s.penkevich's Reviews > Rainbow! Volume 1

Imagination can be a great weapon against anxieties and awkwardness, but as troubles add up for Boo Meadows she might just need a friend to help carry that weight. Rainbow! Volume 1 from graphic novel team Sunny and Gloomy is an adorable and quirky story launch of queer coming-of-age and budding romance trying to blossom amidst the struggles of life. Teenage Boo struggles with the cruelty of classmates and an anxiety at work that often keeps her in the back room instead of serving tables but can’t even find peace at home as she inevitably must care for her alcoholic mother. But when new girl Mimi shows up at school and starts throwing punches on day one, Boo might have found a friend with the grit she needs against the world. Or is there something more on the horizon? A cute graphic novel with some gorgeous art that doesn’t shy away from the darker moments in life Rainbow: Volume 1 is a promising beginning.

Rainbow! began as a web comic on Tapas Media, and you can read this and the next issues HERE. This is a cute little coming-of-age story that, as it is just the first volume, only begins to hint at the directions this story will take and does end rather abruptly. While I think for the sake of a bound volume there could have been a better stopping point, this is hardly an issue and I will be looking forward to reading more. Especially as Boo and Mimi are delightful together with Boo more or less shocked that Mimi would even hang out with her as Mimi is so cool (for those who enjoy this trope I highly recommend the graphic novel If You’ll Have Me by Eunnie). I also really enjoyed Boo’s imagination here and how that granted a lot of free roam for the artwork. Though while Boo has a great imagination, it often gets her into trouble and as this story progresses Boo’s fantasies occasionally become more of an obstacle than a productive outlet.

I enjoyed the ways that this story dives into some fairly gritty territory and shows that sometimes our quick coping mechanisms aren’t enough and can become their own problem altogether. Such as how the mother’s escape is drinking but is now a larger issue. Something this book does quite well is address the problems teens may be facing and the struggles of growing up when you have to essentially parent your own parent.

Overall this was a solid start to what looks like it will be a lovely series. Some of the fantasy elements of Boo’s rampant imagination seems to take up a bit more space than they need to, since its just kind of repetitive and doesn’t add much once we are already aware she does this often, though I wonder if this will start to become a larger part of the plot? Either way, this was quite cute and queer and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

3.5/5