Review: Made in Korea #1 (of 6)

The treat or threat of A.I. raises its head again this month with a book that serves its influences well, from any number of episodes of Black Mirror and the Westworld show all the way to Blade Runner, constructions have always been unable to ask the $64 million question; what is it to be human?

Jesse wakes up in a bed with a parent type figure to boot. From there, she starts to question the world around her and the impacts of her world, along with her questions about herself. Behind the scenes there are some shenanigans around corporations who control things and consider brand image over everything, feeling, either real or A.I, be damned!

Jeremy Holt’s writing has a subtle way, meandering through this first issue where segues aren’t particular clear. At first I was unsure where the focus of the book lay. That confusion was laid to rest during the second act, where Jesse has a sort of epiphany that was hinted at earlier. There are other considerations afoot, who is the big bad, what is a proxy and how do they impact Jesse’ questions about herself and the previous, though obvious actions of her parent, guardian or is that owner?

George Schall provides the art, including the colors, which reminds me of Raymond Briggs in style. Schall utilises bigger panels than I would have expected for this type of book, which is a nice change of pace given that in doing so the art becomes more character focussed. This decision effectively mirrors the writing perfectly. The confusion and anger felt by Jesse are well observed, demonstrating child-like anger, though of course her situation is dramastically worse. Letters are provided by Adam Wollet who falls into that classic trope of putting a non-English language into “< >”, where a translated from box would suffice. I guess that it’s just type, but if I know that they are going to speaking Korean in Korea, why do I need the symbols? it’s different if it was a non-English language spoken in an other wise English speaking comic.

The influences in this book are not hard to see at this stage. As the series progresses I would like to see more of the rationale of Jesse’s parent’s choices that led him there. Even though we have seen the type of Jesse’s journey before, the characters need to be engaging, given that this is a slow burner of a book.

Writing – 4 Stars
Art & Colors – 4 Stars

Overall – 4 Stars

Written by; Jeremy Holt
Art & Colors – George Schall
Letters by; Adam Wollet
Published by; Image Comics

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network