SLCZF 2023! Comics exploring themes of worker exploitation represent work we will always be keen to give space and consideration to at Broken Frontier. When they examine those issues with such a distinctive style and inventive physical presentation as Zhenyi Zheng’s Banana Trap that probability of coverage is accentuated considerably.
Banana Trap takes its inspiration from both history and from the Gabriel García Márquez novella No One Talks to the Colonel; the book which the novelist famed for his use of magic realism considered to be his very best work. In García Márquez’s book the historical event of the 1928 Columbian Banana Massacre is woven into the events of the story. Occurring when the workforce of the United Fruit Company went on strike for decent living conditions, this stand for workers’ rights ended in the government sending in the army to break up the industrial action. The exact number of lives lost to this brutal suppression remains unknown but estimates range from around 50 to thousands.
Zheng brings this to the comics form in a short 16-page story with a visual style that somehow manages to combine realism, a kind of elastic impressionism and moments of faux naivety to immerse us in the drama of events. A carefully subdued and measured use of colour gives a dreamlike feeling to the proceedings which only serves to emphasise the brutality of the conclusion to Banana Trap all the more forcefully.
Presented in physical form in a concertina-style presentation this is also a highly tactile reading experience for those picking the comic up at SLCZF. An intriguing entry point into the work of Zhenyi Zheng in terms of both style and theme. Zhenyi will also be on the ‘Self-publishing Versus Publishing’ panel at the South London Comic and Zine Fair.
Zhenyi Zheng (W/A) • Self-published
Review by Andy Oliver
SLCZF is held at Stanley Arts on July 16th. More details here.
