The Bun Field

by Amanda Vähämäki

Characterised by an intriguing disjointed rhythm and delicious pencil-smudged style, 'The Bun Field' is defined by a surreal ebb-and-flow, possessing a deep sense of foreboding and hurt, yet maintaining a biting sense of humour.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Art, Graphic Novels Comics

80 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2007

Reviews

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

okay you cant tell from here, but this lady has got THREE umlauts in her last name. thats just greedy. but the drawings are great, they are like a slightly less uncomfortable-making renee french. it feels like this is just a fragment of a larger story, and maybe there will be more, but if not, i can accept it as just a short dreamy tale. how kind of me, right? sheesh.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful in the dissonance that it sows; dream like and filled with the logic of a dream. Many of the situations in this book may seem strange; but I think it is a way f getting us to look closer at the things around us that we ignore because they are so routine. I really liked the art - it has a permanence that seeps off the page.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't normally read graphic novels, but after flipping through this book at the store, I knew I had to buy it. The panels consist of pencil sketches: rough, charming, and full of flaws, but each frame seemed to capture a lot of essence and detail. She uses smudges and occasionally erased drawings (where you can see the ghost of a figure right next to the final drawing) in a way that is really evocative. Her pencil strokes are varied and full of energy, some parts looking as if she woke up at 4a.m. to scribble them down as fast as humanly possible and other parts looking like she barely touched the paper. I love how she draws the bear, and I also love the dog, the snail-man, the woman on the crutches, and all the landscapes that look so familiar, yet are done with such concision. The story itself is moody and surreal, with occasional glimpses of humor, and I thought the drawing style really brought that mood out perfectly.



Bonus: an interview with Amanda Vahamaki.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

a beautiful weird dream

[Mell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the art a lot. It made me think of The Wrenchies. Also I really liked the casual weird happenings. It also made me feel odd after reading.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bun Field is a bizarre nightmare on the surface. Drawing from sea monsters, lost teeth, back-bar dentistry, talking cats (& dogs & bears), and human-faced food, Vähämäki fills this world with disturbing images. The delicate pencil-work and scene-by-scene tracking reveals the gorgeousness of the mundane and terrible. Though it may seem the story is lost in the Finnish-to-English translation, the work transcends language and lands in that part of the subconscious that makes the skin crawl and heart race without any cogent explanation.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love Amanda Vahamaki's smudgy drawings, and the dark, off-kilter magical-realism of The Bun Field sort of reminds me of Lynda Barry's work at its most surreal. So glad I got this jewel-like little book; it will reside right next to Drawn & Quarterly #5 on my bookshelf, which features another, even better story from Vahamaki inside.

[Caleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short, dream-like narrative in which the form and style perfectly compliments the subject matter.

I have a much longer review of it posted here:
http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/04/04/...

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Moody and dream like. Stream-of-thought graphic novel that comes across like a rough draft rather than a developed idea. I can see that there is a lot of heart in this; however, it's like paying to watch the dress rehearsal of a musical without the band present.

[J.T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had a wonderful surreal quality to it that was both creepy and funny.

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I stopped watching Donnie Darko halfway through.

[Liz Yerby · Rating 5 out of 5]

The crying panels are so good.

That's obviously important to me

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surreal sketchbook kind of story that has all the inner logic of a dream, its turns of plot, its sudden happiness, and an element of danger and dread.

[Kate Atherton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered Amanda Vahamaki's work when I read a D+Q compilation book that featured a short comic of hers. Her drawing is spectacular. Some of these drawings of kids (toddlers and babies mostly) in this book are so incredibly life like and full of emotion. She is a master of the pencil and these drawings that make up this book are their own art show. I want to see them all framed in a gallery, one next to the other, with the eraser shavings in the bottom of the frames. What a draftsman. The story of this book, the only one of hers in English, is completely surreal ; the dream of a toddler in which he/she venture out into a world unfamiliar to them from their house (where they live with other toddlers and a giant baby, a la 'Spirited Away') in a car with a bear who then refuses to drive (very dangerous). The book has that quality that dreams have wherein something makes NO sense and every bit of sense all at once. There is a logic to the dream world that the protagonist understands and buys into one moment and is completely disoriented by the next. I wish there were more of Vahamaki's books translated into English or, at the very least, here so I could look at the DRAWINGS.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A creepy dream-like sequence with specious logic, illustrated in a soft pencil style. Well done, for what it is, but not my cuppa.

[Alison✌️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

i feel quite strange rn :D.
really enjoyed and there's a lot of fun detail to the art, just not quite enough meat to it to feel i got a full experience that makes me rate it higher hehe.

[Jeff Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

***1/2 stars. Bears who drive cars, blob-like visitors who need feeding and mess with your scheduled TV viewing, inter-species dentistry, Lochness monsters, and that dreamlike sense of being so far from home that you'll never find your way back. In other words, childhood. Not quite up to the mastery of "Go Go Monster" or Ron Rege Jr's work, but a worthwhile read that'll leave a gauzy residue in yr memory.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very strange and wonderful.

[sweet pea · Rating 2 out of 5]

okey dokey. an intriguing surreal journey that didn't captivate me.