Jeremy Holt and artist George Schall’s new graphic novel Made In Korea outlines a near-future world in which childless couples can purchase a sophisticated robotic kid powered by AI and designed by its Korean manufacturer to age and develop along human lines. Bill and Suelynn, an interracial couple (Bill is white, Suelynn, Chinese American), have purchased Jesse, a nine-year old proxy or robot girl-child, whose software has been secretly manipulated by a rogue developer. The parents (and the robot-child) are soon forced to contend with Jesse’s unforeseen prodigious abilities as well as the challenges the robot-child faces adapting to flaws inherent in human social relationships. In this 10-page excerpt, we encounter the rogue developer while Bill and Suelynn receive and boot up their new (and secretly hacked) AI-driven robot-child. Made In Korea by Jeremy Holt and George Schall willl be published by Image Comics in February.
