“When you land in hell, you need the will to survive. You need something like a lifeline that’s connecting you to hope. So that you don’t go crazy. So that you can keep breathing when one day feels like ten years. When basic instinct takes over instead of reason, maybe you need to believe in a concept like love to bear everything.” (《풀》, 보리, 2017 / Grass, Drawn &Quarterly, 2017)
Keum Suk Gendry-Kim is an internationally acclaimed graphic novelist who captures the universality and pain of an era through the stories of diverse individuals in modern Korean history.
1. Life
Gendry-Kim was born in Korea, where she majored in Western painting, and went to France to study installation art at the Graduate School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg. She has noted that her drawing style was heavily influenced by her fine arts training. Due to financial difficulties, she took on translation work as a side job, and through translating Korean comic book artists’ works into French, she became captivated by the medium. She has introduced over 100 volumes of Korean comics to France through her translations. Alongside this, she began creating her own work by publishing comics in various outlets including the Korean community newspapers in France.
At the 2014 Angoulême International Comics Festival in France, Korean artists held a special exhibition titled “Jiji anneun kkot” (지지 않는 꽃 The Never-Wilting Flower) to raise awareness of the issue of Japanese military “comfort women,” and Gendry-Kim contributed a short piece titled Bimil (비밀 Secret). At the time, attempts by Japanese right-wing groups to obstruct the exhibition became a major controversy, which in turn sparked broader international criticism of efforts to conceal or distort these war crimes involving “comfort women.” Expanding her short work into a full-length graphic novel resulted in Grass, published in 2017. Through these sustained efforts, she gained global recognition and has received numerous awards in the international comics community. Her works have been translated and published in more than 35 languages.
2. Writing
Keum Suk Gendry-Kim creates graphic novels based on major events in Korea’s modern and contemporary history, focusing on the lives of those who lived through them. She has also been actively adapting historically grounded novels and films into graphic novels.
Ibangin (이방인 The Stranger) was published in 2021, but was in fact the very first work she created. It originated from a French-language comic titled “One Shot” that Gendry-Kim posted on her blog. This autobiographical work depicts the experiences of a wife who was born in Korea and went to study abroad in France, and her French husband as they adjust to life in Korea.
She has since produced works drawn from a range of historical events. Gidarim(기다림 The Waiting) deals with the pain of separated families during the Korean War; Jiseul(지슬 Jiseul) is a graphic adaptation of the film of the same title about the Jeju April 3 Uprising. Set between 1948 and 1949, the story follows villagers who, labeled ideological “enemies” by the military, police, and right-wing groups, hid in caves only to be discovered and massacred.
Gendry-Kim’s most representative work Pul (풀 Grass) addresses the issue of Japanese military “comfort women” and generated worldwide resonance, translated and published in 35 countries. Grass is not a one-sided recording of a survivor’s testimony, but rather the result of an interactive process between the witness and the recorder (Keum Suk Gendry-Kim), evoking comparisons to Art Spiegelman’s Maus. The work emphasizes that the trauma experienced by the survivor is not confined to the past but continues into the present, while also portraying the survivor’s transformation into an active participant in the anti-war and human rights movements. Visually, the work depicts violence through dense ink and rough brushwork reminiscent of ink wash painting and woodblock prints. Through this style, Grass conveys the brutality of violence to readers without objectifying the victim’s suffering.
Beyond these, she has worked across a wide range of subjects: Siberiauittal, Gim Alleksandeura (시베리아의 딸, 김알렉산드라 Alexandra Kim, the Daughter of Siberia), a graphic adaptation of a novel about the life of Kim Alexandra, Korea’s first Bolshevik revolutionary; Juni oppa (준이 오빠 Jun), about a young man with developmental disabilities; Namok (나목The Naked Tree), based on the novel of the same title by Park Wansuh; and Gae (개 Dog Days) (2021), exploring the bond between humans and dogs. Most recently, she published her first essay collection, Sigani jinalsurok binnaneun (시간이 지날수록 빛나는 The More Time Passes, the More It Shines) (2023).
Reference
서은영, 〈‘위안부’ 서사의 만화적 재현: 김금숙의 『풀』을 중심으로〉, 《애니메이션연구》 Vol.17 No.1, 한국애니메이션학회, 2021. / Seo Eun-Young,“Graphic representation of the ‘comfort women’ narrative: on Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s Grass,” The Korean Journal of Animation Vol. 17, No.1, Korean Society of Cartoon and Animation Studies, 2021
송미경, 〈귀향의 실패: 스피겔만의 『쥐』와 김금숙의 『풀』 비교 연구〉, 《세계문학비교학회》 Vol.82, 세계문학비교학회, 2023. / Song Mikyung, “Homecoming Thwarted: A Comparative Study of Spiegelman’s Maus and Gendry-Kim’s Grass,” The Comparative Study of World Literature Vol. 82, The Association of Comparative Study of World Literature, 2023.
Graphic novels and picture books
《꼬깽이 1》, 보리, 2013 / Kkokkaengi1 (Kkokkaengi 1), Bori, 2013
《꼬깽이 2》, 보리, 2014 / Kkokkaengi2 (Kkokkaengi 2), Bori, 2014
《꼬깽이 3》, 보리, 2015 / Kkokkaengi3 (Kkokkaengi 3), Bori, 2015
《할아버지와 보낸 하루》, 도토리숲, 2016 / Harabeoji wabonaen haru (A Day with Grandfather), Dotorisup, 2016
《풀》, 보리, 2017 / Grass, Drawn &Quarterly, 2019
《준이 오빠》, 한겨레출판, 2018 / Juni oppa(Jun), Hanibook, 2018
《기다림》, 딸기책방, 2020 / The Waiting, Ttalgi Books, 2020
《개》, 마음의숲, 2021 / Dog Days, Drawn &Quarterly, 2024
《이방인》, 딸기책방, 2021 / Ibangin (TheStranger), Ttalgi Books, 2021
《내일은 또 다른 날》, 딸기책방, 2023 / Naeireun ttodareun nal (Tomorrow Is Another Day), Ttalgi Books, 2023
《내 친구 김정은》, 이숲, 2024 / My Friend Kim Jong-un, Drawn & Quarterly, 2025
*Books based on original works have also been marked as co-authored
(co-authored) 《시선》, 2014 / Siseon (Gaze), 2014
(co-authored) 《지슬》, 서해문집, 2014 / Jiseul (Jiseul), Booksea,2014
(co-authored) 《우리 엄마 강금순》, 2017 / Uri eomma Gang Geumsun (My Mother, Kang Geumsun), 2017
(co-authored) 《나목》, 한겨레출판, 2019 / The Naked Tree, Drawn& Quarterly, 2023
(co-authored) 《시베리아의 딸, 김알렉산드라》, 서해문집,2020 / Siberiaui ttal, Gim Alleksandeuera (Alexandra Kim, the Daughter of Siberia), Booksea, 2020
Essay
《시간이 지날수록 빛나는》, 남해의봄날, 2023 / Siganijinalsurok binnaneun (The More Time Passes, the More It Shines), NamhaeuiBomnal, 2023
LTI Korea 
DLKL 
SIWF 
