MANHWA REVIEWS

Ill-Fated Relationship

April 10, 2011 by MJ 12 Comments

Originally hosted at Manhwa Bookshelf.

Ill-Fated Relationship | By Hwang Joon-Ho | Published by iSeeToon | Platform: iOS (iPhone only) – A man and woman meet in the big city, brought together by chance and undefinable desire. While this is not an uncommon premise in any kind of fiction, what distinguishes their story from others is what the two have in common. They’re both serial killers.

There are so many ways in which a story like this could go wrong. It could try too hard to be funny or sympathetic, trivializing both the characters’ mental illness and the suffering of their victims, all in the name of entertainment. It could also lean to the other extreme, reveling in a level of “realism” that ultimately borders on sick voyeurism. Or, more unfortunately, it could simply be dull, wrapped up in clinical analysis that engages no one, save a few idle academics. Thankfully, Ill-Fated Relationship avoids all of these traps, studying its characters with interest that steers safely clear of both fetishization and cold objectivity.

Hwang introduces his characters simply, avoiding coy humor or cheap surprises. A serial killer boards a public bus, looking for his next victim. He observes his surroundings quietly, even dispassionately, a sense enhanced by the comic’s drab color palette of blues, blacks, and grays (with the occasional red for emphasis). After leaving the bus, he’s confronted by a lost boy looking for his mother. “Should I feel pity for this child?” the killer asks himself. “Maybe not,” he finally determines, walking away from the scene. The boy turns then to a woman in the crowd, who takes him home to kill him. This brief chain of events, beginning with the first killer’s decision not to help the boy, serves as the catalyst for bringing the two killers together, ultimately leading them to their fate as described in the story’s title.

Though the plot of the story revolves around the two “helping” each other in various ways, the real point of the series has little to do with plot at all. All in all, there’s nothing new here, and certainly nothing unexpected. After all, the title alone pretty much gives away the ending, if in somewhat vague terms. And likewise, though the story’s philosophical and psychological trajectory is well-trodden ground (How does childhood trauma contribute to antisocial behavior? Are people essentially cruel and amoral beings?), again that’s hardly the point. For, despite its starkly unsentimental tone and ambivalent POV, Ill-Fated Relationship is, at its core, an intensely personal story.

The real heart of this manhwa lies in the personal journeys of its characters, how they became what they are, and how their experience with each other influences the way they view themselves and what they do. And though it is their differences that, in many ways, cause them to seek each other out (he’s drawn to her care-free worldview, while she’s drawn to his emotional vulnerability), it is the way in which they most closely connect that ultimately seals their fate, and perhaps even gives them meaning, something that Hwang manages to explore with surprising subtlety.

Hwang’s style is sparse, both visually and narratively, creating an environment that feels both intimate and detached at the same time. While the limited use of color suggests a similarly subdued emotional palette, the lack of detail (both background and foreground) brings each emotional beat into sharp focus. With just the sparest detail gracing the page, every small shift becomes significant, both in movement and expression. And with narration and dialogue used even more sparingly, it is these carefully-executed visual cues that do most of the heavy lifting.

With its clear, simple art style and minimal dialogue, this series is unusually well-suited to the iPhone’s small screen, but to limit its reach that way really does seem a shame. I’d love to see this manhwa on the iPad as well, and even more so on the web, which would substantially increase its potential for an English-speaking audience. In the English-language manhwa market, currently dominated by conventional romance and action series, Ill-Fated Relationship provides a welcome alternative for fans of indie comics and manga who are interested in exploring the largely untapped wealth of Korean webcomics.

Complete in twenty chapters (with a short parody comic as an extra), Ill-Fated Relationship‘s compelling characters and well-crafted narrative provide an exceptionally satisfying, compact read. Recommended.

Advance copy provided by the publisher. Editing not yet final. Short previews from the publisher available here.

Joseon Female Detective Damo, Vol. 2

January 2, 2011 by Hana Lee 2 Comments

Joseon Female Detective Damo, Vol. 2 | By Bang Hak-gi | Cheonnyeon-ui Sijak

Joseon Female Detective Damo (조선여형사 다모) was originally published as a newspaper or shinmun manhwa in Sports Seoul in 1994. It followed a previous series that the manhwa-ga, Bang Hak-gi (방학기), had published in 1979, called Damo Nam-sun (다모 남순이), which was serialized in Sports Seoul. In 2003, MBC turned Damo into a popular television miniseries, starring Ha Ji-won in the title role. Although the manhwa has not been translated into English, the drama is available for legal viewing in U.S. and Canada by streaming online at Dramafever.

