The Belgian Comic Strip Center - Museum Brussels

South Korea is without a doubt one of the most interesting Asian countries when it comes to comic strip art. Whereas the country obviously excels in ‘webtoons’ or digital comics, many authors are opting for stories of a more personal nature. Annco’s graphic novel ‘Mauvaises Filles’ [Bad Girls] is an excellent example of this. This female graphic artist has written the story in a sober and efficient style, and talks about her difficult teenage years. This genuine personal life story rightfully deserves an exhibition in our Gallery.

Willem De Graeve, Comics Art Museum

In ‘Mauvaises Filles’ [Bad Girls], Ancco starts out from her own life experience. The story switches back and forth between her college years and the present. The ‘Mauvaises Filles’ [Bad Girls] portrayed in the book are a group of friends, with whom the author has spent part of her childhood years.  

‘Mauvaises Filles’ [Bad Girls] gives the reader an insight into a young life torn apart by violence, a life which is nevertheless not devoid of friendship, tenderness and self-deprecation. The young woman portrays herself as the total opposite of the trendy youth of Seoul. Despite her numerous and often sad experiences, this female author clings to her poetic view of life. In her environment, she sees herself as an observer rather than as a participant, and this is a viewpoint that is noticeable throughout all of her work. Ancco’s style of drawing is both rough and detailed, and in her words, it conjures up “the smells of the streets of her old neighbourhood.”                     

Ancco was born in 1983 in the suburbs of Seoul. She has been drawing from a very early age, and at the age of 20, she stepped into the limelight by publishing her private diary in the form of a webtoon, which is a Korean on-line comic strip art medium. In 2012, she published ‘Mauvaises Filles’ [Bad Girls], which is a comic book about her teenage years, and she was awarded the Korean ‘Comics Today’ prize for this story in that same year. In 2013, she published “Trente Ans”‘[Thirty Years Old], which is written in the form of a private diary that describes her life as she approaches the age of 30.

Brussels Korean Cultural Centre in Brussels