Its a subterranean palace to the glory of publish transit. A journey in north korea originally published as pyongyang in french by canadian cartoonist guy delisle, is a travel memoir presented in a graphic novel format. Revisualizing the map in guy delisles pyongyang erudit. That was 2001, preseptember 11, prenuclear threats and preaxis of evil. He shows us the sites with his lovingly rendered drawings. The main characters of this sequential art, graphic novels story are. Chronicles from the holy city, burma chronicles, and shenzhen are defining works of graphic nonfiction, and in 2012, delisle was awarded the top prize in european cartooning when the french edition of jerusalem was named best album at the angouleme international comics festival.
As cameras are not allowed in north korea, pyongyang is a perfect example of the power of the graphic novel medium. Pyongyang shows north korea is the same as it ever was. Armed with a smuggled radio and a copy of 1984, delisle could only explore pyongyang and its countryside while chaperoned by his translator and a guide. The canadian cartoonists travels to cities like pyongyang, north korea. Delisle s magnificent book shows what the reality of life is there for people on the outside looking in, and i think that this book is rapidly becoming an indispensable text. In pyongyang, frenchcanadian guy delisle arrives in the capital of communist north korea as a subcontractor for a french animation company. Guy is a man of few words, and although he presents us with detailed pictures of life in pyongyang, he doesnt draw any explicit conclusion for us. A journey in north korea is guy delisle s graphic novel that made his career an international. Famously referred to as one of the axis of evil countries, north korea remains one of. Nov 29, 2010 delisle, a french canadian cartoonist, was sent by a french animation studio to be an overseas supervisor at scientific and educational film studio of korea sek in pyongyang. Oct, 2006 guy delisle s new graphic novel pyongyang documents the two months he spent overseeing cartoon production in north korea.
Sent abroad to oversee the progress of a lowbudget cartoon, canadian animator guy delisle learned that traveling to north korea means crossing not only national borders, but the boundaries of time. A journey in north korea, a graphic novel by guy delisle translated by. Weve lumped guy s north korean guides into one category because its hard to. The first edition of the novel was published in october 2003, and was written by guy delisle. Pyongyang is located on the taedong river about 109 kilometers 68 mi upstream from its mouth on the yellow sea. Guy delisle has 34 books on goodreads with 101434 ratings. Delisle became one of the few westerners to be allowed access to the fortresslike country when he was working in animation for a french company. I examine the use of maps in guy delisles comic pyongyang. The drawing style in pyongyang is a minimalist black and. For guy, this is not only a job but an opportunity to see a side of the closedoff state not many people get to see. A journey in north korea, guy delisle s perspective may be one of the few such memoirs of a visit to north korea.
Pyongyang is a graphical record of the time cartoonist guy delisle spent working as an animator in pyongyang, becoming one of the few westerners to witness current conditions in the surreal showcase city. Delisle effectively conveys this feeling in his travelogue through deliberate panel and page composition, as well as other artistic. Guy delisle can find humour in even the most complicated places. Pyongyang documents delisles experiences in pyongyang, the capital of north korea, where he stayed for two months. A journey in north korea is guy delisles graphic novel that made his career, an international bestseller for over ten years. The awardwinning cartoonist guy delisle is the author of the bestselling travelogues shenzhen, pyongyang, burma chronicles, and jerusalem.
Theres not really a plot aside from guy delisle going around looking at things and sort thinking about them. A journey in north korea is a blackandwhite graphic novel by the canadian quebecois author guy delisle, published in 2004. Pyongyang literally means flat land, and it is the capital city of north korea. Guy delisle on writing rituals, favourite words and not reading his own books. A journey in north korea 2005 kindle edition by delisle, guy, delisle, guy. Less well drawn are the inner lives of pyongyang s citizens. Its actually pretty clean, but too clean, in fact 2. Buy this book in 2001, frenchcanadian cartoonist delisle traveled to north. A journey in north korea, recounts his almost existential sojourn in what he aptly describes as a phantom city in a hermit nation, a showcase capital brimming with monuments, municipal halls, and museums, yet shockingly devoid of quotidian life. He later worked for different studios in canada, germany, france, china and north korea. In the end he tries to retain a shred of normalcy throwing paper airplanes from his apartment window while the people below try and hold it together in a society permeated by fear and mistrust.
