The rather enticing thing about kuš! comics’ mini kuš! range is that their method of delivery – a batch of four releases every few months – means that in one minicomics handful you can get an incredibly diverse selection of international approaches to the form. We have already looked recently at other comics from the most recent offerings, including the alt weirdness of Walker Tate’s body horror story ‘Swelling’ (mini kuš! #127) and the introspective meditations of Apolonija Lučić’s ‘Silent Observations’ (mini kuš! #128). Next up in #129 we have the bizarre alt fairy tale of Yuma Wang’s ‘Fire Rabbit’, a story that blends a childlike innocence with the deeply nihilistic.
When we are first introduced to Fire Rabbit she is being woken up by her mother ready for a new day. But for some reason her hands are immersed in two buckets of water either side of the bed. This, we are to learn, is because she was born with a strange condition where her hands are permanently alight and this is the only way to manage it. It’s an unfortunate ailment but one that doesn’t affect her worldview, as she travels the local area using her curse to the good of those she encounters, whether to warm their freezing bones or help defend them. But, as we are to discover, no good deed goes unpunished in the world of ‘Fire Rabbit’…
Ooph… this one’s bleak! And its dark finale is made all the gloomier by the abundant cheeriness that Wang spends most of the comic injecting into its otherwise jaunty pages. Visually, too, we are lulled into a false sense of security by the vibrant colours and Wang’s faux naïve visuals which initially give ‘Fire Rabbit’ such a sense of childlike glee. There’s a message of sorts here but it’s a kind of mix of cynicism and fatalism; one that bluntly and abruptly sucks any feelings of optimism right out of you and then casually spits them away.
I liked it a lot.
Yuma Wang (W/A) • kuš! comics, $7.00
Review by Andy Oliver
