World Famous Comics: Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea
Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea
By: Guy Delisle Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Drawn and Quarterly Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 184 Publication Date: September 01, 2005 Release Date: September 22, 2005
A westerner's visit into North Korea, told in the form of a graphic novel.
Famously referred to as one of the "Axis of Evil" countries, North Korea remains one of the most secretive and mysterious nations in the world today. In early 2001 cartoonist Guy Delisle became one of the few Westerners to be allowed access to the fortresslike country. While living in the nation's capital for two months on a work visa for a French film animation company, Delisle observed what he was allowed to see of the culture and lives of the few North Koreans he encountered; his findings form the basis of this remarkable graphic novel. Pyongyang is an informative, personal, and accessible look at a dangerous and enigmatic country.
Drab Black and White Cartoons Depict "Land of the Great Leaders" French cartoonist Delisle found himself in North Korea's capital on a 2-month work visa for a French film animation company. He could only explore in the company of his translator and a guide. Yet, Delisle managed to create a graphic and realistic "novel" of his experience.
At the time of his visit, mobile phones were prohibited, and there was no Internet. Delisle depicts the foreigners' hotel (bland, especially the cafes), municipal loudspeakers with the daily propaganda and motivational music, photos of the Kims in every room, a subway buried 90 meters down that doubles as a bomb shelter, food rationing based on loyalty. The six-day work week + 1 day of "volunteering" for the state, everyone wearing a pin picturing one or both Kims (foreigners are not allowed these pins). Time is measured from the year in which Kim I was born. A trip between two villages in the countryside requires a visa. Only married men with children staying behind are allowed to travel outside North Korea. "Re-education camps" supposedly don't exist, but everyone knows of them, striking both the guilty and their entire families into lifetime servitude.
One of Delisle's diversions from boredom is a trip to the large, underground "International Friendship Exhibit" reached via a nearly deserted 4-lane road to-from Pyongyang. Its purpose is to showcase all the gifts to "Dear Leader" as well as positive news articles. Westerners are not allowed to visit the U.S.N. Pueblo.
Probably most disconcerting of all is the revelation that about half of Pyongyang's residents (a preferred locale) served as informants in their provinces where they formerly lived.
Wonderful and unique portrait of North Korea I love all of Guy Delisle's books, but this is my favorite. Maybe because I am a scholar of Korean History I can appreciate it more, I don't know. Either way, his depictions of the people and activities in Pyongyang are classic and often telling. He is critical and relevant in his portrayal, while at the same time presenting a laugh-out-loud experience in a place that few will ever have the chance to visit. I cannot recommend this book enough to those who want a fun and often educating book to enjoy, whether or not they have any interested in North Korea. Delisle's ability to observe is classic and can be appreciated by all.
Funny and Sad at the Same Time I normally do not like graphic format, but I made an exception here because of the subject - North Korea - and the bizarre cover illustration. You have to see this cover to believe it! It does come up in the story as well.
The book is well worth a read. I did not give it 5 stars, since I found it a little inconsistent in parts, and it ended rather abruptly. It also did not dig all that deep in places - although considering the subject and the graphic format, that might have been very hard to do.
The book depicts the adventures of an animator who is in North Korea supervising a project for a French television company - apparently artists are cheaper there than in Europe these days, and the Dear Leader needs some hard currency for cognac or some other "essential". The author's handlers try to keep him under control while he does his work and sees what they want him to see.
North Korea must be a truly bizarre place. I guess like the author, you have to have a sense of humor to get by there, but as he recognizes, it is a pathetic place in many respects. I wonder what will happen there when the people finally figure out what has been done to them by the two Leaders.
If you liked this book and like mysteries, you might want to check out the Inspector O series that has recently come out. It features a North Korean police detective who knows what the regime really is and is just trying to get by and still do his job as honorably as he can under the circumstances.
Long Love Our Invincible Leader Kim Jong Il! With the domestic animation industry fading away in his adopted country France, Guy Delisle was given the rare opportunity to work in North Korea to oversee the production of a cartoon that had been botched by the North Korean staff. Although already a bit seasoned in Asia because of his work in China and Vietnam, Delisle's experience had not prepared him for his two month long sojourn into the most hermetically sealed nation in the world.
Travelogues by individuals traveling into areas that are normally sealed off to the general population are quite prevalent in travel literature, but Delisle's comic rendition of his journey, while not quite as hard hitting as Joe Sacco's graphic diaries into Palestine and Bosnia, offers a fresh look in to the northern part of the Hermit Kingdom which most, especially Americans, will never see.
Delisle is shocked at first upon his arrival into Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, not so much by the blackouts and emptiness of the city, but because of its sterile nature and tenseness that continuously fills the air. Being a foreigner, Delisle is not allowed to travel unaccompanied, so he is always in the company of a guide, translator, or a driver. This keeps him from being able to escape his work environs, selected hotels for foreigners, where even most of the staff is foreign, Chinese, or designated tourist sites. Therefore, most of his speculations about life in North Korea are based on observances made from afar. However, the author is able to chip through slightly the shiny veneer of the North Koreans who work close to him to reveal a people who have been completely brainwashed by their government into thinking that their sealed off nation is the pinnacle of the world and that the megalomaniacal dictator Kim Jong il is the flower of perfection.
Delisle has been criticized because he supposedly does not have any new knowledge to convey in this book and that he really makes no attempt to get to know the North Koreans around him. I find this to be a bit harsh, and believe Pyongyang: a Journey to North Korea is a fine work that gives the reader a view into a country, without premeditated political overbearing, that he or she would not normally be privy to.
Delisle's artwork is quite simple, but his simple characters convey emotion well and his eye for detail is quite outstanding. Having read this work, I do indeed intend to read the other graphic travel diaries of this author.
Guy Delisle is my Dear Leader! Having recently visited North Korea for 4 of the wackiest, most surreal and intensely thought-provoking days of my life, I can recommend this book as the next best thing to visiting that crazy country. The country is such a closed clam that the visual memories are those that sustain you as you ask yourself, "Did I really go there? Was it some insane episode from 'The Prisoner'? (sorry Guy, borrowed that one from you!) The book captures in the most perceptive manner the horrendous mind-control that lies at the centre of this society. However, it also manages to make it laugh-out-loud funny at the same time. I literally laughed till tears came at some of the moments illustrated in Guy's deceptively simple drawings. I even sought out and found the turtle in the lobby of the hotel he stayed in! The book made me rush out and buy his (very disappointing) Shenzhen follow up and I'm currently reading his 'Burma Chronicles'. Sadly neither seems to come close to the 'Pyongyang' masterpiece. By all means read Bradley Martin's ''Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader' for a comprehensive understanding of how the DPRK got into the mess it's in at the moment. But for sheer armchair travel, and even perhaps as a spur for you to go there, read this wonderful self-deprecating shrewdly observant laugh-fest. You'll thank me for it!
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