Rainyman
Comic/perzine, Bun, 12pgs
“It has been a long time for four of us to travel together, and the vibe of the whole journey is just wrong, wrong and wrong.” Rainyman is born of a rainforest, one of the oldest ecosystems that shelters almost half of Earth’s living species — a fine paradox when its heat and humidity force its inhabitants to adapt to its harsh climate. Bun’s Rainyman is an ode to instability amidst beautiful surroundings, and the rainforest serves as a sublime parallel to the double-faced reality of family.
Rainyman is a wallflower, even a recluse: he who prefers lone silence to shared, and has pretended he is busy to avoid labyrinthine time with relatives will find solace here. “I realized the common language between my father and I is book, music and film.” Though Rainyman finds the vocabulary he needs, a gap remains between him and his father, a breakdown that corresponds with an occasional English language barrier on the part of the author. This is a zine that confronts language in every respect.
Recognizing the failure of language, Rainyman turns to activity: “Sometimes I just hope we could go kayaking together and chill,” is followed by an inverted sea, pink waves with a light blue sky, doubling across a two-page spread. The technicoloured illustrations bring life to a family that lacks a centre — perhaps a common familial experience. The drawings represent our anti-hero’s dream sequence, where he lives out another version of his father-son dynamic that includes none of the silence and all of the scuba-diving, crustacean-catching, and shoulder-riding a son could aspire to. The zine’s surreal, vibrant illustrations are an antidote to a story of broken telephone with loved ones. If you can’t relate, at least come look at the pretty colours.