Comicbook memoirs of life in dangerous locations have become a minor genre. A journey in north korea, guy delisles perspective may be one of the few such memoirs of a visit to north korea. Delisle is trotted off to official destinations by his handlers the museum of. A journey in north korea by guy delisle, translated by helge dascher in another century, travelers wrote a few postcards. Everywhere, garish murals transfigure a reality that just seems drab to me. Delisle is trotted off to official destinations by his handlers the museum of the friendship of the nations, in which diplomatic gifts to the eternal president kim il sung are displayed in cavernous rooms where visitors must wear slippers, is the. Delisles translator takes him on countless tours whose main purpose is the glorification of kim il sung, north koreas founder who seems eerily present although he has long passed away. Here are a few things guy does during his visit to pyongyang, in no particular order.
Comic book memoirs of life in dangerous locations have become a. Pyongyang documents delisle s experiences in pyongyang, the capital of north korea, where he stayed for two months. Weve lumped guys coworkers into one category because its hard to tell them. Delisle set the flowers at the base and bowed as per custom, thinking, christ, the things an animator has to do to get a gig. Dec 26, 2007 in pyongyang, frenchcanadian guy delisle arrives in the capital of communist north korea as a subcontractor for a french animation company. We believe every one of us deserves equal access to factbased news and analysis. He has written and drawn four graphic novels, including shenzhen, an account of his travels to china. A journey in north korea is the graphic novel that made his career, an international bestseller for more than ten years. When i do these books, he says, i have the feeling im writing a long postcard to my mom. Guy delisle born january 19, 1966 is a comic book author from quebec city, quebec, canada.
The title is also the name of the city where guy lives out his stay in north korea. Delisle s evocative pencil drawings are suited to depicting a colourless, twilight world in which the state is all, with his rudimentary characters inhabiting vast and much more detailed architectural environments. He shows us the sites with his lovingly rendered drawings the animators. Jul 19, 2012 pyongyang is a disturbing book that provides readers with a unique insight into north korea a country that many readers know little else about other than it being continually at odds with the western world. Delisle documents his experience in north korea accompanied by his ever present guide and his translator. But among the statues, portraits and propaganda of leaders kim ilsung and his son kim jongil the worlds only communist dynasty delisle was able to observe more than was intended of the. A journey in north korea is guy delisles graphic novel that made his career an international. Delisle, a french canadian cartoonist, was sent by a french animation studio to be an overseas supervisor at scientific and educational film studio of korea sek in pyongyang.
His most recent book is hostage, which details the kidnapping of a doctors without borders employee and appeared on bestoftheyear lists from. Delisle s images depict his sense of the obedience of north korean. His bestselling and acclaimed travelogues pyongyang, jerusalem. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading pyongyang. Delisle covers a bleak two months in the eerily austere. The book is not scientific account and analyses of whats going on in the country, but what is valuable is that most books and articles about the country tend to have top down perspective centering around the regime and its politics, this book has a bottom. With the new york philharmoic performing a groundbreaking concert in north korea this week, now is a great time to have students read pyongyang. The book was published in multiple languages including english, consists of 176 pages and is available in paperback format. A travelogue from china by guy delisle 148pp, jonathan cape. Guy delisle s travelogue, pyongyang, takes readers on a journey to a country that has been closed off to the west for years, and instead of dispelling fears of a fascist nation oppressing its people in every means possible, it provides visual confirmation of these notions with oftendisturbing detail. A westerners visit into north korea, told in the form of a graphic novel. Guy delisle was born in canadas quebec city in 1966. Guy delisle does a superb job of capturing the bleakness and bizarreness of north korea contrasting it with his own light hearted rebellious attitude. Weve lumped guys north korean guides into one category because its hard to.
