This Was Then This Is Now
Comic zine, Kira Buro, IG @kiraburo
This Was Then This Is Now consists of nine comics, the title of the collection serving to highlight the theme and motivation that runs throughout. In stark and flowing black and white, Buro explores the intermingling of the past and the present, how the thoughts, perspectives, and even relationships from the past influence who we may be in the present. Their line is strong and varied, and passion permeates the artwork. In these comics, Buro seems to suggest that to reminisce is to not simply perform the act of remembering something, it is a process of exploring oneself, bringing into perspective how we’ve arrived at our present moment, leaving us to wonder where we may go from here.
“I wonder if you know all the place you’ve been simply because my thoughts have taken you there with me,” Buro writes in one comic, before concluding with, “Today I threw my thoughts of you down a mountainside … I didn’t understand then. I don’t understand now.” The past, it seems, it not something that needs to be looked upon fondly and, in admitting that, perhaps we can begin to move forward.
At times, there is a sadness to the comics here, but there is never hopelessness. While the past may feel like it only ever dominates the present, at the same time, the past is just that — the past. This was Then This Is Now lets the present be something unto itself. Buro understands this, and perhaps in reading this collection, the reader will as well.