Interview: Sunny and Gloomy Talk Rainbow, AI in Art, and Queer Expression
Recently, Anime Atelier had the opportunity to review the second and final installment of RAINBOW!, an LGBTQ+ young-adult graphic novel series that we described as "an intensely emotional experience." Following our review, we got to chat with the creators, Sunny Funkhouser (aka Sunny) and Angel (aka Gloomy), to talk about their creative process, their feelings about RAINBOW!, and their future projects.
Q: Can you tell us a little about yourselves?
Sunny: I’m Sunny! I'm a nonbinary person with autism and ADHD, and I think my experience with queerness and neurodivergence impacts my creative process a lot. I also like theater, Magic the Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, and Neopets. I’m an avid doll collector, and I make reborn dolls. Honestly, anyone that’s afraid of dolls would probably walk right out of our house in shock and horror. I love spending time with Angel. We watch a lot of TV and play video games and stuff like that. I've been writing since the 5th grade and I don't know what my life would be like without my stories at this point.
Angel/Gloomy: I’m pretty boring, honestly. I’m a homebody, I like to cook and bake, and I have some collections, mainly Studio Ghibli and Sailor Moon related. We also have an extensive collection of dolls between us, but most of them are Sunny’s. I have a few Rainbow High dolls and helped customize some American Girl dolls to make our IT-themed collection. I also really like horror, and will take pretty much any opportunity to go to the theater to see a horror movie!
Q: How have you found the reception to RAINBOW!, both the webcomic and the published volumes? Do you find many people (like myself) connected with Boo and Mimi?
Sunny: I was honestly thrilled by the reception at every step of the process. I remember thinking it was cool when we had 500 readers on Smackjeeves. It became an event for us to follow along with the comments every time we posted an episode. It was incredible! We took a selfie together the first time we saw RAINBOW! in Walmart! It felt like such a surreal achievement. People we've talked to do seem to relate to Boo and Mimi, but especially their situations at home. Sometimes it was a little sad to read about how people related to these situations, but it was heartwarming to know people got out and then found comfort in RAINBOW!
Q: RAINBOW! is such an emotionally vulnerable story about queer identity and trauma. Did you find it difficult to write and illustrate these elements, or was it a cathartic process?
Sunny: For me, it's cathartic. I feel like I have a much easier time writing a story that relates to a trauma that I understand. I always try to add in a piece of me into the heart of everything I write. I understand Boo on a deep level because we have a lot of the same struggles. I see myself in her, but especially who I was when I was her age. I hope that makes her feel more real to people. Hopefully she helps teens in her situation find hope for a better future.
Angel/Gloomy: I would say it’s cathartic for me as well, even if it might have hurt along the way.
Q: The second volume explores Boo’s sexuality and relationship with Mimi—was Boo’s sexuality something you had decided before writing, or did you discover that along the way?
Sunny: Boo was always queer. Actually, RAINBOW! started as a way for us to explore our budding queer identities. We were just figuring ourselves out, and it's always felt natural to me to explore myself through writing. They were loosely based on us at the time, but now they're very different from us. They developed and so did we. The things that developed the most were the back stories that became fundamental to RAINBOW!’s identity. The original idea was just, “we're lesbians, let’s write a cute story about lesbians that are based on us! That would be fun!”. Neither of us identify that way anymore, but we did at the time. It's come a long way since then.
Q: The color palette in RAINBOW! is quite a distinctive pink-and-green makeup. Was it a deliberate choice for these colors to match the abrosexual flag? What made you choose these colors?
Angel/Gloomy: It was intended to represent the two main characters, but it was something that evolved. There was an unfinished version of RAINBOW! that I started drawing in high school, which was in black and white. After several pages I started to find it boring, so I inserted two or three shades of the girls signature colors, pink and mint. There was a lot of art I saw at the time that was greyscale plus one accent color to make it pop, so I was emulating that. As the comic went on, I began to add more and more shades until it became as colorful as it is now. The color scheme features more shades of pink than green though— since the story is from Boo’s perspective. So it started as an almost happy accident, but became more intentional over time.
Q: Will we see Boo and Mimi again in the future, or has their story been fully told?
Angel/Gloomy: We have an epilogue in mind that we would like to tell one day about the characters' lives a few years in the future. Healing is not a linear process after all, so we think checking in on how these characters might be doing some time down the line would be worthwhile.
Q: Speaking of future works—what can you tell us about your new work, Phantom Pains, coming out later this year?
Angel/Gloomy: I would say it is certainly different from RAINBOW!. It has a larger cast and story and rather than Boo’s fantasies in an otherwise grounded world, it features an actual supernatural story and characters. The basic pitch is that it’s about a boy who can see ghosts and becomes haunted by one shortly after moving— one who looks suspiciously like a missing girl at his new school. The only way they can hope to become untethered from each other is if they figure out who she is, what happened to her, and if she’s truly dead. And of course, the friends and enemies they make along the way as they navigate how these supernatural elements work.
Q: Let’s talk about the creative process. What inspires you both to create, and particularly, to tell such emotionally vulnerable stories?
