New Korean Manhwa from NBM
This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on June 5, 2007 Sign up now!
by Brigid Alverson, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 6/5/2007
When NBM publisher Terry Nantier picks a Korean manhwa, you can be sure it won't feature schoolgirl romance or exploding deliverymen. Indeed, Nantier said Run, Bong-Gu, Run, a tale of strangers in the city by Byun Byung Jun, "bridges the gap" between the teen favorites that crowd manga shelves and the more literary comics that make up NBM's list.
The story revolves around a young boy and his mother who have traveled to Seoul in search of the boy's father, who went there to find work and then disappeared. In the city, they encounter the coldness of strangers but also make friends with an old man and his granddaughter, who help them in their search. "Much of the story is about the pressures of modern-day life, especially in a big city, and how this pulls people away from the countryside and yet can eat them up and chew them out," Nantier said.
"It's a very simple, very moving story, and that's what compelled me to publish it," he said. "It does have elements of manhwa, but it's not your standard sort of teen manhwa at all." Nantier said he expected the book to appeal to readers in the 16 to 34 age group.
Jun's delicate watercolors, which incorporate digitally altered photographs of city scenes, were a major selling point for Nantier. "It's a very subtle kind of art, where one sees the impersonality and coldness of the city and how people become strangers to each other and how much pressure this puts on people in general," he said.
Run, Bong-Gu, Run, just out, is visibly different from standard manhwa and manga, with a slightly larger 6"x9" trim size and full-color interior. At 112 pages for $15.95, it is also more expensive. The book also includes critical essays about the author and the impact of his work in Korea.
NBM published the Korean short story collection Buja's Diary by Seyeong O last year, and Nantier said there are more Asian comics in the company's future. "We are reaching out beyond our normal base, which has been mainly American and European comics, and trying to find good, worthy literary works from Asia as well," he said. That may include more work by Byung Jun, either his most famous work in Korea, Princess Anna, or a collection of short stories.
Nantier calls it "serendipitous" that NBM is publishing comics from Korea rather than Japan, which has a much larger share of the import market. "We got those connections first," he said. "We don't have a lot of connections with Japan, so nothing is planned yet, but if any thing comes up, we're certainly interested."
