If you would like a review copy (via redeem code) for this app or an interview with the creator, please contact us at mrkwang [at] iseeyou.co.kr
Interviewer & 1st. translation : Kim Jin Sung (mrkwang)
English Adaptation : Hana Lee
1. First of all, please introduce yourself.
Hello, I'm Hwang Joon Ho. I'm a manhwaga (Korean comic artist) who writes stories in the form of webtoons (Korean webcomics). I drew and wrote Ill-Fated Relationship and A Good Day to Study (direct English translation of title), which were released on Naver, and I am currently working on the script and storyboards for Ing Ing Ing.
2. I've heard that you did not major in comics in university. I'm
curious to know what motivated you to make your debut with Ill-Fated
Relationship.
It's been my dream to become a manhwaga since I was very young. So I started drawing, but when I took the entrance exam for university, I forgot my original dream and ended up majoring in design instead. For seven years, I continued down that path.
But when I entered my senior year in college, I realized that if I kept going, I would graduate, find a job at a company and start making a living. I decided that before I entered the real world, I was going to take advantage of my one last chance to do everything that I had wanted to do. So I took a leave of absence from school, and the first thing I tried was drawing manhwa.
My childhood dream was to become a manhwaga, but if I never completed a manhwa of my own, it would be betrayal of that dream. That's how I began drawing Ill-Fated Relationship and ended up debuting with that manhwa.
and now his work is being released in the U.S.
3. Your debut work, Ill-Fated Relationship, is dark and minimalist while also being brutal yet extremely emotional. It's very different from most typical manhwa. How did you come to draw such a series for your debut work?
I believe that a brutal and sensational story is all the more intensely powerful. I've found that I dislike stories that lack extraordinary tragedy and despair because they are too light in impact. I think my manhwa reflects my preferences.
At first, I was vaguely planning on just drawing a thriller. Since I don't draw especially well, I thought that I needed to succeed with the story. So I started with the story of two serial killers and began researching from there.
But I found that I couldn’t draw a story about serial killers just for fun. The subject of serial killers and psychopaths inherently contained strong social messages.
As a result, I changed my approach to the comic. I empathized with the male protagonist of Ill-Fated Relationship. The female protagonist was based on the ex-girlfriend who broke up with me. Though, of course, I didn’t actually kill anyone in real life.
4. I'm wondering whether Ill-fated Relationship received more influence from indie art films rather than other comics. Especially the parts of the comic where the story takes place in the same background undergoing minimalist changes, which lends it a cinematic quality. Would you tell us a little bit about the works or trends that have influenced you?
Hm...for the direction...it was just what was already in my head. I’d go with what I thought would work.
For the nuance, I did think it might have some similarities with the movies of Park Chan Wook (director of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) and Kim Ji Woon (director of Bittersweet Life). But I didn’t exactly intend to reference them.
For the visual style, I originaly wanted to draw like the Hungarian illustrator, Istvan Banyai. The art in Ill-Fated Relationship ended up looking different, but I was really satisfied with the style that came out so I am very grateful to him for his influence.
 |  |  |
5. There have been many movies and comics that feature serial killers, but a romance between two serial killers is quite unusual. The only other example I can think of is [Natural Born Killers] (directed by Oliver Stone and written by Quentin Tarantino). When compared to Ill-Fated Relationship, what are some key differences between the two?
I don’t know since I haven’t seen that movie. To be honest, I didn’t really have any interest in serial killers before. After finishing Ill-Fated Relationship, I recently watched several horror films, such as Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, in order to study the genre...The mood and suspense of the film was so similar to Ill-Fated Relationship that I was quite shocked.
6. In Ill-Fated Relationship, the characters have no names. Here at iSeeToon, we've been calling them 'the Man' and 'the Woman'. Is there a particular reason why you chose not to give these characters any names?
I agonized over trying to find the right names but couldn’t think of any. But I think leaving the characters nameless ended up being more effective. If you give a character a specific name, they become a specific person. I didn’t want to limit my characters by making them less universal.
