Manhuaga Duo: Youn In-wan and Yang Kyung-Il

What I like about the collaborative works of Youn In-Wan and Yang Kyung-Il is that you can rely on both the quality of its illustration the uniqueness of plot. Their stories are often derived from Korean folklore, which is reflective of the artists’ nationality. I’m not Korean but I appreciate the creative and inventive recreation of their culture in the artworks they produce.

Self-portraits of Shin Angyo Onshi's artist and author.

History and culture becomes a rich spring from which these two artists draw their stories. Youn In-Wan recreates and reinvents Korean folk lore through incorporating them into the plot of his expansive stories. Though his use of Korean folk tales in discussing the contemporary concerns, Youn In-Wan emphasizes the lasting relevance of Korean tradition and lore in the modern world. Yang Kyung-Il on the other hand preserves and reinvents the Korean past through the visual medium. He expertly depicts both traditional Korean costumes and modernized renditions. There are also the depiction of shrines and other artifacts as well as weapons and battle gear that adds credibility to the plot and the work as a whole.

These two artists in my eyes are both historians and inventors. Others might be of a contrary opinion but for me the mere inkling of these two artists’ reverence and paying homage to their past was more than enough to keep me going through even the most dragging scenes of either Island or Shin Angyo Onshi, while their inventiveness entirely won me over to open admiration of their work.

The work of these two artists that I’m acquainted with are the manhwas Shin Angyo Onshi and Island. I think both of these titles can be most appreciated as narratives of war.

Island tackles war in a more overt way albeit only in its last few volumes. One cannot begin to imagine how a manga that begins to be a story about a rich heiress being hunted down by lustful demons turns out to become a story about the tension between Korea and Japan caused by the Japanese maltreatment of Korean POWs during the Japanese invasion of the country during the years of its imperialist expansionism. Without batting an eyelash, its creators manage to turn what is on the surface a soft porno flick into something relevant and poignant for today’s modern readers, especially the youth who are heirs of their nation’s history.

What impressed me about Island is the sober point of view that it presents about the tension between the two successful Asian nations, and the sensitive issue of Japanese historical revisionism. It daringly attempts to bring out the truth in its last chapters where a disgruntled Korean man uses unearthed skulls of Korean POWs used as lab rats in Japanese biological experiments in exacting vengeance for the war atrocities committed by the Japanese in the past. The skulls have turned into biological weapons that can cause the instant decay of Japanese citizens upon contact. Bizarre? Nay. Brilliant.

Shin Angyo Onshi is the more allegoric enterprise of the two. The artists really created something of epic proportions in the form of Onshi. A new world to boot, an empire called Jushin not suprisingly inspired by Korean culture. While Island had a bloodthirsty Pan as protagonist, Onshi has the wily and seemingly indifferent Munsu as lead. These two heroes actually share a lot of common traits. For one, their morality is somewhat gray. They are not your noble heroes with messiahnic tendencies. But while Pan is entirely self gratifying, Munsu is more complex a character. In the beginning he seems merely to be on a personal quest of redemption, but as the story progresses, the quest becomes bigger than his own personal vendetta and he becomes the hero for the lost and beaten people of Jushin, and well, the world.

Onshi not only discusses the conflict of war, it also discusses Western influence and threat to Eastern culture, the clash of technology and mysticism, good vs evil, among others. There is also that salient question these two artists find important to ask in their works: What is truth?

A worthy question to ask, I think. What is truth?

Last updated June 17, 2008.