Comic Thoughts: Rainbow! by Sunny and Gloomy
Picked this up at the library. It's a western-style lesbian comic that seemed colorful so.
Art wise, the paneling was pretty lackluster and the coloring flat out gave up on lighting at various times, such as just dunking the panels in a dark overlay whenever it was dark outside. This made it quite hard to read at times and really reminded me of a post on Tumblr that compares old film lighting to quick basic overlays people use now that make it much harder to see. As a contrast stickler, this bothered me.
The character design was somewhat Steven Universe inspired (or whatever we can call the branch of art SU comes from), particularly in the way the lips are rendered on the face. When I started reading I was struck by how much the protagonist reminded me of Rose Quartz. But to its credit, it is way more realistic about the shape of fat and includes stretch marks and the like. Representation wise, the character designs chosen for each character's personality made a lot of sense in minimizing stereotypes (which is definitely something SU does not do outside of Steven's design).
Boo's daydreams also had a lot of random references, like Sailor Moon and the like. I'm never a fan of that, personally, but I can't say it doesn't make sense for a teenager who is coping through (initially) maladaptive daydreaming.
Story wise, I was pleasantly surprised that both main characters had their own family situations and in both their moms were the ones that sucked an ungodly amount. I cried multiple times reading Boo's whole situation with her mom because it reminded me so much of my own mom, even though I'm lucky enough that my mom never engaged in drugs or alcohol. The scene where Boo remembers her mom pushing her on the swing as a child just to go then fuck off to take a smoke and talk to some guy really reminded me of my own mom just constantly mind wandering to the point where I would say something to her and she wouldn't even register it. The instances of neglect are different but the core neglect hit home for me. I guess my mom was also clinically delusional and a stalker for a dude so the fixation with men was an added bonus of similarity.
On the other hand, the writer really captured a different distinct flavor of Mom Suckitude with Mimi's mom and her overcontrolling nature. Definitely have seen that mom around before as well. What honestly surprised me with this one was how grave her actions were eventually taken by Mimi's dad -- generally moms like this just do hit their children and no one says anything. This continues to underscore that you really only need one parent to step up and really tend to their child's emotional and physical needs to keep them from going completely off the rails emotionally, and yet many of us do not even get that.
I did think that Mimi's little brother being so kind / idolizing though was maybe optimistic. I guess because he didn't really feel like he had a complex relationship with his parents and was mostly there to prove that gay people aren't bad influences on their siblings & that Mimi had something worth going home to in the end. Ultimately he only appeared for a few panels so maybe expecting him to do more was above his pay grade; I think I'm just critical of depictions of children that are all innocent-like when their families are stressful.
I was initially wary of the white femme x brown butch dynamic, especially when Boo kept embarrassing herself in front of Mimi and yet Mimi was still interested, but as the story developed the races chosen for the characters made sense, esp with Boo having the heavier story of having an addict mom she has to run away from. Both Boo and Mimi were able to support each other, so it didn't feel like Mimi was only there to save Boo. I also really appreciated that the story kept in mind the realistic limitations of teenagers in leaving their parents and noting how adults really have to step up in situations like that. Like it IS and Was possible for Boo and Mimi to run off together (with a dog, no less), but said option would also be putting their own health at risk. Things like having a bed to sleep on, a place to shower, and food to eat really cannot be taken lightly and are all reasons why I never ran away, even as I threatened my own mom with a knife about it once (though by threaten i should just clarify that i basically held the knife and sat down and then didn't do anything because all of the logistics running through my head + having the debuff of social anxiety made me realize I actually had no options if I also wanted a secure future). This is also why we need better social safety nets and to replace the nuclear family with a communal structure. It just fucking sucks so much being a teen in an abusive family. I'm really glad that Boo was able to basically be adopted by her cafe's owner, which was a wish fulfillment thing. It was really sweet that just being herself, even if occasionally dysfunctional, was lovable to other people, and esp to the cafe owner who had always wanted a child but never ended up having one. It was like Boo was able to give her something, too.
Other random thoughts were that for being a small conservative town, the percentage of brown people in the side and the background characters was surprisingly high. Almost like they were like "let's see how many POC we can fit in here before someone tells us to knock it off" and they managed to squeeze in a lot. Makes me wonder where exactly this was imagined to be set, lol.