Kylooe

Kylooe #1-3

by Little Thunder, Montana Kane (Translator)

Have you ever dreamed of escaping—to return to the warm and carefree moments of childhood?

A typical teenager finds growing up is rough. One day she cuts class to buy the new album from her favorite band and sees a strange, mysterious, yet familiar creature on the cover—it is Kylooe, her old friend! He’s back, he’s real, and he’ll do anything to protect her. Then, an awkward girl makes an impression on a popular teen and they begin to connect beyond their peer statuses. And, in a world where expressing emotion is forbidden, a group reflects on the decisions that changed their lives forever.

Step into the intimate, touching, and emotional dreamworld of Kylooe! Hong Kong artist Little Thunder brings imagination to life with beauty, joy, and wonder through surreal art and sensual colors in this collection of three stories.

Available in English for the first time!Collects the full trilogy of Kylooe!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Comics, Dystopia, Short Stories, Magical Realism, Comics Manga

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2021

About the author

門小雷，漫畫家，生於香港。

中五畢業後，成為全職漫畫家。2006年出版個人畫集《彩虹》，漫畫集《666》、《Boom！邊走邊愛》及《裡裡外外》。及後在《Milk Magazine》連載專欄《宇宙不安學會》，同期編繪《KYLOOE》三部曲，印有法文版、中文版及意大利文版本，憑《KYLOOE 1 - Downhearted Dragonfly》榮獲第四屆國際漫畫賞銅獎。

2012年首次舉辦個人展《告白》，自資出版繪本《夜記》，除了畫畫之外，門小雷亦喜愛跳舞。

門小雷說過：「I draw love letters, not comics.」繪畫只是一種工具，她畫的是愛、恨、寂寞與一切情感。

Reviews

[Larakaa]

Wonderfully weird and dreamingly melancholy

[Christine]

Really impressive art, meh stories.

[crowsden]

This dark horse omnibus collects all three short stories under the themes of imagination and daydreams.

The first two stories were really great. Maybe not the most original stuff out there, but beautifully drawn and told stories about heartbreak, jealousy, family, and the way imagination can make or break them. The third story one is so out of left feild comparatively - it's kind of jarring. Probably my least favorite of the three but not bad overall.

[Steph]

The whole idea is very interesting, and the artwork itself is absolutely wonderful - all dreamy and wild. But after following one character for a short while, we suddenly jumped to another characters, and then another. There was no follow-up or closure to those stories at all, and I’m one who always wants to know what happened next. So that’s not my favorite part.
My library only had this first collection in the series, so I won’t be able to continue reading it unless I find it somewhere online, for free. Bummer!

3.5 stars.

[Gabriel A]

I mean
I dont know.
the art is lovely though

[Tom Garback]

⭐️⭐️
Critical Score: C
Personal Score: C-

It gets worse as it goes, but the first story isn’t bad. I wish it had ended there.

“Downhearted Dragonfly”
B
The art is a bit undisciplined but definitely inspired and weird and unique. The story is decent.

“Green Tunnel”
C
It’s just about some basic immature straight dude and his poorly written girlfriends…this one is unfulfilling.

“Never Been Happy”
D
The premise is so politically try-hard, which contrasts with (or assures, really) the lack of intelligent commentary throughout. The gender politics are terrible. It doesn’t tie into the collection well enough. And it’s boring.

[Dan P]

This is so annoying! Such a skilled artist drawing page after page of super dull material. There's some ok ideas at the core of the stories in this collection, but zero sense of what to do with them. The art IS stunning. But I would much rather look at a sketchbook or gallery show from Little Thunder than muddle through another comic

[Jennifer]

Not my cup of tea. It felt very disconnected and too abstract to fully engage me. The stories ended abruptly and had an unpleasant edge, particularly the second story. The artwork isn’t my style, it was dreamy and very watercolor-like over all. I found that the text blended in in such a way that it was difficult to read at times.

I ended with wondering what the point was.

[Alex]

I have been following Little Thunder for a while online but this is the first book I read from her. The art is beautiful as always. In the first two stories, I loved to see Hong Kong in the city details. In the third story, Hong Kong was even more present - the story is set in a dystopian country where people who express forbidden emotions are sent to harsh reeducation camps.

[Marcus Skog]

Really lovely style, collection of shorts, but they each touch you emotionally in their own way. It's dreadful, it's dark, and most of all, very dreamy. Highly recommend, one of the best ga novels of recent times for me.

[Kelly Dienes]

I'm giving this 4 stars because the art was phenomenal! The stories, not so much. The first one was my favorite, but none of them had a satisfying ending, and the last one especially felt out of place. The art tho

[Patricia Q]

The artwork is amazing.

[libraire.incandescente]

J'ai rien compris mais j'ai aimé.

Les dessins sont magnifiques et les couleurs aussi. Trois nouvelles en un livre qui laissent sur sa faim.

[Maddisen]

Kylooe has a beautiful art style, and I like how it tells 3 stories in the progression of, I'd say, 100 years. It's cool.

Finished 7:38am

[lammy]

i loved it for what it is. surreal, beautiful, and very chiikawa-esque, basically what kylooe is. the third story made me so emotional especially coming from a breakup

[.]

Did not finish p.30

[Jenn Malzone]

There were a lot of great parts, but I didn’t find a through line or feel that any of the stories had resolved.

[Doug Mason]

Interesting, just not my thing.

[Ellie]

2.5

[Molly]

Gorgeous illustrations, and the author really did a great job at conjuring up the feeling of a dream. Overall, I found it more sad than anything, but very effectively done.

[Carly Adamson]

beautiful illustration, weird af

[nita]

There are many stories I do not understand. I don't think I am meant to understand everything, but that doesn't mean it's not understandable to someone else. This was an example of that for me. The art was beautiful. Stunning. Breathtaking. The colors! Wow - the colors! There were many really good moments in the first two stories. The screaming getting what you desired dialogue is really something. However, nothing beyond small moments meant or tugged at me for the first two stories.

The third one, though. I loved the third one!

Due to the last story and art, my rating of 3/5 became a 4/5.

[Tim Rooney]

This is a surreal and moving collection of stories by Hong Kong artist Little Thunder that were released independently over a number of years ago but collected here in English for the first time. These loosely connected tales read like a dream. They're full of abstract and surreal imagery, touching on feelings of loneliness, isolation, freedom and emotion, and growing up. Your mind will grapple for a way to reach concrete conclusions from these hazy fantasies but it is best to simply allow them to flow through you and accept that maybe you're not meant to "get it" all at once. I suspect I will be thinking about these stories for a while.

[Josie Radford]

May CBotM 2025