Interview with Korean Webtoon Artist: Ji Eun Nam

Introduction:

She was born in year 1979, 15th of November. She is a mother of Four children and works as a Cartoonist and a writer. She graduated from Saejong University which is one of the top few schools in South Korea. She is well known for a webtoon named, "Family Size". She and her husband work together and made lots of Webtoon. Hence, they are collaborating.

As I was keen and interested to know more about her, and the webtoon I have asked for her interview through E-Mail and finally at last!

She gave me a wonderful reply.

INTERVIEW

Biographical:

• Where were you born?

A: I was born in Seoul.

• Where did you grow up?

A: At 6years old, I moved to Incheon and lived there for 10years then when I became 17years old, I moved to Seoul and till now I lived there.

• Were there significant people in your life that influenced you?

A: When I was young, my family gave me a lot of hope or passion for art and story writing. Even though I have fought a lot with my older sister, she is like my best friend. Moreover, by going to church and meeting Jesus and the seniors gave me a lot of passion. When I became an adult, at the age of 21years old, I got in to a University and met a manga artist, Do Ho Lee. After getting to meet him, I followed his footsteps as his student for 2 years and learnt a lot from him.

Education/Professional Pathway:

• When you were young, did you always have a love and interest for drawing and writing?

A: Yes, I really loved to draw and also talented. From Primary School, my drawings were displayed throughout the school. By that incident, my dream was to become an Artist. Then as I became 10 years old, I learnt about “Comic” and also, as I went to Secondary School, I learnt that I love to write. Then at the High School, I joined the Creative Writing Club and wrote lots of stories, and year after, I became Vice Chairman of the Club. I got awards form a Writing Competition. As I love to write and draw, being a “Manga Artist” became my first ideal dream job.

About at the age of 4 to 5, I found the talent in drawing. Hence my parents asked or told me to draw more and more. Then as I became 7years old, I went to Art Tuition. Although I could not remember me going for tuition but by photos, I was able to know that I really went for the Art Tuition! Haha! For Writing, I was influenced by my older sister. She was talented and loved Writing. Hence by her, I started to read more books and write more. Then, I have fall in love with Writing.

• Why and how did you start using webtoon?

A: I really wanted to be a Manga Artist hence I graduated from “Animation” Course. Also in the Comic Club, I have made Comic Book every year and one day, a Comic Book Company’s Editor came and saw my book and acknowledge my talent. He told me to visit the Company and I had a meeting. The Company gave me a chance to debut which gave me courage and not to give up my dream. I began to work harder to make a better or wonderful work of Art. Then that work was named, “SunMiNi” which was published as a short strip of comic on a Comic Magazine. After that, I have made another comic named “Play with, Family”, it was supposed to be published on the same Comic Magazine however before I could publish it, the Magazine closed down. After that, I kept on looking for a place to publish my work then a website named daum.net’s “Word inside of Comic” showed interest in my work so I went to meet them and able to publish my Comic which became a Webtoon. Sorry for such a long explanations, haha..

Practice:

Webtoon:

• Can you explain what is webtoon and how you got involved in it?

A: Oh! That is a difficult question… Webtoon is like a short form for reading Comic/Cartoon in Website… ^^ To me, Webtoon is “Experimental”, giving me “Excitement” and “Communication”.

• Has your work always been story related / or images?

A: Real life story can become the story in the webtoon. Although sometimes it go to another different story and create through imagination however in the end you cannot stop the fact that most of the time my life or experiment will be smeared into the story.

Ideas:

• Where do you get your ideas from?

A: From young, I loved to read and it helped me to think more which helped to create more interesting stories. However as I had to take care of my children, it became harder for me to read a book. Other than that traveling is also a great source to give ideas or inspiration. And lastly, watching movie^^ (Of course, I could not go to Cinema as my children are still young… I will have to watch it through VOD after putting my children to sleep... ha-ha.)

Style:

• Fans describe your style as “Cute” or “Simple”, how did you develop your style? How would you describe your style?

A: A writer, In Ho Kim, works on the drawings. (Her husband) After developing the ideas for the comic, we will have to confirm the style that matches the story. We will choose from different sizes of the pen and after going through lots of exploration, we was able to create a perfect character/style for the Webtoon.

• Do you think having a unique style is important to gain the attention from your audience?

A: Of course it is. We really want to create a perfect style for the audience. However for comic, story is really an important factor to draw their attention hence story seems to be more important than drawing to draw the audience’s attention.

Family Size:

• Can you describe your ideas behind Family Size?

