“Heart-rending nonfiction tale of wartime Korea.”- Bustle Grass tells the story of one of this system’s survivors, revealing the horrific realities that the term “comfort woman” occludes.”- The Globe & Mail “The term “comfort women” controversial, distorting, inadequate – a euphemism that misrepresents the sexual slavery endured by Korean girls and women during the Second World War at the hands of the Japanese military. They depict nothing less than the death of a soul.”- The New York Times Book Review The next two pages are as heart-stopping as any comics I’ve seen. We see the men in silhouette, each face just a pair of leering eyes and a set of demonic teeth. “Gendry-Kim’s forceful art, with its wild lines and dense black, plunges fully into the realm of nightmare. Winner of the Cartoonist Studio Prize, the Harvey Award, and the Big Other Book Award Grass is a landmark graphic novel that makes personal the desperate cost of war and the importance of peace. The cartoonist Gendry-Kim’s interviews with Lee become an integral part of Grass, forming the heart and architecture of this powerful nonfiction graphic novel and offering a holistic view of how Lee’s wartime suffering changed her. Grass is painted in a black ink that flows with lavish details of the beautiful fields and farmland of Korea and uses heavy brushwork on the somber interiors of Lee’s memories.

Keum Suk Gendry-Kim emphasizes Lee’s strength in overcoming the many forms of adversity she experienced. Grass is a powerful antiwar graphic novel, telling the life story of a Korean girl named Okseon Lee who was forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War-a disputed chapter in twentieth-century Asian history.īeginning in Lee’s childhood, Grass shows the lead-up to the war from a child’s vulnerable perspective, detailing how one person experienced the Japanese occupation and the widespread suffering it entailed for ordinary Koreans. Appeared on best of the year lists from The New York Times, The Guardian, and more! Winner of The Cartoonist Studio Prize for Best Print Comic of the Year!

Grass keum suk