with disabilities.

Bushey’s mission evolved out of his job with Disability Connections, a federally funded, nonprofit organization that helps people with handicaps live life to the fullest.

A volunteer opportunity to get the 25-year-old Bushey out of the house led to a renaissance for the man who couldn’t read until he attended a high school for specialized learning.

Although Bushey graduated as valedictorian of Macon’s Woodfield Academy, college work proved to be too difficult and expensive, as he sometimes repeated classes.

The Busheys decided to focus on private art lessons to foster the creativity of the tall, slight man who has few words for strangers.

When Andreena Patton first met Phillip, she had no idea he had such a deep sense of humor.

“Most people would think that he’s very quiet. He doesn’t smile a lot,” said Patton, assistant director of Disability Connections.

The new responsibilities he found at the center for independent living boosted his self-esteem and gave him purpose.

In his first four hours volunteering, Bushey shredded documents. After lunch, he asked his mother if he could go back and do more.

Tackling any task from washing windows to doing odd jobs around the office grew into a paid position two days a week.

Bushey started helping build wheelchair ramps and assisting with the organization’s video production.

When he was asked to draw the cartoon strip, his world widened outside of himself.

“It’s really changed him in a way that he’s blossomed, he’s opened up,” Patton said.

Bushey, who loves listening to old radio programs, came up with “Ducky’s Inn,” a cartoon featuring the escapades of a duck in a wheelchair.

Ducky owns a hotel, struggles with getting around in nonhandicapped-friendly environments, trains for the Paralympics and strives to become the first disabled duck in outer space.

“He’s got a whole cast of characters,” Donna Bushey said.

With his dark, curly head bowed over his paper, he brings to life Fido the paralyzed dog who uses wheels to get around, a scientist pig who continually hiccups and Gildersleeve the walrus, named for a 1940s radio show.

In one strip, Simon, a baby rooster with autism, volunteers at Ducky’s Inn. On his first day, he’s asked to go upstairs to the kitchen.

Instead, he types a message to Ducky.

“What do you mean you’re afraid of heights,” Ducky asks.

On the day Bushey was interviewed for this story, he drew a reporter named Lilly Tomcat questioning Ducky about his space mission.

Before the duck could fully answer the questions, the Animal News Channel journalist with the microphone interrupted and asked him something else.

Although Bushey struggled to name a favorite character, he was clear about his theme.

“That life is worth living,” he said in low tones of hesitant speech.

To reiterate, he offered a final thought in a hallway a short while later.

“I want to say that the comics have an anti-euthanasia message.”

In one page, Ducky tells Fido: “We must show these people that we can live with our disability. That we should not be ‘put out of our misery.’ ... That life is worth living.”

In the last frame, Fido is going around in circles, chasing his tail.

“Oh act like a dog will you!” an aggravated Ducky tells him.

The Busheys hope syndication can one day spread his thoughts on the value of life. They also plan to publish a book of his “Ducky’s Inn” collection.

His mother beams with pride at her son’s accomplishments in the last several years.

“There’s just such a feeling of fulfillment and dignity to be able to work at anything,” she said. “But with Phillip, to create and develop what God has given him has really helped him bloom and have dignity inside.”

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 5:23 PM with the headline "Cartooning draws out autistic Macon man's thoughts."