Kim Young-Oh

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Kim Young-Oh at the Japan Expo, 2007, Paris

Kim Young-Oh (family name in kanji: 영오. Given name in kanji: 김.) (b. April 19, 1976) is a South Korean manhwa (Korean action comics) writer and illustrator in the manga style.^[1]

1 Works
- 1.1 Current project
2 Banya
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Works

His first work (with Jeon Sang-Young (전상영) writer) was the High School (발작 Bal Jack) a 12 volumes action, comedy and shounen manhwa.

Kim is responsible for creating the Banya stories of Banya: The Explosive Delivery Man (폭주배달부 반야, Pok Ju Baedal Bu Banya) of which there are five volumes. Originally highly successful in South Korea, they tell of the adventures of Banya, a speedy, wild and savvy teen-age hero working for the Gaya Desert Post Office with its motto "Fast. Precise. Secure." with all the romance of the unstoppable pony express of the American wild west.

He began the stories in 2004, and Dark Horse Comics in the U.S.A. published the first volume in September 2006 with the next four volumes of Banya, in just over a year.

[edit] Current project

Kim is now working on Ear (귀 (鬼) Gwi (Gui)) with Oh Rae Balg Eum (오래밝음) as writer which started in 2006 and is ongoing. This is a seinen fantasy manhwa. The chapters are published in The Booking anthology, a bi-weekly shounen anthology, published by Haksan with a lot of manhwa and a few Japanese manga (including Fullmetal Alchemist (FMA) and Vagabond).^[2] On the Booking cover, "Ear" is in the center. As of June 2008, three volumes have been published.

[edit] Banya

Main article: Banya: The Explosive Delivery Man

The comics are in English, translated by the mother and son team of Taesoon Kang and Derek Kirk Kim and lettered by Steve Outro. They became very successful in Korea in 2006. The comics feature a short note from the author as Kim includes a heartfelt dedication to his own mother for her "selfless sacrifices" to him throughout her lifetime.^[3]

Volume 1

Banya agrees to complete a wounded soldier's mission to transport a parcel of great importance. (September 2006)

Volume 2

Young Kong, Banya's offsider, is entrusted with a delivery of great importance, and Banya schemes to free Mei from her captors, setting monsters against each other. Transporting a rare artifact or reuniting a mother with her long-lost son, Banya speeds through war-torn deserts and mysterious forests, relying on flexibility, daring and wits to complete his missions.(January 2007)

Volume 3

The delivery crew find themselves in the middle of a mysterious dispute at the heart of a sacred temple - trapped between devout warrior-priests and the vicious, ruthless Torren. (April 2007)

Volume 4

Banya is enraged and frustrated by the events of the last volume. The desert deliverymen are in serious danger in a desert on the brink of an outbreak of violence, as Banya fights off more monsters. (June 2007)

Volume 5

Banya delivers his most important "package" - the powerful summoner Jiahn - to the "Land of Death". Jiahn must reach her destination before an extraordinary evil is unleashed upon Gaya, but is opposed by a vicious pack of warriors and monsters, led by the villain Kamutu. Banya has lost his memory and the tension lies in what he will choose when he regains it: to join Kamutu or return to his friends at the Gaya Desert Post Office.^[4] (September 2007)