Who said that Communist literature was all drab and boring? Certainly, most didactic texts out of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea seem designed to give headaches, not understanding, with their interminably long sentences and repetitive passages about juche this and seongun that, and the Great and/or Dear Leader intoned such-and-such.

But there are comic books (in South Korea called “manhwa”) made by and for North Koreans too. They have been in publication since at least the early 1980s, despite paper shortages at times. Some of them are barely more than illustrated storybooks for children, others are caricature-filled horror stories, while still others are finely crafted graphic novels – with barely believable plotlines. The content of these “manhwa” varies, but many seem to fall into three broad categories:

1. Warnings against spies and how to spot them
2. Cautionary tales about the evils of the world
3. Heroic tales set during the Korean War or pre-1910 Korean history

Most North Korean manhwa are written with children of varying ages in mind as the primary audience, while others clearly target well-educated adults. They are hard to get hold of outside the DPRK, but they are also not always easy to find within it.

In this lecture, Jacco Zwetsloot will give an overview of the North Korean comic book world, and introduce some extracts from a couple of his favorite volumes, exemplifying each of the three categories above.

Jacco Zwetsloot describes himself as a “Jacco of all trades, master of some.” In the past year he has worked as a business English teacher, translator, interpreter, simulation facilitator, corporate trainer, documentary cameraman, cultural lecturer, souvenir evaluator, radio commentator, magazine writer, voice actor, researcher, copy editor and tour guide – sometimes several of those in one week! He is currently seeking a publisher interesting in releasing English translations of several North Korean comic books. He has a First Class Honour’s Bachelor of Arts in Korean Studies from Monash University, and has lived in South Korea for over 10 years in total.