Outburst

Tom is the bespectacled class nerd: clumsy, introverted, and relentlessly bullied. When he leaves his lunchbox unguarded, Tom returns to find it inhabited by ants. When he gazes at the cute girl in class, she responds by sticking out her tongue. And when it is time to partner up on a canoeing trip, he is left to paddle on the river alone… 

At home, Tom finds solace in recordings of nature and the wild spaces of his imagination. But when he falls prey to a particularly cruel trick, this imaginative wilderness becomes rampant. It wants out. A moment of crisis marks the beginning of a gradual and disturbing metamorphosis. As his limbs turn slowly into branches, Tom is forced to confront adult life as a man transformed. But then he encounters his greatest trauma once again.

This comics debut by Pieter Coudyzer, who made his name with his award-winning animated films, is a compelling modern fairy tale and a masterpiece of magical realism in thin, detailed lines and an appropriately subdued colour palette. The distinctive dark atmosphere and magnificent drawing style of his animated films can also be seen in his work for comics. ‘Outburst’ is a poetic parable about being different from other people, about being introverted rather than extroverted, about the past and how we always carry it with us.