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scans_dailyI've been reading some Korean webcomics recently, to brush up on my rusty Korean skills. And I came upon this charming autobiographical comic mini-series about a woman and her cat which is very much attached to her.
The storyline and premise also struck a chord with me because there were some striking parallels between the comic's story and my sister's life. She had also just happened have adopted two cats this December which she strongly suspects are partially Turkish Vans, a close relative to Turkish Angora cats, one of which is featured in the comic.
I knew she would get a kick out of the comic, and since I've never done something like this before (translating a comic, and doing something nice for my sister ever), I decided to give it a try and translate it.
My sister's verdict: "Huh, basically my life, except more adorable."
The comic, the title of which I've roughly translated as "Hina the Brat Cat",
can be found at: http://cartoon.media.daum.net/webtoon/view/hina
Author's blog/website: http://koomi.net
First, a background on the Korean webcomic scene though, or "webtoons" as they are called over there. The first thing you'll notice is that they are LOOOOONG. I hope your scrolling finger is in shape. Another thing is that much of the Korean internet traffic is channeled through indigenous portal websites, which offer various services like blogs, email, and news all at one place. Those sites often commission comic artists to create webcomics for their sites to attract visitors. The collections at some portal sites are quite impressive in variety, and more often than not, in quality and update ethics. Of course, money talks, and comic artists there have the advantage of actually getting paid, which is more than that can be said for most webcomic artists. The comics run the gamut from fantasy, drama, shonen, and slice-of-life etc.
And obviously this comic would fall squarely under the slice-of-life category. The author goes by the pen name of Norankoomi (meaning Yellow Koomi), and according to her profile, she is a generation 2.5 Korean-Japanese who is currently residing in Korea. She created various other comics, and this short mini-series is one of several autobiographical ones that feature her author avatar with the funky hat. Apparently, her earliest autobiographical comics depicted herself as a genderless gummy-bear looking thing (the candy, not the Disney cartoon), and the hat is a remnant of that depiction.
I wasn't too clear on legality of posting the comics I have translated since they are commissioned by the portal sites, so I emailed the author and asked her about it. She said posting 2-3 episodes should be fine, so here it is: The first three episodes of Hina the Brat Cat (out of total of eight), covering the first arc. The rest can be seen at the linked site above, if you can read Korean.
Epilogue: The author's blog says she got Hina a name tag the next day. Also, recently, she adopted another kitten, which is growing up to be a near identical twin to Hina.
The storyline and premise also struck a chord with me because there were some striking parallels between the comic's story and my sister's life. She had also just happened have adopted two cats this December which she strongly suspects are partially Turkish Vans, a close relative to Turkish Angora cats, one of which is featured in the comic.
I knew she would get a kick out of the comic, and since I've never done something like this before (translating a comic, and doing something nice for my sister ever), I decided to give it a try and translate it.
My sister's verdict: "Huh, basically my life, except more adorable."
The comic, the title of which I've roughly translated as "Hina the Brat Cat",
can be found at: http://cartoon.media.daum.net/webtoon/view/hina
Author's blog/website: http://koomi.net
First, a background on the Korean webcomic scene though, or "webtoons" as they are called over there. The first thing you'll notice is that they are LOOOOONG. I hope your scrolling finger is in shape. Another thing is that much of the Korean internet traffic is channeled through indigenous portal websites, which offer various services like blogs, email, and news all at one place. Those sites often commission comic artists to create webcomics for their sites to attract visitors. The collections at some portal sites are quite impressive in variety, and more often than not, in quality and update ethics. Of course, money talks, and comic artists there have the advantage of actually getting paid, which is more than that can be said for most webcomic artists. The comics run the gamut from fantasy, drama, shonen, and slice-of-life etc.
And obviously this comic would fall squarely under the slice-of-life category. The author goes by the pen name of Norankoomi (meaning Yellow Koomi), and according to her profile, she is a generation 2.5 Korean-Japanese who is currently residing in Korea. She created various other comics, and this short mini-series is one of several autobiographical ones that feature her author avatar with the funky hat. Apparently, her earliest autobiographical comics depicted herself as a genderless gummy-bear looking thing (the candy, not the Disney cartoon), and the hat is a remnant of that depiction.
I wasn't too clear on legality of posting the comics I have translated since they are commissioned by the portal sites, so I emailed the author and asked her about it. She said posting 2-3 episodes should be fine, so here it is: The first three episodes of Hina the Brat Cat (out of total of eight), covering the first arc. The rest can be seen at the linked site above, if you can read Korean.
Epilogue: The author's blog says she got Hina a name tag the next day. Also, recently, she adopted another kitten, which is growing up to be a near identical twin to Hina.