A: My intention was to make use of this webtoon to record when my children are still young. After giving birth to the Fourth child, who is going to be my last kid, I could not delay any longer hence I have published the webtoon sooner.

• What is it about?

A: It’s about life of 6 family members.

• Revealing personal details to an audience can be daunting for an artist. Was it hard to use your family as inspiration for your story? How did you think of using your family as a story?

A: Of course, there were lots of miscommunication and bad or rude comments. To lessen that problem, and to make the audience to understand better and give lots of positivity, we put in more effort on creating the story. We are trying out best. Sometimes, by using personal blog, we have some time to solve the miscommunication. Other than that, we have no choice to become a source of a gossip as that is one of the negative part of my work as Manga Artist has to connect with the audience.

• Were there enough funny stories to write about each week? Is it hard to keep your ideas fresh?

A: Family size uploads every Sunday and Tuesday, which is twice a week. Sometimes, even though the due date for the upload is coming we could not even start as nothing come into our mind or thought like when I am sick. Before, I was really sick and tired so I put in my feelings and experience into the webtoon. When we have lack of ideas or inspiration, we will sit down and take out pieces of funny memories that were kept inside the corner of our heads and put them together to complete our task. (We think that everything was possible due to love from Jesus)

• What other projects/webtoons have you worked on besides Family Size?

A: While publishing “Family Size”, at another site, we also published another 2 webtoons and they are “The Day after a Breakup” and “Best Friend”. “The Day after a Breakup” was finished this year, February and “Best Friend” was finished last month, October. Right now, we are still continuing on “Family Size” and every month, we publish a Comic about Space at Science Magazine for Children.

• What are your plans for after Family Size?

A: Family Size will not end soon as I want to continue it as long as possible. However as last month, “Best Friend” was ended hence we are developing a Comic as two cartoons are our minimum.

Collaboration:

• Can you explain the collaborative relationship you have with your husband?

A: I will develop the story then my husband will continue it by drawing the story. After the drawing is done, I will go through them again to check whether they matches together to give better understanding, then we will send them to the Manager of Webtoon. Although we divide our work to Drawing and Writing, we always give opinion and add onto our ideas.

• When and how did you start collaborating with him?

A: At 2007, as I have gotten my first child, my health started to worsen which made me unable to draw and continue to work, my husband became my partner as story could be written in 30 minutes to an hour per day. After that as more children was born, we still continue to do collaboration. Fortunately, our style are similar we can work without any difficulty.

• Have you ever thought about creating solo projects?

A: I really want to do a Lecture. Then, at September, one University ask me to do a lecture at their school and by November, I was able to do a first Lecture. It was nerve wrecking yet enjoyable experience. If there was more chance, I would like to lecture.

Philosophy/ Advice:

• Any advice for me as I want to be Animator or Manga Artist?

A: When you create a story, even if it is small story, it is good for you to create an ending/conclusion. If you have a story that you have created and you was not able to finish them, try to create a conclusion. The conclusion is an important factor for creating a Cartoon. Also you cannot stop drawing, you have to keep on practicing. If you keep on practicing, you will be able to improve a lot. In the whole wide world, there are lots of different people. Hence, there will be people who loves/admire your style so do not give up and continue to create a Cartoon. Firstly try by creating a Synopsis, creating a relationship between the characters then create about cartoon worth Five Episodes and after compiling them together, try sending them to different Companies. Until you meet a person who recognize you as who you are. Fighting!

• Do you think you still have something that you can improve on?

A: Of course. There are lots of stuff for me to fix. However we do not have enough time to fix them… haha. My husband and I are homeschooling all the four children. Every day, we stay with our children hence we barely able to upload our webtoon on time. (As our children are still young) Hence sometimes we regret on some of our work. However, we acknowledge this situation and try out best during the time limit. After some times where our kids are much grown and able to get more time to prepare, we will like to change some part to make much more complete and wonderful work.

• If you did not start your career with webtoon, how would your life be?

A: Oh… I am not sure. I have never thought about it. It does not matter what I am going to do but one thing for sure, I would be living with my four beautiful children happily. Haha!

As you can see, she is really a caring woman with warm heart. Moreover her passion and love for Cartoon/ Webtoon is amazing. No one could follow the pride and courage. Eventhough she has 4 children, she still continues to work hard and continue her dream with her husband help.

I really hope to see you in real life as you are one of my inspiration and I really look forward for your upcoming webtoon. I wish you luck for your new webtoon and hope to see you as a lecturer oneday.

Thank you for your precious time, helping me completing this Question and Answer.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

#Animation #Manga #korean #Webtoon