Kim Dong Hwa

Name (in native language): 김동화

Kim Dong-Hwa is a widely revered Korean comic artist. Since his debut (with My Sky, serialized in the Daily Hanguk, one of the most prestigious Korean newspapers) in 1975, he has become a mainstay of the Korean manhwa (comics) landscape. He is best known for his tender stories and uncanny ability to write from a profoundly feminine perspective.

The three books that make up The Color Trilogy – The Color of Earth, The Color of Water, and The Color of Heaven – are his first manhwa to be translated into English and published in the United States.

“Since I was very young, I’ve been interested in writing and drawing stories about girls growing up, both mentally and physically. I think that the process of a girl becoming a woman is one of the biggest mysteries and wonders of life. And when my mother was sleeping in her sickbed, I looked down her wrinkled face and suddenly realized that she must had been young and beautiful once. Then I started imagining her childhood. What would she have looked like in her 60s, 50s, 40s, and so on? Ehwa, the protagonist of The Color Trilogy, is the result of my tracing back to my mother’s youth.”