#rain comic

[connyscomics]

Rain by Jocelyn C. DiDomenick 😺

Trans rep: 10/10

General enjoyment: 9/10

Age rating: 10+

Okay so I finally finished this one and... OHMYGODIMINLOVE. Rain is a webcomic with over 40 chapters (7 print volumes I think) and is seriously one of the best comics I've ever read. I could go on an on about all of the things I love about this one, but for yall's sanity as well as my own, I'm just going to talk about a couple things. Oh and a quick plot description: The comic follows a trans girl named rain as she attends a religious high school and meets other queer people. A lot of stuff happens in the many chapters of this comic, and it variously touches on pretty much everything that one might encounter as a young queer person, both positive and negative.

Okay, so the first highlight for me is the main character herself. I really like her character and as a young trans person navigating being transfem in high school I really connected with a lot of her story. In particular I appreciated the representation of a character who is mostly cis-passing BUT has to go to great lengths to make this happen (at least from the not-so-supportive people in her life). I feel like with trans rep you either get like people who have an uncharacteristically easy time passing or you have people who are portrayed as like a grotesque caricature of trans people (not to say that non-passing trans women are gross or that passing is needs the goal for everyone, but the visual of the like hyper-masculine figure with messy makeup and a dress isn't usually benign). Anyways, Rain is a great main character.

Another character I want to talk about is Ky/Kylie, they are genderfluid and in my opinion done really well. I honestly related to their character a lot because even though I'm technically not genderfluid, I have very fluid desires as far as presenting. I Ky/Kylie starts out not really understanding their own identity and just being like "idk I'm a girl but sometimes I dress up like a guy" and then as the story progresses becomes more confident in their identity as a genderfluid person. The story also considers the struggles of dating for genderfluid people, with a love interest liking them more for one gender identity than another but eventually growing to understand that he can't pick and choose which gender identity he wants Ky/Kylie to have at any moment.

I should probably wrap this up before I start going into every character I love. In general, what makes this story so great is that there is a character for pretty much anyone to connect with (yes, even cishet allies), and all of the characters are done pretty well. I do have a couple minor considerations though. First, the author changed a lot as a person while writing this (I mean she started writing in 2010 and finished literally this year) so the beginning of the comic is definitely a bit outdated with some of its narratives. Though, I think it ends up working out because it generally reads as the characters learning and developing as people, which is something that comics don't always show because of a fear of saying things that are now seen as insensitive. The only other thing is that there are kind a disproportionate number of queer people in Rains community, which at times feels a bit unrealistic given that shes literally at a catholic school, but honestly I can't complain that much cause all of the characters are so much fun!!! Sorry for the extra long review yall, I just had so much to say about this one! 😺

[lariumbreon]

Oh, hey, you're the voice of Rain! Sorry, the username hadn't clicked before. I love the Just a Picture video, it's so funny and adorable! You and Rudy' VA did an amazing job!

Thank you! We're gonna keep going and kicking ass~

[chiffer178]

Finished Rain (trans slice of life webcomic)

Totally cried a bunch while reading it throughout the past week. Definitely cried a bunch tonight at the ending. 10/10 please go read it here's a link:

[washipink]

Rain by Jocelyn Samara D (Year 2: 2012)

Look, I am FIENDING this comic. I’ve already read through yet another year. This time, it’s chapter 7: Mixed Feelings through chapter 12: Drab.

Last time’s summary was super long because I had to establish our base cast, so this time I’ll try to keep it ONLY to major events.

After the very eventful Halloween party, everyone’s pretty fucked up. One of the straight classmates is VERY convinced he’s gay because he thought Ky was cute. Ky agonizes about exactly what gender she might be and how to tell Rain. Emily breaks up with her creepy boyfriend.

As for Rain and Rudy, they’re both VERY fucking confused about what that kiss of theirs means. After being prodded by pretty much everyone in the school, they have a heartfelt conversation in which Rudy says he likes Rain for who she is rather than what she is. That it doesn’t matter if she’s a girl or a boy.

I have a LOT to say about this scene in particular. If this came out today, the baby gays on twitter would have their heads explode. I can already hear the claims that Rudy is transphobic because he’s a gay boy that is attracted to a trans woman. I can already hear the Bi-Gay discourse. It’s AWFUL and if you start it on this post, you’re blocked.

I’d completely forgotten about the Rain/Rudy THING so I was pretty surprised when he spoke his heart on the matter. Once again, the comic goes out of its way to portray the messy realities of growing up queer. Sometimes, its like jamming puzzle pieces that shouldnt match together. Rain is not a man, but loving her doesn’t make Rudy straight.

That said, it is NOT heartening that their ship name is “RuIn”.

