INTERVIEW 'A Spoiled Child' depicts harsh life under Japan
Lee Moo-ki, a grand prize winner of 2019 Bucheon Comics Awards for his webtoon “A Spoiled Child,” speaks during a recent interview with The Korea Times. Courtesy of Bucheon International Comics Festival (BICOF)
'Spoiled Child' author recounts his five-year struggles to produce the finest piece
By Anna J. Park
Earlier this month, webtoon artist Lee Moo-ki, 38, received the grand prize at this year's Bucheon Comics Awards, one of Korea's most renowned honors given to comic book or webtoon creators, for his work “A Spoiled Child.” The comic was published on the internet portal Daum and was also printed in book form.
The title “A Spoiled Child” is ironic, as the webtoon tells the story of a small village girl, Gannanyi, and her family and friends during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial era. The webtoon portrays many tragic and thorny issues, such as wartime forced labor and sex slavery by the Japanese military.
During a recent interview with The Korea Times, Lee recounted that he experienced a lot of pressure over the past five years while working on the webtoon, which was both physically and mentally demanding.
“As this work touches on many painful, serious and sensitive topics of history, I needed to spend a lot of time doing research on historical records and data. Because of the topic's significance, I was under constant pressure, and even fear, because I wanted to bring only the best to readers. I even quit drinking and all other silly amusements to focus on the work,” Lee said.
“Actually, this topic was something that I wanted to work on much later in the future, when I feel like I'm good enough and wise enough. I expected that I would do it sometime in my 40s, but in my early 30s, I felt I really needed a big change. I felt a crisis that this work could be my last comic, so I decided to do what I really wanted to do. So I ended up finishing the whole series in my 30s,” he said.
"A Spoiled Child" portrays a story of a family in a small village in 1938 during the harsh Japanese colonial rule. Courtesy of Lee Moo-ki
Due to his extensive research, the webcomic took much more time than he initially thought; from 2013 to 2018. He said he's grateful to all his readers who cheered and supported him throughout this time.
“It was really challenging from the very beginning, because of the hard topic. But rather than taking on the whole history of Japan's 36-year colonial rule of Korea from an academic point of view, I tried to focus on a grassroots story of people in a small village. It is mainly a story of survival: survival of the village people during harsh times, without any discussion of ideologies or other big issues,” Lee said.
The simple yet powerful focus on the dire livelihoods of ordinary individuals made the webcomic more related to readers of the present.
“I think the focus on a smaller scale of the history of the era helped people read the comics. Still, I always felt like I was walking on a tightrope; whenever I added some humorous scenes, I reviewed it so many times, not to hurt anyone,” he said.
Growing up in a small rural village in the southwestern Jeolla region himself, he could closely watch and observe the older generation's way of life, traditional Korean culture and vivid regional dialects. Such elements of folk culture and vitality all blended well in the story set in the early 20th century.
“When I first worked on it, I did not use dialects in characters' conversations; it was done all in the standard Seoul accent. But then I felt awkward. When I started to make characters speak in the local dialect of my hometown, which I was so accustomed to from my mother and my grandparents, the story became more real and alive. I also focused on detailed drawing, so that readers who do not know the dialect can still understand the story,” Lee said.
Lee debuted as a webtoon artist back in 2009; he had a talent for drawing as a child, but did not think he could be a comic creator.
“Until I became a webtoon artist, I worked at many jobs, including in construction, sales and an office. But I did not see any vision for my life. I also married early. And it was when my first son was born that I decided to become a comics artist. I didn't want to be an ashamed father, and I was determined to become a good comic book artist like Hur Young-man. I admire him so much,” Lee recounted.
His next work will be published on Naver later this year. He said his new webcomic will be nothing like his previous work.
“I started to think about this new project from last year. It will be in the SF genre. Now I have emptied myself of the burden and pressure I felt during 'A Spoiled Child,' and I want to do it with ease and fun,” the artist said.