Sunny: Emotionally vulnerable stories are my favorite! I love being able to look within and interrogate my own trauma and experience to find the nuggets that could become something productive. It makes it feel like I have control of my own trauma in a way. I also feel less alone when I can write something that other people can relate to. When people tell me they relate to Boo's situation, I feel an instant camaraderie with that person. It's so wonderful that my writing has been able to do that for me. I'm extremely grateful. I also just like creating characters and worlds. It feels natural like breathing. I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't creating.
Angel/Gloomy: I have a lot of trouble expressing my emotions in the real world, so being able to tell these stories is a good outlet. I feel like it is the best way I can express myself, even without saying anything.
Q: How do you manage the creative process when working together? Is there a clear division between writing and illustrating, or is it a collaborative process?
Sunny: Yes, there is a clear division. I have most of the story development responsibilities, and Angel does all of the art. We give each other basic notes on what we would change, but nothing major. I'll describe characters, but Angel does a lot of the heavy lifting with character designs even if I come up with the basic idea for the character. He adds so much life and detail to the characters that I really appreciate. If it's mainly a story detail, I probably came up with it. If it's mainly a visual detail, it was probably all Angel.
Angel/Gloomy: Sunny is the writer and I am the illustrator, but it is a bit more collaborative than that. I go through the drafts they write and offer my thoughts, either on the characters and story itself or how I would adapt it into comic format, or how they see it being drawn in their head if they have a vision for it, since Sunny writes them like a novel instead of a comic script. It’s more fun for us both that way, since it gives them the freedom to write as they please and gives me decent leeway in deciding how to depict it.
Q: How do you feel about the inexorable creep of AI into creative spaces, and what advice do you have for creatives who feel it’s pointless to spend time making art when machines can now “create” faster than us?
Angel/Gloomy: I think it’s sad, obviously for the artists that are harmed by it by having their motivation, work and even jobs stolen from them, but sad for the people who use AI as well. Some people use it maliciously, sure, but many do use it under the guise that it is a legitimate form of creation. They want to create, but maybe they don’t have the means, they don’t know where to start, they’re insecure, or they simply don’t want to put in the necessary effort to actually hone those creative skills, so they use AI instead as if it’s a magical shortcut that bypasses all those things. In doing this, they are not only robbing artists of their work but robbing themselves of their own integrity and the joy and accomplishment of creating something themselves. The results they get are hollow, empty, meaningless, thoughtless…and not to mention, they hurt the environment just to make something so shallow. And I do think that one day, people will realize that this “art” makes them feel empty as well. But it doesn’t take away my feelings about my own art at all— art is very personal, and I know that no other person, let alone a machine, would create the exact same things as me.
Q: How involved were you both in the process of converting RAINBOW! from a webcomic to a full graphic novel? Did you need to redraw panels, or change dialogue?
Angel/Gloomy: There were a few edits or minor redraws that needed to be made, but overall, I would say very little. In fact, most if not all of them were unnecessary, but rather edits I requested I could make to anything that I thought felt off or changed after it had been converted. So it was quite nice, actually! I’m glad I was able to do those things.
Q: If there was anything you could change about RAINBOW! (or something new you’ve learned since you first started it), what would it be?
Sunny: I actually never loved the name, but I've been told a lot of people like it. I have a plan for a name for a follow-up/epilogue that I think makes me like the name a lot more. I also might be able to clean up the first half of the story since we started this story so long ago, and I've learned a lot about my intentions with the story along the way. Though, honestly, I'm very happy with the finished product. I could change things, but RAINBOW! was such an important journey for me that maybe it's best to keep things exactly how they are.
Angel/Gloomy: I think we’ve definitely learned to collaborate better as RAINBOW! went on, so I would love to go back and change things that I screwed up if I could. There’s at least one or two moments where miscommunication or a change from writing to drawing caused a flaw in the final product because by the time one of us realized the mistake, it was too late! We were total rookies, for sure. There was also an entire scene that was cut for time that would be nice to have back.
Q: Would you ever like to see RAINBOW! adapted to an animated or live-action format, similar to other popular webcomics?
Angel/Gloomy: We’ve talked about it a little (just between Sunny and I, that is). Of course, who wouldn’t want to see their creation on the screen? If something like that ever happened, I would prefer something animated. Seeing my own art style animated would be way too cool! But I do think it would make sense to do live action. A lot of Boo’s daydream sequences could be covered just with costume changes and sets or green-screen. And seeing the characters fully embodied by actors in live action would be really cool too.
Q: Finally, what are some recent comics, books, or shows that you’d like to recommend to the readers at Anime Atelier?
Sunny: We just watched Invincible, which was fun, but very gory and violent for those that aren't into that. I have so much trouble remembering things I've read or watched as soon as I'm trying to think of something. Angel also does inks for this amazing comic called Suitor Armor. I'd really recommend you check that out if you haven't already!
Angel/Gloomy: I’m super excited for Snotgirl to come back this year! I think it already has, but I’m waiting for the compilation be released in Vol 4. I also recently watched and read Invincible, which I liked too!
We'd like to thank Sunny and Gloomy for taking the time to answer our questions in such detail. We look forward to reading their future works!
RAINBOW! Volume 2 will be available for sale on May 5, 2025.
Images courtesy of Scholastic
© 2025 by Sunny and Gloomy