Gavin and Maria take it pretty rough, considering how badly THEY wanted to be with Rain. While it’s played for laughs for a bit, it does genuinely create a fracture between Rain and her friends that lasts for a while.

While they’re avoiding Rain, Gavin gets MORE into her somehow. Like, Gavin is HORNY horny.

Eventually, Maria reconnects with Chanel, a girl she met at the Halloween party. This is because she heard Chanel doesn’t like men, so she thinks she has a shot.

And it turns out she does. She’s REALLY friendly and ends up telling Maria to her face that she should just apologize to Rain and see what happens.

Our Queer Quartet (ft. Gavin) expands to a Merry Band of Five.

Rain’s even been getting along with Emily since the party.

It looks like everything’s gonna be fine!

Until Fara gets a call from Rain’s big brother.

You see, something went wrong for Aiken and he needs a place to crash. That means....

Rain is going to have to play pretend for a while.

And since Rain is being Ryan, he can't have a BOYFRIEND, now can he? So, Rudy must once again become Ruby. And if you ask me, he really like it. Like, he's ENTHUSIASTIC about crossdressing. There's so much gender going on in this cast.

During this chapter, Rain and Ky find out what each others deals are, kinda. It's an unfortunate accident in which Ky was going to "come clean" to Rain, but finds her in drab.

Anyway, things are going well. Rain, Aiken, Gavin, Rudy, Ky, and Fara go to the mall because things are getting crowded in the apartment... but Aiken encounters none other than Emily's creepy grown-ass-man ex-boyfriend. Who draws the connection between Rain and her older sister, who he used to be engaged to.

There are some real "Small World" connections in this comic.

Anyway, Aiken does NOT take it well. He pieces together Rain's new hair cut with the similar person Chase described. And it just so happens that the entire reason Aiken was here was that he broke things off with his fiance... because she is ALSO trans.

Aiken is... of course... transphobic at Rain. His big hang up is the idea that he was "lied to" by yet another "selfish tranny", so of course Fara chews him the fuck out.

I'm gonna allow the last page of the chapter to speak for itself.

Final Thoughts

Year 2 was way more interesting than Year 1. Now that all the major players have been introduced, Samara can ramp up the drama and let them interact in more complex ways.

I love this cast so much because every one of them feels like someone I've met. When I first read it, I didn't really have experience with anyone even remotely similar besides Aiken.

Something similar to exactly this happened to me when I was reading:

My mom borrowed my phone once and saw a page titled "Rain LGBT" in my history. She didn't read it or anything, she just saw those 4 little letters and Lost It. Cornered me while everyone was out of the room at a family gathering and everything. Aiken's reaction to Rain's authentic self really hit home for me. it's easy to tell why she's so scared to tell him. People have hurt queer people for less.

On the topic of the comedy, I'm not sure if its gotten any better or if I'm just more endeared to the characters having read so far.

In terms of Chapter count, we're already 25% of the way done.

For those of you reading along, I'll see you for Year 3.

[happyheidi]

𝖠𝗋𝗍 𝖻𝗒 𝖠𝗇𝗇𝖺-𝖫𝖺𝗎𝗋𝖺 𝖲𝗎𝗅𝗅𝗂𝗏𝖺𝗇 | 𝖨𝖦: 𝖺𝗇𝗇𝖺𝗅𝖺𝗎𝗋𝖺_𝖺𝗋𝗍

[cheezitthefuzz]

[croudjay]

“Good Luck, Babe!”

[chloesimaginationthings]

The day FNAF Charlie Emily was shut out..

[vanillayoteart]

Coyote HRT: Month 5.5B

Coyote HRT: Week 23 I knew going into this that dogs could hear more.  I knew going into this that things would hurt.  I did not foresee myself dealing with muzzle pain and misophonia at the SAME TIME. Major thanks to AyvieArt and Lakehounds for the inspiration Start - Prev - Next 

[cabbagewithissues]

The way The Boy Wonder depicts Jason’s memory of his murder in this panel is haunting.

He looks at the readers, as though begging them to help. He doesn’t know they’re the ones who voted for his demise. That they chose this.

I can’t get over it.

[deadshadowcreature]

Childish mother of three

[outtox1cated]

How to kill an iterator- summon the spooky white eye guy from the funny block game and watch your world burn i guess

[focshi]

They did not, in fact, go explore the new region.

[ask-the-pioneer]

Am lizard... am bring food... want... hunt with... creature... can... creature hunt... with... me?...

[deep-dark-fears]

Lonely teardrops. A fear submitted by Gabrielle to Deep Dark Fears - thanks! You can find original art and commission portraits in my shop!

[superemeralds]

welcome to the promised land