Comic

Comics (Kurimchaek) are available to purchase or borrow from the library or street stalls for youth in North Korea. A form of soft propaganda covering everything from historical drama, anti-Japanese guerilla war, Korean war right up to modern times with north Korean soldiers on a spying mission in the south. Around 20 publications are printed each year, usually stand-alone stories or in three or so parts with full colour covers. The inside pages are monotone (often black ink cartoons with text in speech balloons). We commissioned a stripped down acrylic version of five comics which we thought best represented this genre, painted by students studying graphics, they were unable to sign their names because the pieces were taken out unofficially.  Reproducing artwork by hand is common pracitce in North Korea unless it  is requiring multiple copies and therefore a print run. This is particularly for the case of propaganda posters where workplaces may require several posters specific to their work. Each piece varies slightly as they use a tracing method and we have limited this edition to 5 hand painted pieces. Each is marked in pencil  with the date and edition number and embossed with the Koryo Studio stamp.