(The first volume is currently out-of-print, which is why my reviews are beginning with the second volume. Fortunately, the drama remained sufficiently faithful to the original story, and the manhwa itself—no doubt due to its original form as a weekly serial—provided enough context to allow the reader to follow along without having read the first volume.)

The word damo (다모 or 茶母) originally indicated a female servant who served tea in government offices. However, by the late Joseon dynasty, the meaning of the term had evolved to refer to female police detectives, who were important for searching and interrogating female suspects in Joseon’s gender-segregated society. Set during the late 17th century, Joseon Female Detective Damo tells the story of one such detective, Chae-ok, who serves under the chief inspector of the Left Police Bureau, Hwangbo Yun.

At the start of the second volume, Chae-ok, who habitually goes disguised as a man, has gone undercover to infiltrate a ring of counterfeiters. With a fellow servant, Ma Chuk-ji, she helps a prisoner named Noh escape from the notoriously well-guarded Seorin jail. Having won Noh’s trust, Chae-ok and Ma Chuk-ji follow him to his hideout, where they realize that the criminal activities go far beyond just counterfeiting money. Noh and his men are illegally smuggling in weapons—specifically Japanese-style swords and guns—suggesting a much more dangerous criminal conspiracy that can only be backed by a high-ranking official.

Ma Chuk-ji on the left, Chae-ok on the right.

Meanwhile, Chae-ok’s superior, Hwangbo Yun is fired from his position as chief inspector of the Left Police Bureau because of the prison break. However, he has already anticipated his dismissal, which in combination with the infiltration operation, is part of his ambitious plan to promote his government career by exposing a high-profile crime. A flashback shows that Hwangbo Yun is an illegitimate son of a nobleman; due to this status, he was originally barred from civil service and served instead as a low-ranking military officer. (Due to the literati culture of the time, the military was held in lower esteem than the civil bureaucracy. The police bureau on the other hand was considered part of the civil service.) He received his appointment to the Left Police Bureau through a matter of luck: after surviving a murder attempt by his half-brother, the investigation into the crime brings Yun to the attention of the head of the Left Police Bureau, who appoints him to the chief inspector position. However, the appointment also won him many enemies, including Jeong Pil-jun, the Minister of War and the main antagonist of the series. Jeong Pil-jun is the man responsible for Hwangbo Yun’s dismissal, and the Left Police Bureau suspect that he is also behind the counterfeiting and smuggling ring.

Hwangbo Yun on the left, Jeong Pil-jun on the right.

Noh takes Chae-ok and Ma Chuk-ji to the criminals’ mountain stronghold, where they meet the leader, Cheon Seung-gi. They learn that the goal of the conspiracy is revolution: Cheon Seung-gi is gathering dissatisfied commoners and other dissidents and training them into a small army, whose purpose is to overthrow the Yi Joseon dynasty. Their cry is “Justice now!” (a rough translation of “이재궁궁”), a prayer for a better world. Cheon Seung-gi, despite his idealism, has his own dark past, as a former eunuch who is on the run after murdering his adulterous wife. Chae-ok and Ma Chuk-ji must now try to find evidence that conclusively proves that Cheon Seung-gi is taking orders from a government official and uncover that official’s identity. Despite their best efforts, they get nowhere, which leads them to conclude that they have to trick Cheon Seung-gi into revealing his patron. The volume ends as their trap is set, using Ma Chuk-ji’s wife, Tabak-nyeo, to get close to the criminals’ leader.

Cheon Seung-gi.

Although this manhwa is not rated, the dark subject matter, including visual depictions of violence and sex, make it very much a series for adults. (The drama, by comparison, would receive at most a Teen (13+) rating.) While the stylized art prevents the images from seeming explicit, they do represent what in a more realistic style would be very graphic scenes. Although featuring a strong female protagonist in a historical setting sends a feminist message, readers should be warned that the series does contain misogynistic content that goes beyond the sexism of the historical period. In particular, Cheon Seung-gi has a deep-seated hatred of women, and I found the two scenes where he murders women to be disturbing.

These warnings aside, the manhwa depicts the historical period with considerable realism and takes the time to provide background information that is not common knowledge. As the manhwa’s intended audience is supposed to have learned about Korean history in school, it suggests that the manhwa-ga put in considerable time into researching the setting and making the manhwa educational as well as entertaining. (Certainly, the experience of reading this manhwa has drastically expanded my knowledge of historical vocabulary.)

