#Keum Suk Gendry-Kim

[mangacapsaicin]

keum suk gendry-kim’s grass || 김금숙（ギムグムスク）の『풀』（プール）

[smashpages]

Out this week: Dog Days (Drawn and Quarterly, $24.95): 

D+Q present an English language verison of South Korean creator Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s story of a couple who adopt a dog and the changes it bring to their life.

See what other comics and graphic novels will arrive at your local comic shop this week.

[godzilla-reads]

❄️ The Naked Tree by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim (trans. Janet Hong)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/4

Adapted from the beloved novel by the same name written by Park Wan-suh, this graphic novel is taking place during the Korean War and follows young woman who begins to fall in love with a painter. Lee Keonga struggles at her job and struggles with her mother after disaster and this story gives her a look at unlikely friendship and a brush with desire.

I originally read Gendry-Kim’s book “Grass” and fell in love with the way she tells stories and her art style, the overabundance of symbolism and how stark it is in black and white. This book continues on her style and shows us a world torn into parts by a war and how that affects people. I liked seeing the progression of all Keonga’s relationships through the story and how the trees ended up becoming a constant motif of perseverance and growth. Keum Suk Gendry-Kim shows a whole new way to share stories through comics.

[date-prisa-estamos-leyendo]

La espera, Keum Suk Gendry-Kim.

[various-stormsnsaints]

#39

[yexuscomic]

EL DIARIO MONTAÑÉS

[smokefalls]

When you land in hell, you need the will to survive. You need something like a lifeline that’s connecting you to hope. So that you don’t go crazy. So that you can keep breathing when one day feels like ten years. When basic instinct takes over instead of reason, maybe you need to believe in a concept like love to bear everything.

Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, Grass (translated by Janet Hong)

[librarycomic]

The Naked Tree by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim. Translated by Janet Wong. Drawn & Quarterly, 2023. 9781770466678. 320pp.

The Naked Tree is based on a Korean novel by Park Wan-Suh that was originally published in 1971. According to the introduction by Park's son Ho Won-Sook, his mother always said she was going to write about the artist Park Su-geun, who drew portraits for American soldiers at the PX in Seoul. Gendry-Kim's graphic novel version veers from Park's a bit but, according to Ho's introduction and my wife's readings, it seems to be quite loyal to it while extending beyond the original. (If you're going to read the graphic novel, make sure you read the forward and Gendry-Kim's afterward, which has photos of Park Wan-Suh and Park Su-geun.)

The story itself gives the sense of being a memoir, with the characters conveying at least in part the experiences of Park Wan-Suh and Park Su-Geun. It begins in 1951, after UN forces reclaimed Seoul from Communist forces. Miss Lee works in the PX, behind a counter where foreign soldiers come to have portraits painted on "silk" scarves. The artists who do the work are paid by the piece, and are called "signies." No one makes much money. Miss Lee is very much alone; she lives with her mother, but she doesn't like her. And she longs for someone to love. The shop's owner hires a real artist, Ok Huido, and it's Miss Lee's job to bring in enough work for him and the others. Even as another man who works at the PX starts to show an interest in her, she falls herself falling for the married Mr. Ok.

I love the sense of history and tragedy that permeates this story, and particularly Miss Lee's attitude toward her mother, which made it feel real and shocking. Gendry-Kim's adaptation has sent my wife seeking more of Park Wan-Suh's novels (and luckily the University of Washington's libraries have several in Korean and English), and I'm planning on reading an English translation of the original just as soon as some of the details of this adaptation have left my brain. We both admire and highly recommend all of Gendry-Kim's graphic novels.

[jbbartram-illu]

After failing to do so for the last two years, I’ve gone through my books-read for the year & compiled a list of my favourite reads!

While doing this I also discovered that I’d missed putting four entire books on my master list that all should have been in my best-of list, so here’s the final top 22 (in no particular order)…

Matrix - Lauren Groff

My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell

Echo - Thomas Olde Heuvelt

The Kingdoms - Natasha Pulley

The Waiting - Keum Suk Gendry-Kim

Nightbitch - Rachel Yoder

The Glass Hotel - Emily St John Mandel

These Ghosts Are Family - Maisy Card

Greenwood - Michael Christie

Ghost Wall - Sarah Moss

A Master of Djinn - P. Djèli Clark

What is Home, Mum? - Sabba Khan

The Women of Troy - Pat Barker

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina - Zoraida Córdova

Fevered Star - Rebecca Roanhorse

Blackfish City - Sam J. Miller

Just Like Home - Sarah Gailey

The Book of Form & Emptiness - Ruth Ozeki

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy - Becky Chambers

The Galaxy, And the Ground Within - Becky Chambers

Stormsong - C.L. Polk

Soulstar - C.L. Polk

If you want to look at all the books I read/re-read this year, you can see my entire messy googledoc list here!

Turns out that being absolutely terrible at managing a library holds list + feeling obliged to finish almost all the books I take out = reading the most I've ever read in a year (Total was also helped by a visit to the used bookstore in the town closest to my cottage + buying a huge stack of British mystery novels to devour during my time up north)??

Also, I'm always looking for book recommendations! What were your favourite reads of 2022? Are there exciting books you know are coming out in 2023/any books that you've got on your list for the new year (new or old pubs)? Please tell me them!!

*illustration at the top there is by me, from the book that I finished illustrating back in the summer...hopefully I'll have an idea of when that's coming out soon!

[mangacapsaicin]

keum suk gendry-kim’s grass || 김금숙（ギムグムスク）の『풀』（プール）

[smashpages]

Out this week: The Naked Tree (Drawn + Quarterly, $29.95):

Keum Suk Gendry-Kim adapts Park Wan-suh’s beloved novel of the same name, about a woman trying to survive in post-war Korea.

See what else is arriving in comic shops this week.

[godzilla-reads]

📖 November Reading Wrapup 📖

I started off November with 149 books in my pocket and left at 164 books, meaning I read 15 books this month! My top 3 are starred below:

🌎 What You Need to be Warm by Neil Gaiman

⭐️ Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke

🪐 Alone in Space: A Collection by Tillie Walden

⭐️ Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee

❤️ Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales by Melanie Gillman

💍 The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

🗻 So Far So Good: Final Poems 2014-2018 by Ursula K. Le Guin

🧟 Zombie Penpal by Ken McMurtry

🧄 Garlic & the Vampire by Bree Paulsen

🐥 Poems About Birds edited by H.J. Massingham

❄️ The Naked Tree by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim (trans. Janet Hong)

🐲 The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin

⭐️ Things You May Find Hidden in my Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha

🏴‍☠️ One Piece Vol. 6: The Oath by Eiichiro Oda

🍄 How to See Fairies and Other Tales by Charles van Sandwyk

[date-prisa-estamos-leyendo]

La espera, Keum Suk Gendry-Kim.

[lastchancevillagegreen]

The Naked Tree (2023) Keum Suk Gendry-Kim (316 pages)

This is the third graphic novel I have read by Gendry-Kim this year! I actually read this on Friday, 6 October on Amtrak on my way to Chicago.