Delisle's simple but expressive art works well with his account, humanizing the few North Koreans he gets to know and facilitating digressions into North Korean history and various bizarre happenings involving brandy and bear cubs. Delisle's curiosity and amusement at the country's bizarre relationship with foreign visitors is equally funny and fascinating Guardian, *Top 10 Funny Comic Books*Ĭombining a gift for anecdote and an ear for absurd dialogue, Delisle's retelling of his adventures makes a gently humorous counterpoint to the daily news stories about the axis of evil, a Lost in Translation for the Communist world.

The reigning king of the graphic travel memoir. Pyongyang is an informative, personal and accessible look at an enigmatic country. His astute and wry musings on life in the austere and grim regime form the basis of this remarkable graphic novel. But among the statues, portraits and propaganda of leaders Kim Il-Sung and his son Kim Jong-Il - the world's only Communist dynasty - Delisle was able to observe more than was intended of the culture and lives of the few North Koreans he encountered. When the fortress-like country recently opened the door a crack to foreign investment, cartoonist Guy Delisle found himself in its capital Pyongyang on a work visa for a French film animation company, becoming one of the few Westerners to witness current conditions in the surreal showcase city.Īrmed with a smuggled radio and a copy of 1984, Delisle could only explore Pyongyang and its countryside while chaperoned by his translator and a guide. A series of manmade and natural catastrophes have also left it one of the poorest.

'Great stuff - and proof that the comics panel can be another kind of window on the world' - Guardianįamously referred to as part of the 'Axis-of-Evil', North Korea remains one of the most secretive and mysterious nations in the world today.

Pyongyang by Guy Delisle