The strength of the manhwa is in its moral ambiguity. While the drama does address the issue of how both sides are in the right, the manhwa takes it one step further and shows how both sides are in the wrong. In this volume, Bang Hak-gi delves into extensive flashbacks for Hwangbo Yun and Cheon Seung-gi, showing past context that is important to understanding both characters. Neither Hwangbo Yun nor Cheon Seung-gi are pillars of virtue, and at times, they are thoroughly dislikable characters. The manhwa takes a sharp and critical look at all the social problems of the era through the lens of a protagonist who, as a woman and as a slave, is at the bottom of the hierarchy and sees the situation most clearly. It is telling that Chae-ok’s weapon of choice in the manhwa is a flail (also known as nunchaku), a commoner’s weapon, rather than the sword wielded by her drama counterpart, and yet she never loses a fight in this volume.

Since Damo is an older series, the art is very different from the more well-known examples of magazine or jabji manhwa. Bang Hak-gi’s style lends itself well to action scenes, drawn with thick, dynamic lines that almost make the characters seem to move on the page:

Series of panels where Chae-ok is fighting off pursuers during the prison break with a backflip kick.

While figures and backgrounds are rendered without much detail, the manhwa-ga does pay considerable attention to the form of the bodies in his action scenes and makes good use of the limited space on the page. The faces are often drawn in vivid close-ups, and characters that would otherwise look similar are often distinguished by evoking differences in expression and posture. Also impressive is his ability to render landscapes in a minimal number of lines:

Series of panels depicting a river on the left and a mountain landscape on the right.

As someone who had enjoyed the drama adaptation of this series, I enjoyed this opportunity to read the original manhwa. Despite the familiarity of the story, the manhwa proved to strike a much darker tone and a somewhat cynical perspective in comparison to the drama. The complex and nuanced portrayal of the characters grabbed my attention and made me curious to find out what happens next after the cliffhanger ending of this volume. For readers who are interested in historical crime stories with a generous side of political intrigue and martial arts action, Joseon Female Detective Damo will be a perfect fit.

The Color Trilogy

August 8, 2010 by MJ Leave a Comment

At Manga Bookshelf’s Off the Shelf, Michelle Smith and I discuss Kim Dong Hwa’s Color trilogy (The Color of Earth, The Color of Water, and he Color of Heaven) published in English by First Second. Here’s an excerpt from the discussion:

MJ: Let’s get right to the meat of things. There’s been a lot of discussion among critics about whether or not this series is inherently sexist. Michelle, I’d like to start with bringing up a statement you made in your recent review of The Color of Heaven:

“I know that the limited scope of life for a woman in this time and place is historically accurate, and that for a mother to say, “There is nothing better in life than getting married” reflects a period where marriage provided the ultimate in protection for a woman … To be honest, I think a large part of my ire is due to the fact that The Color Trilogy is written by a man. If a woman wrote these things, I’d still be annoyed, but coming from a male author I can’t help but read such statements as downright condescending. Try as I might to view these attitudes through a historical lens, I’m simply unable to get over my knee-jerk reaction.”

First of all, I wouldn’t characterize your reaction as knee-jerk at all. I think what you’re reacting to (and I mentioned this in comments, but I’ll reiterate it here) is not the story’s historical context, but the author’s own sexism which he reveals in the way he portrays the realities of the period. My immediate thought upon finishing the series was that I found it inexpressibly sad. Ehwa’s mother spends almost the entire series teaching her daughter about what a woman’s life is in their world and helping her learn how to endure a lifetime of waiting and heartache that can only be relieved by the companionship of a beloved man. And I suspect there is quite a bit of historical accuracy in this sense of utter helplessness and lack of worth placed on a single woman in that period.

But despite the bleakness of their circumstances, Kim portrays it all with a loving nostalgia. Even when expressing the sadness and longing felt by Ehwa and her mother as they wait for their men, he portrays it all as beautiful and even romantic. This isn’t matter of being true to the period. These are Kim’s own values being revealed here, and that’s what we’re reacting to. The same story could be told without that veil of fond nostalgia and it would read very, very differently. If this series had actually been written during that time period, that would be different matter as well, but Kim is a contemporary writer, and as such, he’s responsible to contemporary readers for the story he’s chosen to tell and how he tells it.

Read the full discussion here.

Run, Bong-Gu, Run!, Dokebi Bride, Time and Again

July 30, 2010 by MJ Leave a Comment

At Manga Bookshelf’s Off the Shelf, Michelle Smith and I discuss three manhwa series, Byun Byung-Jun’s Run, Bong-Gu, Run! from NBM/Comics Lit, Marley’s Dokebi Bride from NETCOMICS, and JiUn Yun’s Time and Again from Yen Press.

