• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.37
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• pp.361-392
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• 2014

Regarding works that express objects realistically in painting, Gustave Courbet advocated realism in the mid-19th century, France, resisting the then academist style of painting, and works in realist style were produced in earnest by painters such as H. Daumier or Jean F. Millet, who went along with him. Later, realism has expanded into the realm of general literature, including fine art, which has had profound impacts on works of art and literary works. In comics, too, in the same historical context as a form of painting, realistic comics began to be produced by painters or cartoonists at the time. These realism comics are those dealing with stories based on facts, and in terms of contents, objective description and representation of the social realities of the times is one of the most important objectives, but it could not be concluded that in their visual aspect, that is, that of expressing the objects, they were realistic. In the meantime, a graphic novel was born, which was the intermediate form between comics and novels around the United States and Europe since the 1980s. Graphic novels appeared in forms and styles with strong literary and artistic values in the comics market in the U.S. which was full of the superhero genre (comics around heroes), and their major characteristics are very realistic expressions in terms of contents and visual aspect. They are complex and delicate and even have artistic, literary values as if readers read a fiction or literary work of which its narrative structures or pictures are produced with graphics. The characteristics of realistic expressions shown in graphic novels are very different from the previous works of comics. It is noteworthy that they began to be acknowledged as works of art like painting or illustration, thanks to their features of strongly individual auteurist painting style, a fairly high degree of completion of the works, and creative and experimental expression techniques or methods, instead of following the fashion of the times. In recent years, in South Korea, Hollywood blockbuster films have been released one after another and become box office hits, there are increasing interest and demand for the original graphic novels. Accordingly, many original graphic novels have been translated and started to be sold, and keeping pace with this global flow of fashion, some writers in Korea began to produce works of graphic novels. However, to look into the domestic works produced claiming to be graphic novels, there are various opinions on their format and authenticity. In this sense, this study focused on Ga-ya Kwon's Namhansanseong, one the representative works of Korean style graphic novels, and in particular, it attempted to analyze their characteristics and commonalities focusing on the visual aspect of realistic expressions of objects. It is expected that there would be an opportunity to seek for ways so that Korean style graphic novel can be further developed as a genre of comics, with competitiveness by looking back on the identity and present state of domestic graphic novels and developing and applying Korea's original subject matters differentiated from those of graphic novels in the U.S., Europe or Japan through this study. In addition, it is desired that they will be a new energizer for the stagnant domestic comics market.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.29
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• pp.173-207
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• 2012

The four-phased plot which consists of introduction, development, turn and conclusion in the long-story structure tends to be patterned and schematized. The behavior of characters is in line with the beginning of human beings and the plot of comic strips basically has four phases. It is, however, not a simple arrangement but a complex one which was developed by organizing patterns of human power, behavior and emotions. With the results from a survey with college students studying comic strips, this study aims to categorize four characters from the archetypal system by Carol Pearson, four phases of the hero's journey by Joseph Campbell, and the four phases of the plot based on Aristotle's theory, which is the frame of the comic strip structure through supporting evidence extracted from comic strips in an integrated way. In this study, the categorization is performed by simplifying and systemizing a character's life cycle, which is a factor of a story structure in complex comic strips. This study is to identify what comic strip writers express by using the metaphor in the complicated long-story structure of comic strips This study reveals that the structure of introduction, development, turn and conclusion based on the plot theory by Aristotle is the metaphor of human life and fate and that the phases of development in the archetypal system by Carol Pearson, a Jung researcher influenced by Jung's theory are the metaphor of human life and fate. Also, the theories of Joseph Campbell, who also was influenced by Jung, are the metaphor of human life and fate as they projected complex emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure onto the archetype of heroes and used the metaphor of the hero's journey. Lastly, the theories are introduced with the approach of 'guide to screenwriters' by Christopher Vogler. Meanwhile, this metaphor is the objective and goal of this study. The comic strips selected for this study seem to have long complex stories which have characters leaving their homes, going through adventures and difficulties, meeting the world in another way, experiencing tension, competition, wars, and hardship and returning home with compensation. They grow mentally and psychologically through their journeys and finally become heroes. They express the meaning of our introspection in a narrative through plots and images of comic strips. This appears complex but the basic structure of long comic strips has four phases of plot. The life style of an extraordinary character traveling for adventures and growing in long comic strips can be divided into four phases symbolizing childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and senescence and it is a psychological growth process. The archetypes of the character can be divided into four phases and the growth process can be explained. The hero's journey symbolized by the character can be also divided into four phases. Through theories, the complex arrangement of four-phased plots in comic strips corresponds with the growth process of introduction, development, turn and conclusion through the stages of life. At the same time, this study found that the characters becoming heroes are the metaphor of introspection and that the characters' growth and life correspond with the four phases in life through long comic strips. Long stories in long comic strips written by comic strip writers show that characters go on their journeys and change their lives through hardship and difficulty by logical construction of plot and their growth processes are presented in archetypal images and they reach introspection as heroes. The readers share time and space through images in comic strips and realize that they had the same experience as the characters emotionally by being moved by the stories.