As Korean comics grow more popular in the US, English-speaking comic fans can choose from an ever-expanding library of vibrant Korean stories to enjoy. Some of the most popular publications from this front have been book-length graphic novels, five of which are featured in this post.

Whether you’re a manhwa afficionado or completely new to the graphic novel genre, these books with their artful combinations of evocative illustrations and carefully crafted narratives are well worth poring over. If you find the right fit, these five Korean graphic novels can transport you to another world.

The Waiting by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim (trans. Janet Hong)

In The Waiting, the protagonist, Gwija, travels south as a refugee from what will later be North Korea. After she stops to feed her infant daughter, she finds that she has been separated from the rest of the group. The other travelers include her husband and son, whom she will never see again.

Gwija makes it to South Korea where she starts a new life and remarries. Still, she waits for a chance to reunite with her son in North Korea through a lottery system that she has a miniscule chance of winning. Gwija’s daughter from her second marriage, Jina, is an artist who gets involved when she promises Gwija that she will find her son, though she doesn’t know how.

In this graphic novel, author Gendry-Kim fictionalizes stories that she gathered through actual interviews. Among the interviewees was her own mother, who was separated from her sister during the Korean War. This stunning work with striking black and white images explores the tragic pain of family separations caused by the Korean War.

Uncomfortably Happily by Hong Yeon-sik (trans. Hellen Jo)

In Seoul, the struggling freelance artist couple Yeon-sik Hong and Sohmi Lee grow tired of the noise and demands of urban life and work. Because they feel the business and stress of the city distract them from their art, they decide to move to a secluded home in the mountains for quiet and privacy.

Yeon-sik and Sohmi find that life on the mountainside brings its own unique challenges as well as its own pleasures, and this lengthy graphic memoir tracks Yeon-sik and Sohmi as they learn how to juggle their housework, finances, and art. Based on the author’s own experiences, the work focuses on Yeon-sik’s life in particular, going into his emotional and physical health, his struggles to create art, and his struggle to negotiate his roles as husband and artist. Because the work is so critical of Yeon-sik, it testifies to the work that Sohmi puts in to keep him afloat.

Uncomfortably Happily also includes reflective moments of appreciating nature and the seasons. The illustrations depict characters in humorous moments of breaking out into song as well as grim moments of wrestling with past demons. This is a graphic novel that can take you on a contemplative journey about art, marriage, and coming to terms with oneself.

Moms by Yeong-shin Ma (trans. Janet Hong)

In Moms, protagonist Soyeon, in her fifties, makes her way through life as a divorcee and cleaner. Work is rough; her son in his thirties still lives at home; and her boyfriend is a jerk. As she navigates her adventures, Soyeon finds comradery, comfort, and support in her three exuberant friends.

Soyeon and her friends center the experiences of middle-aged Korean women with detailed emotion and complexity. Together they talk about dating and the boyfriends they’ve been seeing. The graphic novel also focuses on the theme of work as Soyeon navigates a toxic workplace and attempts to form a cleaner’s union.

Author Yeong-shin Ma asked his own mother to keep a journal, which ended up capturing her honest and impassioned interior thoughts and feelings. In Moms, he uses his mother’s writing as inspiration. Pick up this book to see how Soyeon contends with aging and love while finding the strength for perseverance and personal transformation.

bad friends by Ancco (trans. Janet Hong)

bad friends by Ancco is a coming of age story set in South Korea during the ‘90s. The protagonist, Pearl, lives a suffocating life at school and at home with teachers and a father who are all physically abusive. To rebel, she hangs out with other kids who smoke, drink, and generally slack off.

Eventually, Pearl resolves to set out from home with her best friend Jeong-ae. Though the two try to survive together by working at hostess bars, Pearl eventually loses track of Jeong-ae. The ordeals they go through deepen their understandings of the ways in which the world is cruel, violent, unfair, and uncaring. 

As an adult, Pearl reflects on her experiences, marveling at how she ever survived her adolescence. This is a bleak graphic novel with lively illustrations that reflects on violence, abuse, and poverty in the lives of girls fighting to survive in a vicious world.

Parasite: A Graphic Novel in Storyboards by Bong Joon-ho

For fans of Korean cinema—Parasite in particular—this book should be a treat. Presented as a graphic novel, this work provides readers with direct access to director Bong Joon-ho’s storyboards.

This is not a graphic novel in the traditional sense. Bong prepared storyboards for every scene in Parasite, and the storyboards in this graphic novel look like rough sketches that Bong drew in preparation for the film. They lay out the visual compositions of scenes and furthermore include his additional notes for camera movements, transitions, and frame rates. 

Published on the one-year anniversary of Parasite’s premiere at Cannes, this is a great companion piece to the film. Readers will also find in this book some goodies that didn’t make it into the final film. Check out Parasite: A Graphic Novel to enrich your understanding of the creative process that guided the production of the visually slick Academy Award winner.