Tiger and Bear: Korea Comics Collaboration!

[James Topple]

We are currently looking for artists/illustrators and writers who would be interested in taking part in a collaborative comic strip project.

The subject of the comics will be 'Tiger and Bear', a performance art project by James Topple and Colin Riddle based on the Korean myth of the tiger and the bear and the founding of Korea.

A lot can be said about it, but basically its two Englishmen in giant comedy animals heads, seeking a dialogue with Koreans about how their culture is changing and what place traditions have in the Korea of today as it under goes rapid modernization. You can find out more about Tiger and Bear in the links below.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/09/04/200...
http://www.theoneonefour.com/2009/09/12/face-to-face-with-the-face-...

One aspect of the project is that Tiger and Bear are interested in giving up control of their image by allowing others to interpret them and their project, which is where the comic comes in:

Collaborators are given a choice of two briefs. Writers need to sketch out or script a 4 panel storyboard with some dialogue, about anything they want. It can be funny, serious, political, sad, historical, whatever, as long as it involves the two foreigners dressed as tiger and bear.
These stories are then passed onto illustrators/artists to transform into four panel comic strips. How the illustrators choose to portray the story and the two characters is completely free, as we would really love receiving a range of different styles and most importantly a range of different takes on the two characters.

What happens with the finished products is they are published in various media outlets around Korea. We have had a fantastic response to the project so far with strips appearing weekly in The Korea Herald (the countries longest lasting English language national newspaper), a monthly spot in a community magazine called Daegu Pockets and a national magazine called Eloquence that is published in both Korea and the U.S.A, and weekly appearances on several popular Korean blogs such as theoneonefour.com and Expacked. We are looking for more media outlets in both Korea and overseas, particularly in the U.K.
Eventually we plan on publishing compendium of the comics and putting on art shows in various art galleries.

There will be no financial compensation at this point, primarily because we're not making any money from this, but credit will of course be given. It will also present an exceptional networking opportunity.

As it stands this could be a really fun and creative collaborative project between foreigners and Koreans. If this sounds like something you want to get involved with email us at [e-mail] with the subject headline 'COMIC' and join our facebook group!
http://www.facebook.com/#/pages/Tiger-and-Bear/161675304352?ref=ts

For more information, here is an article about the comic project published in the Korea Herald.
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/11/18/200...