Here’s an excerpt from our discussion:

MICHELLE: How about with Run, Bong-Gu, Run! by Byun Byung-Jun? I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this one since I finished it. For those who aren’t familiar with it, this is a simple story of a boy and his mother who travel from a seaside town to Seoul in search of the father/husband who went to the city in search of work and who hasn’t been heard from in some time. While there, they meet a kindly old man and his granddaughter, rescue a bird from a building, and bemoan the difficulties of life in the city.

While low on plot, Run, Bong-Gu, Run is high on atmosphere, with a dreamy yet deliberate way of portraying the actions of our protagonists as opposed to the near faceless mob of Seoul-ites who go whizzing past them. Our smalltown heroes have not lost the ability to see others in pain, be they homeless humans or endangered pigeons. They manage to do a fair amount of good on their visit simply by noticing those around them and providing what help they can offer.

MJ: It’s true there isn’t much to the plot of this little manhwa, and for me that’s definitely part of its charm. I love the simplicity of the story and its characters, and Byun’s manner of presenting them. I like, too, that it’s not just the smalltown visitors doing good, either.

The old man they meet there is as kind and helpful as they are, and obviously has been helping out the woman’s husband while he’s been in the city. There’s this big, faceless city, but once you get down to the individuals, they are just people like anyone else, and I love that about this story. I think it’s significant that the old man is first seen in the story panhandling on the subway. That person–a begger on the subway–is the easiest for most of us to brush off in our lives as someone on the outskirts of our own experience. Yet he turns up later as a fully-realized character.

In a way, Byun portrays Seoul exactly as I think of big cities in general. They can seem intimidating–as though they might swallow your individuality whole–but when you really spend time in one, maybe even live in it, you realize that a neighborhood is a neighborhood, no matter where you live in the world. A city is just a dense collection of small towns with no official dividers between them.

I like your description of the atmosphere as “dreamy yet deliberate.” That’s the perfect way to describe Byun’s artwork and writing style. And it’s nice to see it used for a warm, simple story like this one. Run, Bong-Gu, Run! lacks the sheer bleakness of Byun’s melancholy anthology, Mijeong, and though some of those stories perhaps have more to them, this one is much more soothing for the soul.

Magical JxR, Vol. 1

July 4, 2010 by MJ 3 Comments

Magical JxR | By Lee Sun-Young | Published by Udon Entertainment | Rated Teen (13+) – Jay and Aru are young wizards, ready to graduate from wizarding school. To fulfill their final graduation test, they must make a contract to help a human girl, Cho-Ah. Hidden in the fine print, however, are the contract’s real terms, mandating that the two of them spend an entire year with her!

Though the previous appears to be the intended plot for this manhwa (as evidenced by very similar copy on the back of its cover), it’s difficult to know for sure, since the concept doesn’t actually appear until halfway through the volume. Though the earlier chapters do revolve around the two wizards as little boys, they read like false starts, as though Lee (or her editor) changed her mind several times before deciding on a story to tell.

As a result, the series’ first volume is a fairly frustrating read that really doesn’t get anywhere until the last few pages, in which it introduces the story’s main plot before cruelly coming to an end. Fortunately, it is the story’s most intriguing characters, Jay, Aru, and Cho-Ah, who will advance to the series’ next volumes.

Jay and Aru may be wizards, but it is their contrasting personalities (ice cold Jay and smiling Aru) that make them worth reading about, not their run-of-the-mill magical powers. Their relationship as partners is fun to watch as well, though this is more effectively established in the volume’s later chapters than in the early bits of backstory.

The real star, however, is Cho-Ah, who struggles between her natural abilities as a martial artist and her desire to be seen as a girly-girl. And it is the prospect of learning more about her that makes the most compelling argument for moving on to further volumes.

Lee’s artwork is a mishmash of beauty and chaos, with pretty, pretty character designs (quite similar to those by Sirial in Yen Press’ One Fine Day) and over-crowded panels that are sometimes so spastic and so full of different types of text, it’s difficult to tell what to read first. The worst of the mess has calmed by the volume’s later chapters, however, providing much hope going forward.

