Oh Deer by peroroh is a comic from this year’s ShortBox Comics Fair: a unique and innovative digital comics fair where every exhibiting artist debuts a brand-new comic! The website tells us the “aim of the fair is to serve as both a creative impetus for artists to make something new, and to deliver an exciting array of fresh, independent comics, all gathered in one place.”
The website goes on to tell us it is an accessible, comics-focused event: where artists and comics readers can participate from anywhere in the world. Launched last year, ShortBox Comics Fair takes place annually throughout October. Additionally, exhibiting artists retain full ownership/rights of their comics and receive 100% of sales (minus payment processing fees). peroroh’s Oh Deer comic was one of the comics that caught my eye in my first round of purchases of the ShortBox Fair and one I knew that I wanted to review.
Oh Deer
Words and Art by peroroh
ShortBox
October 2022
Oh Deer is a short comic that follows Penelé, a young baker running her very own bakery stall in town, which is a fantasy-like setting filled with centaur-like people. She’s off to a good start until there’s a new baker in town, competition as she sees it, and things unravel from here. With a gift from a strange older lady, Penelé seeks to get ahead but soon finds herself tangled up in more than she can handle. I adored this comic and thought its creator did a masterful job in tackling what anxiety can look at on the page, and how others may be able to help.
Upon looking at the cover, I was mostly won over by peroroh’s cute artwork. I knew that my purchase was a great one when I kept reading and I learned the comic included more brown skinned characters, and that the narrative focused on femme characters. I found the body language and facial expressions in peroroh’s art were very important in conveying the depths of our main character’s plight. One such spectacular page included a few panels of Penelé’s decline into despair, side by side of the flower growing vines. In the first panel she has a smile yet by the last panel on the page dark circles have formed under her eyes and she looks worse for wear. It was very easy to see how Penelé’s behavior progressed from an accidental outburst at her stall to the nightmares she had later at home, alone and depressed.
While the cover of the comic is in color, the comic itself is almost all grayscale color scheme, with the one exception of the red of the flower that is gifted to Penelé by the older lady. I thought long and hard about the significance of this and my best interpretations range from passion to anxiety. Red is a color long associated with danger, courage and sacrifice. It is also a color that captures attention, is used often in weddings in different parts of the world and one often found in nature.
Oh Deer totally gave me fairy tale or folklore vibes regarding its narrative structure: a young person has a problem and an older, wiser person offers a tool or remedy. But on occasion that item or piece of advice is misused or misunderstood resulting in less than stellar aftermath. The longer our little baker has the flower in her possession, the more she struggles and despairs–the more unruly the vines of the flower grow, taking up space. I eventually found the flower to even represent Penelé herself–a living breathing creature who needs rest, care, and freedom from unwanted personal baggage like insecurities and jealousy.
Vines threatened to choke the flower and everything surrounding it as they grew and grew. In a parallel fashion, Penelé’s overpowering anxieties push her to jealousy, self doubt, and losing faith in herself and the love of her craft: baking. I loved the resolution that played out in the final pages and how Penelé, with help from others, found her way to a better place.
Oh Deer is a 36-page comic about finding your way back to a place of stability, or even finding a new one after losing your way. It is a timely comic about getting back to what you love, finding new friends and gaining new insight. peroroh’s comic is poetic with a narrative that stresses that you can start again, make new possibilities happen for yourself if only you let someone willing to help you in.
