Artist by Yeong-shin Ma Review

Three struggling Korean artists - a writer, a painter and a musician - in their 40s eventually make it big on the art scene but success changes them.

Doesn’t sound like a terribly substantive story, does it? And yet this book is well over 600 pages long! Not that it’s difficult to read - Yeong-shin Ma’s comic is accessible and the pages flow well - but it didn’t need to be anywhere near this long, particularly as it seems to tell the same story three times over, and it wasn’t that impressive a story the first time.

The story and its message is unoriginal - fame and fortune changes people, especially if those people are complete cretins to begin with, which two of the three main characters are. The musician and painter both take advantage of their fame and power by having multiple affairs, sexually harassing subordinates, and generally behaving like pigs.

The writer character - who’s drawn with a massive head deformity that I couldn’t tell was a stylistic choice or was meant to be an actual deformity - is just conceited and dull, rather than an out-and-out prick. Basically none of the main characters are much fun to spend time with.

The first act is kinda interesting in its depiction of the realities of being a professional artist and I was curious to see how their stories developed, but it gets very repetitive after a while with very little happening. Once they all make it, their horrible personalities are amplified until the book ends.

Maybe it’s a critique of the Korean art scene, maybe it’s not? Either way, it’s not impactful. Artist simply isn’t very entertaining, memorable or has any kind of deep or thoughtful insight. A bloated bore of a comic.