For my last blogpost, I decided to revise my week 9 blogpost where I discussed “Pyongyang.” After reading through it again, I thought that I didn’t give as much personal insight into it compared to my other blogposts. So, here we go again: “Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea” by Guy Delisle was the retelling of his experience living in North Korea for two months. Rather than being a journal or diary, the narrative style felt like a really long, traditional comic strip. The storytelling had similarities to “Maus” because of the non-fictional content. However, it was not as captivating and visually impactful as “Maus.” To be honest, I think I was expecting something more from this comic. I wanted to feel enlightened and moved, and walk away from this comic with a new perspective on this country. It was partially my fault for having these high expectations, but overall I did find this comic to be an interesting read. I probably wouldn’t remember it after a while, but I
There is a huge audience for web comics nowadays, which made me feel that they were appropriate to discuss for this week’s blogpost. In South Korea especially, there is a whole sub-culture of webtoon artists and readers. Some become insanely popular, which often lead to big hit television remakes of the comic (also true in Japan). What’s interesting about online comics is the amount of variety for me, as I can easily switch from a very emotional, dramatic story to slice-of-life comedic one shots. Websites like Line Webtoon, Lehzin, or Comico make it extremely easy and convenient to jump from one series to the next. It also brings an opportunity for aspiring comic artists to showcase their talents, and possibly gain a huge following. I wanted to highlight three different web comics today: “Lore Olympus” by Rachel Smythe, “Ghost Teller” by QTT, and “Sarah’s Scribbles” by Sarah Andersen. These select three are extremely different from each other, but they are al