Do you ever think about how you are affected by what we surround ourselves with? How where we live, and how the culture around us might change or skew our perspectives on ideas and people? Not really, right? Well now the time! Because this week is National Geographic Awareness week! A whole freaking week! I guess because there are so many other places to think about besides the one we live in that it will take some time.
Since this is the Comic Round-Up, do you ever think about the comics we read and where they come from? I have recently been trying to be more aware in supporting other comics by making sure I read ones by people from other countries and other backgrounds than me. One of my favorite diverse comics I’ve recently read is “Black Sad” (published in France) which you can read a short review of in THIS recent article pairing comics to music.
There is a lot we can learn about other places and about other people’s backgrounds from comics. So let me recommend to you my very bias top four international comics, and no I’m not counting “Black Sad” but I highly recommend you checkit out.
Country: Finland
The Moomins are a tight-knit family-hippo-shaped creatures with easygoing and adventurous outlooks. Jansson’s art is pared down and precise, yet able to compose beautiful portraits of ambling creatures in fields of flowers or on rock-strewn beaches that recall Jansson’s Nordic roots. The comic strip reached out to adults with its gentle and droll sense of humor. Whimsical but with biting undertones, Jansson’s observations of everyday life, including guests who overstay their welcome, modern art, movie stars, and high society, easily caught the attention of an international audience and still resonate today.
Country: France
Persepolis is the story of Satrapi’s unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming–both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.
Country: South Korea
Chunwoo Han is a martial artist who earned the title of Nine Arts Dragon from the Murim, a secret martial arts society that exists in harmony with modern society. The Murim’s government is the Martial Arts Alliance who has garnered Chunwoo’s hatred by killing his martial arts teacher. In the present, Chunwoo Han transfers to a fictional school in Seoul for a mission given to him by the Black Forest Defense Group, an anti-government group who opposes the Martial Arts Alliance. At the school, he meets the protagonist Shiwoon Yi. To solve his bullying problem, Shiwoon has Chunwoo train him in martial arts. Chunwoo initiates his mission and frees Sosul, the head of the Sunwoo Clan, from the Martial Arts Alliance. As Chunwoo prepares to leave the country, the Martial Arts Alliance take Shiwoon hostage, forcing him to intervene.
Country: Italy
From Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductee Hugo Pratt, the action begins in November 1913 in the South Seas as feelings of the Great War were already looming but the romantic ideals of the nineteenth century were still alive. The pace of the narrative and the drawings are very modern and Pratt permeates the adventure with an extraordinary atmosphere of the great outdoors. The story captures the imagination of the reader from the opening pages with a tight, compelling storyline that can be interpreted on different levels.
So there we have it, an excellent list of international comics to broaden our perspectives. What are your favorite international comics? What’s your favorite international travel destination? Let us know in the comments!
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