Though Magical JxR is by no means original or even particularly coherent, Lee’s pretty artwork and likable female lead provide enough genuine charm to warrant moving on to the next volume.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Hissing, Vols. 1-6

June 27, 2010 by MJ 1 Comment

Hissing | By Kang EunYoung | Published by Yen Press | Rated T (Teen) – High school freshman Da-Eh is an aspiring manhwa artist who carefully ignores constant cries for attention from her doting younger brother. Fellow freshman Sun-Nam, the youngest of three boys, is bound and determined to become a “bad guy.” Finally, senior Ta-Jun, the school hottie, finds himself drawn to the one girl who can’t stand him, Da-Eh. If this is where the story stopped, there would be nothing at all remarkable about it, and over the course of the first volume or so, that’s seemingly where things stand. Fortunately, both the story and Kang’s method of telling it soon become more complex.

Read the rest at Brigid Alverson’s MangaBlog, where it’s been posted as a guest review! This series gets off to a very slow start, but for patient readers it is well worthwhile. This is my second guest appearance at MangaBlog. I hope you’ll let me know what you think! Check it out here.

Mijeong

June 8, 2010 by MJ 2 Comments

Mijeong | By Byun Byung-Jun | Published by NBM Publishing – An angel finds his way to earth, drawn to a world that seems to embody the eternal sadness he carries with him, and longing for someone who might understand his pain. He finds this in a young woman he spots along the street, and in a moment of impulsive rebellion takes it upon himself to save her from being struck by an oncoming car. It is a moment of sharp ecstasy for the angel, who is able to feel both the woman’s deep despair and her great capacity to love as he embraces her. By doing this, however, he has doomed them both to a life of suffering, “a rending love for which I can do nothing.” “Her name is Mijeong,” he says, “and I have no name yet, here.” It is here that the tale ends–the title story in Byun Byung-Jun’s second anthology of short manhwa, Mijeong–a beautiful introduction to this melancholic collection.

Though the quality of its individual tales is somewhat uneven, Mijeong as a whole promises a great future for the artist, whose insight into his deeply lost and broken characters is nearly as stunning as his often impressionistic art style. The collection wanders in and out between true melancholy and dark humor, sometimes with more success than others. The volume’s second story, “Yeon-du, Seventeen Years Old,” the intersecting tales of an emotionally damaged young woman seeking revenge for the death of a childhood love and a desperately lonely older man, is one of its strongest and most thoughtful. Just as effective is the darkly humorous story, “Courage, Grandfather!” in which a girl expresses her gratitude to a boy who rescued her from a brutal attack, viewed entirely through the filter of a cat’s unrequited love. Another of the volume’s best shorts, “Utility,” (story by Yun In-wan) about a group of students dispassionately pondering the most effective way to dispose of a dead sibling’s body, is starkly brilliant yet quite difficult to read, thanks to its subject matter. On the flip side, “202 Villa Siril,” a dark comedy about a manhwa artist with a disturbing power, feels predictable and flat.

A recurring theme throughout the anthology is its characters’ enslavement to their pasts. “For me, only my past has any meaning,” says young Yeon-du in the story named for her. What keeps this book from slipping into irreparable despair, however, is that this isn’t only a bad thing. Byun Byung-Jun’s characters are both burdened and enriched by their histories, an insight that rings inescapably true. Even when longing for the past leaves characters bleeding to death in the grass (as in the grimly abrupt “Song for You”) there is an unmistakable sense of hope lingering around the edges of most of these stories—a haunting paradox that helps maintain the volume’s momentum.

Though the stories’ characters are almost uniformly touching, what is notable above all is the persistent sense of place. The volume’s first story sets the tone clearly with the cold, unfeeling city, filthy with despair, indifferent to its people’s gaping, open wounds. Whether it is the people who have created their environment or the other way around is a question in the background of each story—one that is destined to remain unanswered.

Byun Byung-Jun’s art varies throughout the collection, from the moody watercolor of “Song for You” to the sketchy photorealism of “Yeon-du, Seventeen Years Old,” though in all cases the art feels unsettled and immature. This is not so much a criticism as an observation, as there is a pervading sense that one is previewing the work of an artist who will inevitably achieve importance in the medium. In a note at the end of the book, the artist confesses that the work reflects his own state of mind. “Eternally hesitant, I feel like I’m stuck at an impasse.” What the work truly reveals, however, both in its storytelling and style, is a restless mind on the brink of true brilliance—something for all of us to look forward to.

Simultaneously dark and hopeful, Mijeong‘s inconsistency and fretful tone may betray the early weaknesses of its creator, but its insight and uncommon beauty promise much greater things to come.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at PopCultureShock.

