week 14, Webtoon!

In Korea, we usually called web comic to 'WebToon' and it became very successful in the Korean comic industries. There are few reasons but I think the biggest reason is awareness of copyright. Almost 15 years ago, there are a lot of comics published by author but most of readers didn't buy the book but downloaded scanned comics to read from internet. Korean comic industries were almost corrupted and web comic was published at same time. They show the comic free but put advertisement end of the comic. Nowadays, it became major comic industries in the Korea.

Here is the site to translated to English and this is a site to read. http://www.webtoons.com/en/ 

I loved to watch 'The stories of Those around me' and 'salty studio'. it was created by omyo, who is comic artist and illustrator, both of them are romance comic and I felt some sympathy when I read.

Week 13 Superheroes Reconsidered

I read 'Fables' because I played game 'wolf among us' which is based on the 'Fables' previous story.

Briefly, Fables was a comic book series published by DC Comics's Vertigo imprint beginning in 2002. The series deals with various people from fairy tales and folklore – referring to themselves as "Fables" – who have been forced out of their Homelands by "The Adversary" who has conquered the realm. The Fables have traveled to our world and formed a clandestine community in New York City known as Fabletown. Fables who are unable to blend in with human society (such as monsters and anthropomorphic animals) live at "the Farm" in upstate New York.

This is based on the fables so easy to catch the story and it was fun to watch how they adapted to the city life.

week 12 comics by women

I just read 'Rat Queens' because it has very appealing comic style and color. I tried to read 1st volume but the rink didn't works. basically, it's about the adventurer in a medieval fantasy setting.

It is about The eponymous "Rat Queens" are a rambunctious party of adventurers in a medieval fantasy setting. They comprise the rockabilly elven mage Hannah, the hipsterdwarven warrior Violet who shaved her beard before it became cool, the atheist human cleric Dee, who hails from a family of Lovecraftian monster cultists, and thehippie halfling thief Betty, whose idea of a hearty meal is a bag of drugs and candy.
The first five issues follow the group's exploits as they try to defend themselves against assassins intent on killing them and other adventuring groups that have been roughing up their home town of Palisade. The second story arc sees the Rat Queens trying to prevent a vengeful businessman from summoning Dee's people'smany-tentacled gods to lay waste to Palisade. The third arc has Hannah return to her sinister alma mater after her father is arrested for attempting a coup.

Week 11 Comics As Contemporary Literature

I read 'Channel Zero'. It was pretty impressive because the style of comic is pretty strong. They are used only black and white, no color and this style really fit into story of the comic. Also I like the story which is about the Jennie 2.5, a hacker who uses an illegal television channel to urge viewers fight back against New York and America's violent theocracy. It was a cool comic and I really enjoyed it.

week 10 Japanese manga

       Japanese manga is very important in my life because I learned a lot of style and concept to draw and I got ideas from them.

       In the resource page, I read 'Battle Angel Alita'(as known as 'Chong-mong) and 'Akira'. Those are one of my favorite manga because my favorite genre in manga is SF- cyberpunk. The feature of this genre are realistic and believable future life and I believe it become a real life in near future.

      Mangas I recommend in this genre are 'Ghost in the shell' and 'Planetes'. Breifly, 'Ghost in the shell' is the story about a special team in Japanese military fight against cyber crime or cyber terrorism. 'Planetes' is a story about space debris, which are coming from old satellites or space shuttles, cleaners. It is fun  an satire the human desire to conquer the space. 

week9 Wide world of comic

When I was in the middle school in Korea, I read 'Asterix'  a lot. It was translated in Korean version.
I had fun memory to watch the combination fighting between Asterix and Obelix. Now, I just watched the 'Asterix and Cleopatra'  It is more fun than I read before because I understand their humor and I felt it is kind a educational comic.
One of the scene I laughed is Obelix broke Sphinx's nose and he hided under the sand. It is common cliche of western humor which someone broke something, than usually they hide the broken thing under the carpet. I said it is a educational comic the reason is after watch this scene, I searched about the Sphinx and she didn't have a nose and nobody knows. There are several guesses but still any guesses are perfectly fit into the reason. Probably, I think Obelix broke it!

Week 6 Underground Comix(WIP)

         I just read a few comics in 'Zap Comix' and it's very interesting. I can feel these comics were influenced by hippie culture and I saw some satires about society. Also, I was impress about their don't care about the format much and talk about the various topic than 'Mainstream' comics.

Week 5 Contract with God

          This is a sad story about migrant labor during early 20th century. I don't want to talk about story longer because everybody read and doesn't want to spoil it. When I see it first, I felt little weird because Will Eisner, who is author, didn't used much panels like nowadays comic or manga. Also, recent graphic novels cut the scene by panels but this won't. I felt its more like a novel with illustrations. He really is good at using straight lines to express the mood and emotion of the character and it makes me focus to the story.

Week 4 & 5 Herge and Carl Barks. Adventures of Tintin

        I know this round-headed character. In Korea, we called 'ThangThang'. I don't know why they changed the name but When I was young I watched a few episodes of this comic and animation in a television. However, I can't recall any episode or story but I recall there are some action scenes in there.
       I just watched a few episodes of 'Bruxelles' It is kind a fun and This episodes were changed stereotype of Asian people. Briefly, Tintin go to the India and fight against drug dealer group. Then, he goes to China and saved Tchang Tchong-Jen. After saving him, 
He said to Tintin "I'm Chang... But... why did you rescue me? I thought all white people are bad."
 Tintin said "... all white guys are not bad. We thought all Chinese are bad and cruel"
Then, they goes together, showing stereotypes of Asians and Europeans and also shows how they were different. I think this comic affected to reduced some racism and stereotype of each other.

Week3 Comic Strip

         Early of 20th Century, most of comics had been published in newspaper or magazine. So, most of comics had limited space in paper, and they were looking for effcient way to brief humor or form a narrative. At that time, they started to used pannel and text in balloon and caption effectively.

         There are several representing comics like Nemo magazine, Krazy Kat by George Herriman. My favorite is 'Peanuts by Charles Schulz and 'Calvin and Hobbes' by Bill Waterson. Especially, Calvin and Hobbes is very famous in South Korea and I love to watched it. At that time, I was just enjoyed the episode but later after I grew up, when watch the comic I felt weirdness. First of all, Hobbes is not real Tiger!(even when I was young, I was kind a wonder how tiger lives with human but it could be excused because it is comic) Hobbes is actually a doll but he has life when Calvin talk to Hobbes. Also I felt little bit of the philosophy because Calvin always played with Hobbes but in different point of view like father or mother, Calvin is just playing with doll. I think Bill Waterson want to show all event has different interpretation by each person.

          This is Fun to know american comics but it was too much read, so I hope when I got a time, I want to read and think how american comics changed step by step.

   .

Week2 Understanding Comics!

         When I was young I wanna be a comic book artist but I changed my mind because I thought I'm not a good storyteller at that time. Now after read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, I knew why it was so hard to be making comic to me. I always focus on to show good quality of drawing like a professional but actually that was not that important. After I read Understanding Comic, I'm very impressed about Scott McCloud analyze the comic. Especially,  when he explain iconic expression and transition between the panels it was pretty impressive.