|
The Artist.
Here's an article from the Korea Times. I like how he admires baseball for its combination of rules and imagination.
Cartoonist Delivers Big Hit With Baseball Series
By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii tries to memorize the names of his teammates' but gets frustrated trying to pronounce names like Cesar Izturis and Juan Encarnacion as an English-shy Japanese.
Two things that bothered Florida Marlins first baseman Choi Hee-seop for a while were why Juan Pierre wears a hat under his helmet and why Alex Gonzalez shaves his beard in a thin line along his cheek.
Not done yet, how about this? It is because of a mixed martial art battle for the remote control of the clubhouse television that so many Anaheim Angels players are on the disabled list this season.
If these sound unreal, well, you're right _ you never would read any news like this anywhere because they are all story lines from a cartoon series. But who cares, as long as they make tens of thousands of die-hard Major League Baseball (MLB) fans online happy every week.
Cartoonist Choi Hoon posts his 'MLB Cartoon' series on the Korean Web portal site Naver about twice a week and every piece easily draws more than 100,000 clicks within a week.
He's easily one of the most popular cartoonists around theses days but he says he never expected such an enthusiastic response when he started the series.
``(I'm surprised) since most baseball fans here focus on the domestic league, and most contents of the series are somewhat for advanced MLB fans, who have a better-than-average knowledge on it,'' he said. ``I feel lucky with the MLB Cartoon. I can do whatever I want and unleash it online and many people support me for that.''
The 32-year-old studied drawing comics in Japan for several years from 1998. After returning to South Korea, he started to publish 'Hadaeri (Manager Ha)' in the Daily Sports in July 2002. This drama centered around a group of office workers is still being published and most comics fans still recognize Choi as its author.
So then, how did he get to his start with the MLB series?
``I love baseball,'' he said, and left it at that.
Since first encountering MLB in the late 80's on the American Forces Korean Network (AFKN) TV channel, his love for the sport grew bit by bit and now he's a loyal baseball fan.
``I used to be an Oakland Athletics fan back then, when big names like Jose Canseco, Ricky Henderson and Mark McGwire were playing, though I had to look up a dictionary since I didn't know what 'athletics' meant,'' Choi explained. ``Now my favorites are the Minnesota Twins in the MLB and the LG Twins in the Korea Baseball Organization.
``I've always wanted to take a chance and publish a baseball cartoon but couldn't find any place. Then I got this opportunity.''
Originally starting off small on an MLB fan site, the series unexpectedly became popular and that encouraged him. Choi then sent work samples to Naver and now he's at the center of a lot of attention.
One of the reasons people like his work is his deliberate description. He depicts the characteristics of famous players with amazingly accurate detail, from their habits at the plate or on the mound to even the angles of the pitchers' arms and stances of the hitters' feet.
``(It takes) more than three hours and with more figures appearing, it can take a whole day just to gather all the information needed for an episode,'' Choi said. ``These days I seriously lack time but I can't care any less, since readers have keen and sharp eyes so they never miss a single mistake coming from not preparing properly.''
So far he's posted over 20 episodes and confesses he had a special feeling while drawing one in particular. It is also one of the most controversial ones, getting more than 400 comments on the page. In the piece about one pitcher, he says, ``As Koreans, at least, I feel we all have a kind of debt to support and trust him to the end, whatever results he makes.''
``Unlike other cartoons, I put my genuine feelings in the Park Chan-ho episode,'' Choi said. Usually he tries to keep his emotions out of his works and focuses strictly on making them witty and comfortable to read. But not in this case.
``When I was having a tough time in Japan studying, watching Park pitch on TV really encouraged me and gave me strength,'' he said. ``I regret that he's not welcomed by his homeland fans these days like he used to be, just because he's in a slump.
``I can't really understand those who post insults and various attacks on the Internet about him,'' Choi continued. ``They say it's just fair criticism but to me it's just being a menace. In the end it's just distorted affection and attention."
Choi says that he was originally drawn to the sport because of its complexities.
``Baseball is the best sport of all,'' he said. ``It has the most organized and systematic rules, and its diverse tactics offer spectators ample room to think and imagine. Another attraction is that all the positions have particular characters and roles.''
Choi hopes to expand his coverage to the NBA as well as domestic pro sports leagues but baseball remains his No. 1. A baseball game broken up into innings, just like the squares on a page of comic strips. As a lover of sports and a comic artist, it may naturally follow that he inevitably loves baseball.
| 