You’re So Cool, Vols. 1-6

June 1, 2010 by MJ 1 Comment

You’re So Cool | By YoungHee Lee | Published by Yen Press | Rated T (Teens) – My big news for the afternoon is the event of my guest review of YoungHee Lee’s You’re So Cool (full series) over at Brigid Alverson’s MangaBlog. This is a series that began on weak footing with me, setting itself up to be another Hot Gimmick or Black Bird or any number of other girls’ comic series dedicated to romanticizing smug, controlling men.

Fortunately, by the time I got around to this series, there was enough of it released for me to avoid being turned off by just the first couple of volumes. It’s not a perfect series by any means, but the romantic content is surprisingly satisfying (thanks mainly to the series’ secondary romance) and its heroine is the most endearing little tomboy you’ll ever meet. The artist doesn’t go crazy prettying her up in the later volumes, either, which is a refreshing choice indeed.

This is also my very first guest review at MangaBlog, so if you like it, be sure to say so! Click here for more!

13th Boy, Vol. 2

June 1, 2010 by MJ 1 Comment

13th Boy, Vol. 2 | By SangEun Lee | Published by Yen Press – Still determined that Won-Jun is her destined true love, Hee-Soo campaigns to join the Girl Scouts so that she can attend the joint scouts camping trip along with him. The scouts are reluctant to accept Hee-Soo into their ranks since she is applying well after the deadline (and they suspect her motives are far from pure) but when Hee-Soo miraculously passes their impossible test for membership they are unable to refuse. Meanwhile, more is revealed about Whie-Young’s supernatural powers and the long-standing romantic triangle between him, Won-Jun, and Sae-Bom which Hee-Soo has complicated further. Most importantly, however, talking cactus Beatrice has a mysterious secret which provides this volume’s greatest shock!

What was charming but incoherent in the first volume of this unusual supernatural romance has become simply charming in its second volume now that the story has apparently hit its stride. Without losing any of the elements that made the first volume so perfectly whimsical (strange teenagers, hints of magic, talking plant life), the relationships between the characters are finally taking shape, though much mystery still remains. What is the true nature of Whie-Young’s magic? Why doesn’t Hee-Soo remember her childhood friendship with him? What on earth is the deal with Beatrice? These questions linger on, but there is enough solid ground to stand on to make this story’s foundation comfortably secure.

Though Hee-Soo’s unwavering pursuit of Won-Jun could easily become too strident to bear (the heroine of Sarasah comes to mind) her sincerity and determination to remain smiling as he repeatedly (but not unkindly) rejects her make her too sympathetic to dislike. It is quite painful to watch the four-way tangle of unrequited love between Hee-Soo, Won-Jun, Sae-Bom, and Whie-Young, but there is enough real affection between them all–even Hee-Soo who is the outsider of the group–to render each of them likable in his/her own way. It is especially refreshing to see them take steps to save each other from pain and public humiliation, including those who are rivals. There is real kindness in each of these characters, no matter how hard they work to hide it.

With its nuanced relationships, idiosyncratic characters, supernatural themes, quirky art, and sense of true whimsy, 13th Boy is a real winner with me. Let’s hope it continues to build on this new strength!

Review copy provided by the publisher.

13th Boy, Vol. 3

June 1, 2010 by MJ Leave a Comment

13th Boy, Vol. 3 | By SangEun Lee | Published by Yen Press – A volunteer outing with the Scouts gives Hee-So a new opportunity to get close to Won-Jun, but a blatant demonstration of Won-Jun’s devotion to Sae-Bom gets things off to a painful start. It would seem that revelation is the theme of the day, as Whie-Young finally forces Hee-So to remember the details of their childhood together. Later on, the full moon offers cactus Beatrice to the chance to seek out some answers about his supernatural origins, leading to some shocking truths for him as well as for his unwitting creator.

Love parallelograms are all well and good but there is no question that this volume’s real excitement is The Truth About Beatrice, possibly the weirdest and most wonderful bit of manhwa eccentricity I’ve encountered so far. Even as no more than a talking cactus, Beatrice was an undeniable highlight of my comics experience, but with the stakes raised and secrets peeling away rapidly, it’s hard to imagine what could top him. Also, though the series has positioned Whie-Young as Hee-So’s destined love since the very beginning, I really can’t help myself. I’m rooting for the cactus.

