We think of North Korea as a nuclear threat with a starving population, run by a dictator with bad hair, but otherwise we know little about the closeted country. That’s why Korean Comics: A Society Through Small Frames is unusual and worth seeing.
The traveling exhibit of the New-York-based Korea Society is now at the San Francisco Public Library. It includes more than 80 North and South Korean cartoons dating from the 1950s through the 1990s. As children’s entertainment, political satire, advocates of reform, and government propaganda, they reflect everyday life and the major issues and events of their time.
During Park Chung-hee’s repressive rule in the 1960s, South Korean comics were a means of dissent. As illustrator Park Ki Jeong said, comics must keep “an eye on the government” even if they have to “deliver their message metaphorically.” By the 1980s, there was Four Daughters of Armian, a South Korean comic with a feminist slant.
Of course the authorities also dispensed cartoons to try to reinforce their power and platforms. South Korea’s “cheerful comics” of the 1970s had stories pushing patriotism and decrying the evils of communism.
North Korean comics, not surprisingly, are hard-sell ideology. In The Great General Mighty Wing, the title character is a socialist bee unfailingly loyal to the Queen Bee (read: Dear Leader Kim Jong-il). The general has a few cherubic features ala Japan’s Astro Boy, but he’s disciplined and no-nonsense.
Each General Mighty Wing installment has a politically correct exhortation printed on the side, such as “To win happiness, one must first endure suffering and overcome hardship” and “In our homeland, all the spring water is medicinal and every clump of dirt is pure gold.”
Another Pyongyang comic glorifies a native son who became the first wrestler from Asia to win a World Heavyweight Championship. Born in 1924 in an area of Japanese-occupied Korea (which is today North Korea), Kim Sin-Nak as a child was adopted by a family in Japan. He wrestled under the stage name “Rikidozan.” Besides winning North American and international wrestling titles, Rikidozan introduced and popularized pro wrestling in Japan.
The exhibit shows lighter fare, too, such as comics featuring (and for) girls. Anyone who’s been in grade school can relate to Maengkkongi School, which stars prankster pupils and pokes fun at a doddering, traditionalist teacher.
Korean Comics: A Society Through Small Frames continues through June 13 at the Main Library.
Manwha for Girls--the role of girls and women in comics, and comics by female artists--is the topic of a panel discussion that includes Trina Robbins, Mike Madrid and Cartoon Art Museum curator Andrew Farago. At the Main Library, April 8, at 6-7:30 p.m.
