Manga Realities

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, we planned a comic visit. The Artsonje Centre, hidden up the end of a snowy back alley in Insadong, was playing host to collection of Japan’s best manga.

Strictly for seeing, not reading, we feasted on the gauche and ink panel strips of Japanese words and Korean explanations. Best was Harold Sakuishi’s BECK, a manga take on classic album covers by Kanye, Bjork, Rancid, and Nirvana.

In deep dark blues Igarashi Daisuke drew his Children of the Sea, a haunting strip of stories told under water. But maybe most captivating was Kyo Machiko’s cartoons from her blog series Sennen Gaho, a quiet, nostalgic series.

Two Kyo lovers kissing under water pulled me in her pool, and stuck in that panel I stayed afloat, all day, and much of that passing week.