Thursday, May 26, 2005
MANHWA CORNER: WITCH CLASS
A few days ago I was in Powell's Used Book Store in Chicago, and in the small graphic novel section I noticed a few manhwa (Korean comics) published by Infinity Studios which I'd never seen before in any bookstore or comic store. One of them, Witch Class vol. 1 by Lee Ru, looked intriguing enough for me to gamble the five bucks it was selling for.
Witch Class is a whatever-the-Korean-equivalent-of-shoujo-is comedy about a klutzy teenager named Dorothy who discovers she has latent magic powers, and is taken on as an apprentice by the beautiful but bad-tempered witch Lilly. The romantic interest is Lilly's handsome but rude nephew, whom Dorothy turns into a werewolf in a fit of pique. There isn't a trace of originality in the first volume, either in the writing or the art; but it's inoffensive and fairly amusing, and the art isn't bad. I wouldn't recommend paying full price for it, but if you can find it for half price like I did, you might want to take a chance on it. (You probably won't find it at Powell's, though, as mine was the only copy there.)
Among the other titles put out by Infinity Studios is something called Adrenalin by Lee Jung Hwa. It wasn't one of the ones at Powell's, but here's a description of the first volume, courtesy of Samuel Gonhue:
"Armed with only the notorious rumors he's heard of the big city, Heyong, a young man from the countryside, sets off to Seoul city to get a job. As if the fates are against him, the poor country boy loses all his money, and has nowhere to go, nothing to eat. That is, until he finds an ad offering free room and board to all healthy, red-blooded teenage boys. With nothing to lose, Heyong goes to the address and discovers that it is an elaborate mansion populated by actresses and supermodels! And the lady of the house offers him free rent in exchange for a twice monthly donation of his blood !?! Being somewhat naïve, Heyong misses all of the clues that definitely something "sucks" about this house and its occupants…especially the landlord who sleeps all day long and the girls call 'master'. Yes, the landlord is actually a vampire queen! And her tenants? All former teenaged boys like Heyong who were bitten by the master and suffered the side effects of her bite: they turned into beautiful women! What will become of poor Heyong, and what are the vampire queen's true motives?"
This premise is bizarre enough that I'm almost tempted to order it. Almost.
A few days ago I was in Powell's Used Book Store in Chicago, and in the small graphic novel section I noticed a few manhwa (Korean comics) published by Infinity Studios which I'd never seen before in any bookstore or comic store. One of them, Witch Class vol. 1 by Lee Ru, looked intriguing enough for me to gamble the five bucks it was selling for.
Witch Class is a whatever-the-Korean-equivalent-of-shoujo-is comedy about a klutzy teenager named Dorothy who discovers she has latent magic powers, and is taken on as an apprentice by the beautiful but bad-tempered witch Lilly. The romantic interest is Lilly's handsome but rude nephew, whom Dorothy turns into a werewolf in a fit of pique. There isn't a trace of originality in the first volume, either in the writing or the art; but it's inoffensive and fairly amusing, and the art isn't bad. I wouldn't recommend paying full price for it, but if you can find it for half price like I did, you might want to take a chance on it. (You probably won't find it at Powell's, though, as mine was the only copy there.)
Among the other titles put out by Infinity Studios is something called Adrenalin by Lee Jung Hwa. It wasn't one of the ones at Powell's, but here's a description of the first volume, courtesy of Samuel Gonhue:
"Armed with only the notorious rumors he's heard of the big city, Heyong, a young man from the countryside, sets off to Seoul city to get a job. As if the fates are against him, the poor country boy loses all his money, and has nowhere to go, nothing to eat. That is, until he finds an ad offering free room and board to all healthy, red-blooded teenage boys. With nothing to lose, Heyong goes to the address and discovers that it is an elaborate mansion populated by actresses and supermodels! And the lady of the house offers him free rent in exchange for a twice monthly donation of his blood !?! Being somewhat naïve, Heyong misses all of the clues that definitely something "sucks" about this house and its occupants…especially the landlord who sleeps all day long and the girls call 'master'. Yes, the landlord is actually a vampire queen! And her tenants? All former teenaged boys like Heyong who were bitten by the master and suffered the side effects of her bite: they turned into beautiful women! What will become of poor Heyong, and what are the vampire queen's true motives?"
This premise is bizarre enough that I'm almost tempted to order it. Almost.
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