When Cute Takes A Twisted Turn: 27 New Comics By Ryan Pagelow

Bored Panda reached out to Ryan again to learn more about his comics. We asked the artist whether he has any specific themes or topics that he's particularly enthusiastic about exploring in his work. Ryan replied that in wordless comics, it's easiest to use simple themes and topics. These comics are easy to understand because you can get the message just by looking at the visuals. "Simple themes and topics would include food, being hungry, being tired, Mondays, jealousy, disappointment, allergies, phones, animals, and holidays. I used to do a lot of comics about love using Buni’s crush on Buni Girl, but I find that the hopeless crush on a girl who doesn’t like you back isn’t as funny as it was years ago. Without words showing the nuance of it, some people interrupt it as almost 'stalking' vibes.

Having a webcomic on the internet means that sometimes you have to consider the lowest denominator when deciding what comics to post because the internet is home to all kinds of ages, all kinds of nationalities and languages, and all kinds of crazy. So I try to think of simple themes that most people can relate to or at least understand quickly."

Buni comics always surprise with unexpected and humorous twists. So we were curious to know what Ryan's creative process for coming up with these surprising endings looks like. "If I knew the secret to coming up with good comics, I would use it," the artist shared. "The only thing I’ve come up with is to sit in a chair with a piece of paper and a pencil and sketch ideas for about an hour. If I’m lucky, out of four or five ideas, maybe one is good enough to draw for real. I sketch my ideas out in picture form in panels. Often they look very similar to the final comic. For the comics that are almost there, I’ll take a look at them again later, and sometimes with fresh eyes, I can come up with a better ending to put it over the top.

Writing ideas is the hardest part of making comics and requires the most thought. The drawing, inking, and coloring are very easy in comparison and I can listen to audiobooks or podcasts while I do it since it doesn’t require my full attention. The only advice or tip that I can give for crafting effective punchlines is to write a little bit every day. Charles Schulz said something like, everyone has 100,000 bad drawings in them so the sooner you get them out of the way the better. I’m still working on getting my bad drawings out of the way so I can start working on the good stuff."

"I’m thankful for the people that read Buni and share it with friends, and especially to those on Patreon who support me and send me a couple of bucks," Ryan told us. "I mostly create Buni comics for myself since it’s like a chill daily meditation. But the fact that other people like to look at my surreal drawings and share them does help me to keep doing it on the days when maybe I’m tired from working a day job as a photographer all day. Knowing that people will see it gives me the motivation to keep going, or at least the fear that I can’t mess up. I feel like I have to keep challenging myself to make new and better comics. It feels like you’re only as good as your next comic and every comic is kind of like a challenge to try to create that perfect comic which rarely, if ever, happens."

Talking about long-term plans, for Ryan, it is to keep drawing comics for as long as he can still hold a pencil. "Buni just launched on Toonsutra, a new webtoon platform in India. I’m also working on a new book of Buni comics that will likely come out in China sometime in 2024. While Buni has been published in Chinese newspapers and a magazine before, it will be the first time it’s published in a book there. And while I do enjoy drawing Buni, I am dabbling with a new project with new characters. Even if I get my new project off the ground, I’ll still keep drawing Buni, at least as long as I still enjoy doing it."

In the meantime, you can read new Buni comics on Instagram, Threads, Facebook, GoComics.com and bunicomic.com. You can also have early access to Buni comics (and some unpublished comics) on Patreon.