And so this week to our fourth and final look at the latest batch of mini kuš! short comics from Latvian publisher kuš! comics. For our last foray into minicomics experimentation we have Noemi Vola’s ‘Are You Lost, Little Bunny?’, a comic that is as different in style and approach as its three reviewed predecessors have been so far this week. Yes, I’m going to make that point once again that if you want to experience comics that push at the supposed boundaries of what the form can achieve then you will find no better source than the kuš! back catalogue of work.
‘Are You Lost, Little Bunny?’ is illustrated with a deceptive faux naivety that will immediately throw off reader expectations given the darker tone of the subject matter to follow. It reminds me in no small part of Kim Clements’ Rabbit Thoughts which also used deliberately child-like visuals and anthropomorphism to present its themes of loneliness and introspection. In a similar manner what Vola achieves here is a greater engagement in the harsher realities of the comics’ motifs and recurring ideas because of those initially cute but ultimately raw visuals.
Herein, though, there are no reassuring answers about feeling lost or lacking direction. Vola’s pages are replete with subdued despair, a plea to inevitability, and a quiet surrender to the embrace of nihilism. By faming a sense of isolation and worldweariness in a carefully constructed infantile re-imagining of the world ‘Are You Lost, Little Bunny?’ maintains an added layer of resonance to its commemoration of emotional entropy.
If you’ve enjoyed our look over the last few days at the mini kuš! line then do remember that this week’s featured comics plus back issues are available on the kuš! site here.
Noemi Vola (W/A) • kuš! comics, $7.95
Review by Andy Oliver