According to the 2008 population census, it has a population of 3,255,288. Pyongyang by guy delisle, 9781897299210, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. This includes everything from the expected, like intense propaganda and odd restrictions, to the surprising, like the club for foreign workers in the korean capital. Guy delisle s new graphic novel pyongyang documents the two months he spent overseeing cartoon production in north korea. Jan 20, 2010 this is a trailer for the graphic novel pyongyang. Guy delisle is a wry 37yearold french canadian cartoonist whose work for a french animation studio requires him to oversee production at various pacific rim studios on the grim frontiers of free trade. Comic book memoirs of life in dangerous locations have become a minor genre.
Although i knew that north korea was a communist nation, the facts that delisle shares of his two months working there are quite astonishing. A journey in north korea, burma chronicles, and the latest chroniques. Acting as the liaison between a french animation producing company protecrea working for tf1 and the sek studio scientific educational korea company, he struggles with the difficulties of outsourcing and the bureaucracy of the totalitarian closed state. Comicbook memoirs of life in dangerous locations have become a. I wonder what tonights dream will be about, considering i have just finished pyongyang. Guy delisle describes it as a phantom city in a hermit nation 2. 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. While its 2003 in the rest of the world, north korea lives in juche 92, juche being the national ideology of selfreliance, and 92 being the number of years since the conception of kim ilsung. Delisle records the striking instances of totalitarian regime and lack of freedom through the interplay between word and image which uncannily work to destabilize what in north korea appears as standard.
Guy delisles pyongyang, an illustrated account of his time in north. The events of pyongyang surround the experiences of guy as he works an animation gig in pyongyang. May 01, 2007 guy delisle does a superb job of capturing the bleakness and bizarreness of north korea contrasting it with his own light hearted rebellious attitude. But, speaking of drawings, he leaves us to draw our own conclusions. Sep 01, 2005 guy delisle was born in quebec city in 1966 and has spent the last decade living and working in france. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Buy this book in 2001, frenchcanadian cartoonist delisle traveled to north korea on a work visa to supervise the. And yet when guy is taken to visit one of the great prides of the nation, the pyongyang subway, he finds marble floors, chandeliers, sculpted columns. This video was created for my 12 grade english project. A journey in north korea by guy delisle, paperback. Mar 31, 2007 north korea has become the centre of the worlds attention ever since trump took office and started his whole militaryposturing thing. The book presents the authors personal experiences at pyongyang, the capital of north korea during his two months stay in 2001 working as a coordinator between a. Mikkonen proposes an analysis of pyongyangs use of two first persons, the. Delisles critically acclaimed memoir captures his two months spent in north korea as an animator.
His new book, pyongyang offers the same spare illustration and wry interpretation of an impossibly foreign culture, but with a blacker comedy and a much higher arched eyebrow. His most recent book is hostage, which details the kidnapping of a doctors without borders employee and appeared on bestoftheyear lists. Yet, the overall tone of the book does not seem to indicate a particular bias against the. He studied animation at sheridan college in oakville, near toronto, and then worked for the animation studio cinegroupe in montreal. Guy delisle born january 19, 1966 is a canadian cartoonist and animator, best known for his graphic novels about his travels, such as shenzhen 2000, pyongyang. Delisle was working for a french animation company and was sent to pyongyang to supervise the production of a childrens cartoon. The graphic novel here represents not the content but rather the. Famously referred to as one of the axis of evil countries, north kor. His employer puts him up for months at a time in cold and soulless hotel rooms where he suffers the usual maladies of the longterm boarder. We analyze pyongyang the book and the city more in our setting section. Gets into humorous misunderstandings with his translator, guide, and assistant. Todays modern wanderer might send group emails or abbreviated texts. A journey to north korea is a graphic text of guy delisle s trip to north korea. The memoir is topical, coming at a time when interest in the goingson behind the last remaining panel of the iron curtain is high.
Frenchcanadian graphic novelist guy delisle has made a name for himself with his. In early 2001 cartoonist guy delisle became one of the few westerners to be allowed access to the fortresslike country. But i analyse your works as comics journalism, because i believe that your works are. A journey in north korea by guy delisle 176pp, jonathan cape. Pyongyang is subtitled a journey in north korea, which is a bit of an exaggeration.
1297 1430 1196 626 925 4 623 62 1400 1553 1373 765 202 540 1302 494 1446 632 1593 374 196 577 1275 198 1158 947 1149 108 105 1021 37 1403 1333 306