Bored Panda got in touch with Ryan again to ask him more about his creative process and himself! This time we got curious about why the artist chose the concept of dialogue-less comics. The cartoonist replied that he did not originally intend to create a wordless comic. "Ask any cartoonist and they’ll tell you that the hardest comics to make are ones without dialogue or words. When I made the first few Buni comics, they didn’t have any words or dialogue in them. So then I made the next couple of comics without words. It seemed to be working and was different than other webcomics I knew about at the time, so I continued creating comics without dialogue. Also, because the internet is international, I wanted to create a webcomic that anyone could read, regardless of what language they spoke. Because Buni transcends language, it has a lot of international fans."
Looking at the funny and sometimes dark comics, we got curious about where Ryan gets inspiration for his work. The artist shared that he gets his ideas from trying to make them relatable, even if they are a little surreal. "Sometimes I can get ideas from the different seasons. For example, during the fall months, I try to write comics about falling leaves, Halloween, monsters and pumpkins. Another way to get ideas is to imagine how different objects or food would react in certain situations. For example, what would make a pizza slice jealous or how would a bagel feel next to a donut, or how do houseplants feel when they’re taken to a house with a lot of dead houseplants in it. Reading a lot, from newspapers to books and social media posts, also helps to generate ideas."
Ryan shared that he was most influenced by newspaper comics when he was a kid. Today, other webcomics and animation have the most influence on him. "When I’m thinking up ideas, I sketch out all my ideas in comic form. My wife helps me pick out which rough sketch ideas are the best to draw into final comics. Since there are no words to lean on, it’s extra important that the idea gets across visually. Sometimes I’m not sure if the idea works until I show it to someone else. If the joke is visually readable quickly, then it’s just a matter of deciding whether the comic is good or not. I try to just make the funny ones unless I’m a little desperate for ideas and have to dig deep into my stack of comic ideas."
"I enjoy making Buni comics because it’s a challenge. I enjoy penciling, inking and coloring the comics since I can zone out and listen to audiobooks, music or podcasts. Coming up with ideas is the hardest part, but when you come up with a really good idea, it feels good. Thinking up ideas is like fishing. Sometimes you catch something really big, but sometimes you don’t."
We asked Ryan why he chose a bunny as the protagonist for his comics. The artist revealed that he created Buni in about two weeks for a Comic Strip Superstar contest where he had to submit an unpublished comic strip idea. "I was going back and forth between drawing a bunny or drawing a panda. I ended up choosing a bunny, but kind of kept the panda’s coloring of having black arms, legs and ears. Since the original comics were black and white, having black arms and legs made the character stand out on the page."
The artist continued: "Bunnies have been used for a century in all kinds of books, comics and cartoons. They are cute animals and their long ears can be very expressive, whether they’re pointing straight up in surprise, or halfway down out of caution, or really down when the character is sad. Buni started out as more of a naive bunny and I still see him as a big kid, even though he is an adult. His dad, the bunny with the stubble and cigarette, is the opposite and is more cynical."
As for the future, Ryan hopes to make Buni comics for years to come and to make another book. "Over the past couple of years, while drawing Buni, I’ve been working on some freelance projects such as creating and writing an animated show, and doing some illustration work, which I enjoy. All of that has gotten me interested in creating a new webcomic or graphic novel where the characters speak, which will be so much easier to write and I’ll be able to get into topics and themes that are hard to do in a wordless comic. We’ll see what 2023 brings, but whatever I do, I’ll still be cranking out Buni comics."
If you’re a fan of Buni comics, Ryan has more unpublished comics and sketches available on his Patreon.
