Here are this week's links to what I've had published recently...Here are this week's links to what I've had published recently...
I think "Black Friday" is nearly worldwide these days, thanks to Capitalism. Here's all the comics I found published today that refer to it...
Extra points to Jump Start for calling out the original meaning of the phrase "Black Friday" too!
Ron Cobb, 1967
My wife is asleep in the next room as I'm writing this. We've got a comfortable place to live with a well-stocked fridge. We both have decent, stable jobs that allow us to work from home. And despite the insane amount of chaos in the US and around the world, this has been our status quo for a few years now. I have a personal comics library that numbers in the tens of thousands, and the room I use as my home office for work has had to become a kind of 'satellite comics library' because there is physically not enough space in one room to house all my comics material.
Historically, writing has been a solitary art form. You'd write out your story or article or whatever and send it off to be published. If you were talented enough, it would see print weeks or months later and if you were supremely talented, someone might comment on or ask you about it later still. That's changed a bit with the internet -- the speed of publication is nearly instantaneous and feedback is sometimes almost too readily available -- but my work has a tendency to not inspire people enough to comment on it. (I spend more time dealing with spam on this blog than I do reading/responding to actual people.) But I was just talking with someone about how some of my work does get referenced on Wikipedia, and the occasional links from established outlets like The Beat and The Daily Cartoonist are always appreciated. Plus, I'm still riding high off the notion that I wrote a book that was nominated for a frickin' Eisner Award in 2021! That is absolutely mind-boggling to me!
I wonder sometimes what my teenaged self would think of current me. I suspect there'd be some level of disappointment at not being professionally employed in an expressly creative field and having instead "sold out" to "the man." But being an award-nominated writer, having run several marathons, being an extra in an Avengers movie (that there even IS an Avengers movie!), appearing as a character in dozens of comics, having a smart home more advanced that the one Bill Gates ostensibly had in the 1980s when I first heard of the idea, surviving a lightning strike, literally saving the life of a drowning cousin, being able to 3D print almost anything I want out of my utility closet... Fifteen-year-old me would probably not even come close to recognizing current me; what I've been able to do in my life, both in terms of the technology at my disposal as well as my personal skills and talents, is well beyond whatever I might've dreamed of doing. I've never had a formal "Bucket List" but if I had, I would've had to re-write it several times over with the number of Bucket-List-level items I would've checked off.
I harbor no illusions about how awful this year has been for so many people. US citizens are being killed or disappeared by a federal government that's openly supporting genocides in other countries. They're actively pursuing policies that undermine citzens' health, finances, informational security, emotional well-being... They're making every facet of life as awful as possible for as many people as possible. The only way you can even try sugar-coating what is going on is by outright lying. The damage being done right now is, without hyperbole, destroying the US and I don't see the United States surviving as a country beyond 2030. (I have, in fact, been publicly saying this since 2017 and I have yet to come across anything convincing enough to change my mind about that timetable.)
I see/hear the struggles some my own friends and family are dealing with, and I help when/where I can but there's only so much I can do. The fact that I was born when I was or graduated when I did or bumped into the right person when I did or whatever random collection of happenstances separated my situation from theirs years ago has led us to very different outcomes with different active and present concerns. From raising trans children to paying for the roof over their heads to even finding a job to begin with, they have challenges I do not. I do have challenges of my own, certainly, but I've also got flexibility in a lot of other areas they don't have to be able to deal with them.
Tomorrow, my wife and I will sit down for what will no doubt be a delicious meal. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, pumpkin pie... a lot of the foods you might expect for a Thanksgiving feast. There is seemingly no end of awful things going on in the world right now and there are no doubt many more to come. But I am thankful for where I am personally in my life. The friends I have, the things I've been able to achieve (or were priveleged/lucky enough to stumble into!), the safety net I've been able to craft for when things do go sideways... I remain thankful for everything I have and I can only hope you have some things to be thankful for as well.
This has been evident in Ryan Estrada's solo efforts going back for over a decade as well as the books Kim Hyun Sook has been writing since she started a few years ago. I've reviewed Banned Book Club and No Rules Tonight here previously, and Good Old-Fashioned Korean Spirit follows in a similar vein. Once again we have a book that's not exactly a sequel, but still takes elements from Kim's life in the 1980s under the authoritarian regime in Korea and uses them as the backdrop for this story.
And what is the story here? It's set around Daeboreum, a holiday celebrating the first full moon of the year. There's food and drink, of course, but also several traditions around warding off malevolent spirits and putting your wishes for the coming year into the ether. Taehee is forced by her parents to help her grandmother with some of the physical labor (mostly tied with harvesting persimmons) and performing some of the more musical rituals, but she manages to 'trick' several of her friends and acquaintences to go as well, although pretty much everyone goes with the ulterior motive of getting out to the country and away from the crowds of people in the city who could have them arrested (or worse) for their contrarian views. While they're all out with Taehee's grandmother and her friends, they inadvertently learn that they're all out there for the same reason -- to get away from authoritarian figures -- and that the older generation is not nearly as stuffy and conservative as they had believed, despite their attendence to old traditions. The older generation shows they hold many of the same beliefs the younger ones do, but it just manifests differently. And the book ends some decades later with younger generation both honoring the older ones by entertaining many of their traditions and bringing in the newest generations by adapting and adding to them.
One of the recurring themes in the book is that the words and actions of an individual, if you don't understand the context behind them, can be misconstrued. A character who might be acting secretly could be up to something sinister... or they might just want to surprise someone with a good deed. Someone's bitterness at one situation might be reflective of a similar one they had to deal with decades earlier. Heck, just the technologies available to a newer generation might offer up alternatives they take for granted that previous generations simply did not have. Everyone's actions and reactions are going to be different based on their lived history, and if you're unfamiliar with that history, those reactions might not make sense.
Now, that's not to say everyone is justified regardless of what they say or do! Kim has to deal with an agitator who sneaks his way into their "book club" specifically to incite violence against the police and artifically justify a legal crackdown. Manhee's parents perform an exorcism on him because he's trans and they actively reject his attempts at being happy. Suji is kicked out of her home because her mother won't accept her as gay. People have a right to their opinions, but if those opinions actively hurt someone physically or emotionally, they can't be justified.
Despite having some context and character overlap with Banned Book Club and No Rules Tonight, Good Old-Fashioned Korean Spirit is thematically different than both of those. The backdrop of fighting against Korean authoritarianism is present in all three, but they still touch on different themes. Which makes sense. They're based on real-world events and Kim's lived experiences; if you're living your life in such a way that you have to be taught the same lessons over and over, you're not learning anything. You're not growing as a person. You should have adventures in your life, and you should learn something different from each of them. Be like Kim and Estrada; they're sharing some excellent life lessons and doing so in a fun and entertaining way.
Good Old-Fashioned Korean Spirit came out last month from Penguin Workshop. It retails for $24.99 US in hardcover and $17.99 US in paperback. You should be able to pick up either from your favorite book retailer now.
Here are this week's links to what I've had published recently...Kleefeld on Comics: Photographic Memory Review
https://ift.tt/bxmqRnw
Kleefeld on Comics: CXC in 2027
https://ift.tt/twiR9To
Kleefeld on Comics: Saving Superman
https://ift.tt/utCO9Uw
Kleefeld on Comics: The Blackbeard Of The Marvel Universe
https://ift.tt/IrKDsuZ
Kleefeld on Comics: Where to Draw the Line?
https://ift.tt/LqYijSH