Fabulous whimsy aside, what really makes this series work is Hee-So. Though she is self-centered, pushy, and occasionally conniving, unlike some other boy-crazed manhwa heroines (Sarasah‘s Ji-Hae springs immediately to mind), she is also funny, oddly practical, and above all, immensely likable. Her most attractive characteristics are also her most contradictory, which is honestly half the fun. She is incredibly stubborn, yet open-minded enough to accept some fairly outrageous realities. She believes deeply in fated true love but has been through twelve boyfriends on her way to find it. Even in her most self-involved moments (and there are many of them), she’s able to consider questions such as whether or not her cactus might be going through puberty. She’s a complete mess, but she’s a mess with a mission and I find it impossible not to love her.

Just three volumes in, this series has become a real favorite for me. With its mix of supernatural oddities and quirky romance, 13th Boy offers something for both fans of cracktastic ’80s shojo manga and modern romantic manhwa. Highly recommended.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Comic, Vol. 6

June 1, 2010 by MJ Leave a Comment

Comic, Vol. 6 | By Ha Sihyun | Published by Yen Press – Volume five ended with turmoil for both protagonist and aspiring manhwa-ga Alice Song and her love interest, established manhwa-ga Patrick Kang. Having not quite escaped the clutches of manipulative queen bee Daria, Patrick lied to Alice about it, only to be shocked by a furious slap in the face from Alice who (unbeknownst to him) spotted them together in the physics classroom at the very worst time possible. Volume six opens with the reintroduction of the infamous piano room “pervert” whom Alice caught dancing half-naked back in volume four. …

Comic, Volume 7

June 1, 2010 by MJ Leave a Comment

Comic, Vol. 7 | By Ha SiHyun | Published by Yen Press – Now that Patrick realizes that the girl Neil has fallen for is his own estranged girlfriend, Alice, he is filled with jealousy as Neil and Alice prepare for the school festival’s three-legged race together. Patrick’s partner in the race is a real surprise as well. Later, Alice is mesmerized when she sees Neil dance but is flustered when he confesses his feelings for her. Both Patrick and Alice experience wavering feelings throughout the volume–Alice for Neil and Patrick (shockingly) for ice queen Daria–but by the end they are both drawn back to each other, even if their timing is astoundingly unfortunate.

I have to admit that I just can’t seem to let go of my disappointment over the fact that this series seems to have entirely dropped its original premise–Alice’s pursuit of a career as a manhwa-ga–in favor of becoming just another high school romance. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a very charming high school romance but it is the story of an aspiring young artist that really made it stand out in the first place, and it is a real shame to have (apparently) lost that for good. This volume did not include even the slightest mention of Alice’s artistic dreams or Patrick’s current profession as a manhwa-ga, as though that had never been part of the story at all. That said, I’m as anxious as anyone to find out what happens in the Alice-Neil-Patrick-Daria love quadrangle and I’ll be counting the days until I’m able to read the next volume.

Neil has become an especially appealing character in this volume and I admit I even considered that it might be nice if Alice actually fell for him, since he would be much less complicated to love than Patrick is. It was especially gratifying to discover that his feelings for Alice hold up even after hearing the truth about their original meeting in the music room. On the other hand, Neil obviously has her propped up on a pedestal and that can rarely end well. Oddly, even Daria comes off well in this volume. Okay, “well” might be an exaggeration but she at least shows some of who she actually is and evokes some real sympathy at long last. Patrick and Alice remain as volatile and dense as all girls’ manhwa couples seem destined to be, which is perfectly fine with me.

Though there isn’t enough forward motion in this volume to satisfy my quest for a romantic conclusion, it is fun, fiery, and emotionally fraught, just as I have come to expect from this type of manhwa, and I mean that in a good way. Though the artwork isn’t as stunning as something like One Thousand and One Nights or even Goong, it has its very nice moments, and the visual storytelling flows quite well.

Though it has lost some of the charm and particular draw of its initial volumes, Comic is still a solid choice for fans of girls’ manhwa.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Comic, Vol. 8

June 1, 2010 by MJ Leave a Comment

Comic, Vol. 8 | By Ha SiHyun | Published by Yen Press – Picking up immediately where volume seven left off, Patrick and Alice impulsively seek each other out in a last-ditch effort to rescue their relationship. Unfortunately for Patrick, it is in this crucial moment that he discovers just how much his single lie has cost him. Despite her desperate desire for Patrick, when Alice finds herself stranded in the rain with only enough change for one phone call, it is Neil she banks on as the reliable choice. Truthfully, she’s not wrong. Neil turns out to be the ideal boyfriend—attentive, affectionate, playful, kind—all the things Patrick never was, even at his best.

