Storm Clouds and the challenges of nudist media
A twist-filled webcomic and the questions it raises about nudist storytelling
When Greyfriar’s Isle creator Reinder Dijkhuis posted a link to this webcomic Storm Clouds by Roman Bureš, I was unprepared for the journey this 74 page story would take me on. I was also unprepared for the ways it got me thinking about nudist media in general.
Storm Clouds was originally serialized in Czech by Bureš from 2013 to 2014, and was translated into English by Juří Bernášek, with the English lettering done by Cor Van De Sande. A French translation also exists on the website. The comic is set a few years after what is known as the Naturist Revolution: people no longer wear clothes, and clothing itself is now outlawed contraband. At Castle Weaver, it is rumored that hidden away somewhere in the building is a tomb filled with these forbidden textiles, and there are folks out there who would like to get their hands on it. The castle’s former owner was a textile baron called Count Krakomar, who had died shortly after the revolution by hanging himself.
The story opens with the castle’s manager Adam Nilsky picking up a hitchhiker calling herself Eve, who states that she’s a student at the university and missed the bus to Castle Weaver. Both are on their way to a seminar about the growth of trees being held there. When they get there, Adam introduces Eve to everyone, gives a little talk about the castle, and warns everyone not to leave the castle grounds in the evening and to stay in their dormitories.
When night falls, a storm begins to approach and people start acting weird. Renata, one of the students, gets up to find a bathroom and is followed by a strange, clothed and masked figure. She finds a dress and puts it on before she screams and goes missing. In her room, Professor Triest withdraws some carefully hidden lingerie and puts it on. We also learn that Eve has brought a gun with her, but for what purpose, we don’t know.
There are so many questions set up in this opening, and I was expecting this to turn into a kind of locked door mystery with a killer on the loose, but I was very wrong, and the story took a surprising twist that really surprised me. The mysteries unfold at a rapid pace. If you wish to read for yourself without being spoiled, I recommend you do so now, as it’s a pretty big deal that drives the rest of the comic.
The spoiler is this: After the two run into each other while snooping around the castle, Eve reveals to Adam that she is actually an alien from the planet Naturn in Galaxy NUO35. She reveals the history of her home, which had its own naturist revolution. However, the leader of an underground resistance, Textyran (you’ll notice none of the names here are subtle), escaped the planet and came to Earth! Eve suspects he is plotting to undo Earth’s own revolution and reintroduce clothes to the population and has followed him to Earth to stop him. Okay, no more spoilers from here on in.
From there, more twists keep coming as the comic barrels towards a surprisingly downbeat, yet thoughtful conclusion. It definitely feels like it tried something different, and I appreciate it for that.
The art is a really big draw for this comic: heavy ink outlines, sometimes too heavy, over top some lovely watercolor paints that I can’t help but smile at. Castle Weaver itself is beautifully illustrated, packed with detail and history and very much a character itself. Unfortunately, the regular cast is rather bland, which dampened the impact of some of the story’s twists. An issue I had was trying to tell most of the characters apart: everyone is nude, but of similar build and their faces and hairstyles just weren’t quite unique enough for me to be able to easily differentiate between everyone. The English translation has its weaknesses, and the lettering isn’t a very professional job, but none of that is enough to make this a difficult or frustrating read. My other big issue, regarding the story is that I’d like to know more about the naturist revolution, how it took place.
It was refreshing that not once does anybody in the comic mention anything about the joys and benefits of nudism, which is something that gets crammed into almost all other nudist media. Everyone here is nude, there’s no need to explain it because, frankly, nobody who isn’t at least interested in nudism in general is going to read this. Within the history of the world in this comic, we’re past that point. To that end, there was something that caught my interest when I browsed the comments beneath the final page, and it was this particular critique by an unnamed user in 2019:
The commenter points out how the comic is just preaching to the choir, and I was reminded of a quote from the most popular Letterboxd review of the movie Act Naturally, which has stuck with me for years ever since I first read it: “If Act Naturally is any indication, Christian movies and nudist movies have something in common: they both suck. This is not to set up a dichotomy between Christianity and naturism, as one philosophy need not exclude the other. Rather, it’s to opine that adherents of either are likely to find that movies made primarily as a mouthpiece for a lifestyle or ideology fail as works of dramatic fiction.”
There’s also been some recent discussion in the Planet Nude Discord about naturist fiction in general that has been about the same thing, and I think we’re all quickly realizing how limited creators are when it comes to the subject as well as trying to reach an audience outside of nudist communities. So many nudist films of the 1960s have the same plot, where an outsider finds their way into nudism (usually by visiting a camp or resort) and falls in love with it. Act Naturally itself built off of that. There aren’t really any dramatic stakes to dig into, and as much as I enjoy these films, it’s rarely been for the story and more for the weird elements thrown on top: the criminals in Hideout in the Sun, the bizarre editing of Educating Julie, virtually everything about the Monster of Camp Sunshine, all of which I’ve reviewed for this blog. The naturist elements themselves are hardly what makes these things worth looking at, it’s everything else. I guess it’s also why I struggle paying attention to nudist social media in general because so much of it is just about the same thing over and over: yes, being nude is great! Especially when with other people! But I never get to learn about other aspects of people’s lives that AREN’T about being naked.
I think about these things a lot with Asada & Mischa too. I feel like I’m making the least nudist comic strip for this nudist blog, trying to make it about more than just nudity. You just have to make the thing you want to make and hope it finds an audience, I guess.
Were it not for the crazy twists in Storm Clouds, I don’t think I would’ve read the whole thing at all. In that respect I don’t think that anonymous commenter was right about this comic, because Bureš threw so many zany elements into it, possibly because he himself realized how boring it would be otherwise. It is a comic about naturism, yes, but also introduces an existential threat to naturism in a way I’ve never seen done anywhere else.
Looking at the creator’s website is a delight too: Bureš plays with so many different materials and styles. There’s photography, graphic design, realistically painted landscapes and portraits, and so much of it is naturist in theme. I highly recommend clicking around. There’s also an untranslated comic there called Dragonfly that I’m curious about. Looking at the pages, seeing soldiers chasing and shooting at naked people, I wonder if this may connect with Storm Clouds and be about the beginnings of the naturist revolution itself? I’m just guessing though! What do you think? 🪐
I think part of the issue is that naturists are already such a small demographic to appeal to, that adding in any niche or abrasive elements that might ruffle naturist sensibilities forces creators to play it safe for the average naturist. Quite frankly, it's why I'm quite avoidant to naturist media; if it's all just going to be saccharine and light-hearted with no introspection or commentary on naturism or our relationship to our bodies and the broader world, why bother? Fluff is nice, but we should also aspire to create works that utilize naturism as more than a platform to espouse its virtues. Most naturist work is too chaste, too neutral on the world at large, too afraid to say anything beyond "Being naked is fun and great! There are no downsides ever and everyone should be naked!".