I wanted my readers to strongly empathize with the characters. Also, leaving them nameless was much more unusual. I didn’t want Ill-Fated Relationship to be just another manhwa; I wanted to make it as unique as possible, in a lot of ways.
7. In Korea, webtoons are usually intended for the general public, but Ill-Fated Relationship is restricted to adult viewers and has 19+ rating, which requires readers to log in to view.1 There are only a few 19+ rated webtoons, and they tend to receive limited feedback. You must have had to make adjustments for the portal that published your comic, and the level of feedback and view counts must have been a little different.
I didn’t draw Ill-Fated Relationship with the intention of getting it serialized. As I mentioned before, I started it mainly for my own satisfaction. I thought that I might as well use it in my portfolio later when I started interviewing for jobs. So I didn’t really think of the practical aspects of getting it published and just drew it the way I wanted to draw it.
That didn’t change even after it started getting published. I never had any goal for Ill-Fated Relationship to become popular. I just wanted to make sure that the small number of readers who did view the manhwa to find it unforgettable.
Even 19+ rated manhwa are not allowed to have gory scenes, so I was a little regretful that I didn’t get to draw any. I thought that it was unfair to have limitations on one’s freedom of expression, just because it’s a manhwa and subject to more restrictions.
As for reader feedback...even though it didn’t have popular appeal, I think Ill-Fated Relationship acquired a group of core fans. Even if their numbers were small, those fans cheered me on with all their might.
8. Ill-Fated Relationship is a deeply tragic romance but it's also a thriller starring psychopaths. Did you have to investigate or research actual cases to come up with your characters and plot?
I read all the books about serial killers and psychopaths that were translated into Korean, at least all the ones that I could find. While I was reading those books, I had a lot of nightmares about getting murdered. I even had a dream about committing murder, which made me feel very uncomfortable. It sort of felt as if I had crossed a point of no return. And it made walking around after dark seem more frightening. I came to realize that it can be quite easy to commit murder and quite difficult to catch murderers.
9. After Ill-Fated Relationship, you worked on the horror manhwa A Good Day to Study. It had some similarities to Ill-Fated Relationship but also was very different. It was an anthology of stories dealing with the sensitive topic of school and college entrance exams and didn’t carry a 19+ rating.2 Would you tell us more about working on Ill-Fated Relationship and A Good Day to Study?
In a way, A Good Day to Study is even more of a sensationalist manhwa than Ill-Fated Relationship. As a critique of the modern college entrance examination system, it was dealing with an extremely sensitive subject. I received a lot of encouragement as well as a lot of criticism. I got so many private messages and comments that I ended up stopping all online activities. For Ill-Fated Relationship, I made a point of replying to each and every comment or message I received. But for A Good Day to Study, I couldn’t handle the volume of feedback.
To give more of the inside story, since A Good Day to Study didn’t have a 19+ rating, I struggled a lot more to comply with the increased restrictions on content. I started off by thinking the series would be 50% critique of the entrance exam system and 50% horror but after review, the horror portion became considerably reduced. Also, since it was an anthology, I had to come up with a new story every week, which was very challenging. In any case, I think the main difference from Ill-Fated Relationship was that A Good Day to Study received so much more popular attention. Other than that, I don’t think I felt much difference. Both of them dealt with sensitive, very stressful subjects.
10. Do you have any last words for the readers of this interview?
Hello, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to read this interview. For those who have already seen my manhwa, I hope to draw even better manhwa, and for those who have not yet seen my work, I hope that the manhwa I draw will spark your curiosity. Thank you!
- Editor's Note: In order to view 19+-rated content, South Korean law requires that the reader must verify their age by entering their citizen registration number (similar to a Social Security number). This reduces availability, as people are required to login to access the content, which means, for example, that they can't read 19+-rated webtoons through the Naver iPhone app on iPhone. [Back]
- Editor's Note: The college entrance exam system is a very serious social issue in South Korea. According to a survey, 58.8% of students have thought about suicide and 11.1% have attempted it. Although there are many causes, one of the major reasons is the stress from studying for the entrance exam. [Back]
Posted by mrkwang