As Alice’s new relationship goes public, Daria seizes the the chance to reprise her play for Patrick, this time yielding more satisfying results. The most significant development in this installment, however, is that after four frustrating volumes, both Alice and Patrick remember that they are manhwa-ga.

Does that last line sound sarcastic? It might be just a little. For the most part though, it’s just plain gratifying to see even the slightest hint of the story’s original premise creeping its way back to the page. And though the manhwa-ga plotline is hardly front-and-center, it is actually responsible for a few of the volume’s most amusing bits. It is fairly hilarious to watch, for instance, as Neil, filling in as an assistant on Patrick’s manhwa, cluelessly asks his best friend for advice on kissing his new girlfriend—a request Patrick ultimately fulfills by handing him an armful of sunjeong and shojo comics.

What works less well in this volume are some of the standard romance scenarios, like a tedious chapter near the end of the volume in which Neil’s plans for an intimate evening with Alice are relentlessly interrupted by his meddling sister. Yet, while scenes like this play out too obviously to be believed, others sparkle with joyful sunjeong goodness, though they tend to weigh heavily against the main romantic pairing.

“I feel full even when I don’t eat. I have fun even when we don’t do anything,” Alice muses to herself in the midst of a giddy afternoon date with Neil. “The guy I used to like never made me feel this good. Ever.” Reading something like that, it’s hard to feel enthusiastic about the prospect of a break-up, fated romance be damned!

Regardless of this volume’s minor shortcomings, it’s really nice to see this series finally back on track as something just a little more interesting than a standard high-school romance. Let’s hope volume nine continues the trend!

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Do Whatever You Want, Vol. 1

May 31, 2010 by MJ Leave a Comment

Do Whatever You Want, Vol. 1 | By Yeri Na | Published by NETCOMICS – Jiwon and Hosoo are best friends dreaming of musical stardom which they’ve sworn to pursue together to the exclusion of all else, including girls. Their friendship is so close that rumors persist that they are involved with each other romantically, but though Hosoo appears to appears to view Jiwon in much the same way as he does a pretty girl (and Jiwon has examined his own feelings for Hosoo with some concern as well), both of them are too focused on family problems and career goals to dwell too much on questioning the nature of their relationship. …

Full House, Vol. 2

May 31, 2010 by MJ Leave a Comment

Full House, Vol. 2 | By Sooyeon Won | Published by NETCOMICS – In the aftermath of their engagement party, Ellie and Ryder progress from passing angry notes to bickering openly in the privacy of their newly shared home. Despite their mutual show of antipathy, they are unmistakably drawn to each other—Ryder to Ellie’s fearlessness and self-confidence, and Ellie to Ryder’s surprisingly considerate nature. Any hint of potential romance is nipped quickly in the bud, however, by the reappearance of Ellie’s ex-boyfriend, Felix, who turns up on their doorstep begging for forgiveness. Determined not to play the fool, Ryder uses his next film shoot as an excuse to stay away from Ellie and her resuscitated relationship, but when an opportunity arises for him to uncover her true intentions regarding Full House, he finds himself pursuing her in an unexpected fashion.

“They always come sliming back.” This wise statement regarding the nature of ex-boyfriends was uttered by an old friend of mine back in the day, and it works surprisingly well as the theme of this installment of Full House. Though Felix makes a fine show of his contrition and heartfelt affection for Ellie, it’s hard to forget that he was the guy who so brutally dumped her for not being eager enough to jump into the sack. Though it seems obvious that Ellie will eventually throw him over for Ryder (who at least gets her excited, if not quite in the way she’d like) execution is the key to this series’ charm, not result, so it would be a terrible shame to rush.

Though this series is, frankly, stunningly predictable, to leave it at that would be a grave oversimplification. Manhwa-ga Sooyeon Won has an extraordinary talent for turning romantic cliché into storytelling gold, a skill she would later refine to perfection in her outrageously poetic boys’ love epic, Let Dai. Her secret to this is brazen excess, which in this case applies to the series’ endless stream of classic screwball comedy banter—precisely the thing that makes the story so much fun in the first place. Will Ellie and Ryder get together? Of course. Will they face numerous rivals, career obstacles, and ridiculous misunderstandings along the way? Sure! Frankly, none of it matters as long as they keep talking … and talking and talking.

While the narrative trajectory of Full House may not leave much to question, the real mystery here is why, with recent acquisitions such as Full House, Please, Please Me, and Small-Minded Schoolgirls, NETCOMICS has not already become the prime online destination for grown-up women who read comics. For fun, sexy comedy with a fantastic vintage feel, check out Full House.

Complimentary digital access provided by the publisher.