Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea
By Guy Delisle
from The Best American NonRequired Reading 2006

I generally never read comics. I don't have anything against comics at all, I just don't read them - I watch the cartoons. But if there are comics out there like this Delise selection then maybe I should start quick, fast, and in a hurry. Delise's account of his experience in the "ultra-secretive communist dynasty of North Korea" reminds me of my...interesting experience in China last year (that's a whole other long, painful story - Canon Powershot 700, I miss you wherever you are). But this isn't about me; it's about Delisle and his hilarious account of the "daily deification of Kim Jong Il" and the North Koreans who love him. Did I mention that this is all done with graphics? The "scene" in which he sees Kim Jong Il's face in the mirror instead of his own is hilarious. And there's a mystery too: what were the bags of rice for? And how in the world do two men with military training loose a sharp-shooting contest to a man who has never held a gun? If that were me, I'd have hung the bullseye on my wall too. Thank God I don't have any portraits of Kim Jong Il hanging there too.