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When you are the tourist instead...

By Anonymous

This past year, there was a media storm around the news about North Korea and what was happening in the country. Even though not many have been to the country itself, many Americans believe that they know what life is like in North Korea. That one statement is a lie as many Americans do not understand how people live in North Korea, but one graphic journalist did. In his graphic journalism, Guy Delisle created Pyongyang: A Journey into North Korea and it was about his personal experience in the country where many do not have freedoms like Americans.

In this comic, it gives a perspective of life in a restricted type of country to many who will most likely never experience in their life. Out of all the countries in the world, North Korea is the country that is the most known to not let the outside world into their world as everything is different, even the time and year are different over there as they are basing their culture and government around their leaders. In Pyongyang, the readers are given a visual perspective of how life in the country is like to someone who is a foreigner and how restricted tourists are in the country. On page seven of the comic, Delisle has text boxes that tell readers what is allowed in the country and what is not allowed in the country such as cellphones that are taken at the airport and returned once they are leaving the country (2004). 


Drawn and Quarterly. Pyongyang. 2004. Print. 


Many Americans already know that they are limited on the media in North Korea, but what some don’t know is that when visiting, you must turn in any form of western media such as cellphones and radios such as Delisle forgot to declare on page 38 (2004). The reason for it is because the media is controlled in North Korea to where they could only listen to North Korean media or watch North Korean news. Tourists are also restricted to what they could do such as where they could go, and they must always have their guide with them to be escorted to limited locations that they can visit. There are also limited on where they could stay as Delisle mention on page twenty how there are only three hotels they could stay at as well as how they are limited to one floor of the hotel itself (2004). 


Drawn and Quarterly. Pyongyang. 2004. Print. 


While there are more things that could be talked about such as the limited resources in the country and how they are always having to praise their government leader and have pictures of them everywhere. This comic alone gives the readers a perspective into a country that they will never visit in their life or have only seen in the media. By mentioning how western media portray the country, most of the time, the videos that they show are also only limited to the areas that the government allows them to film and not to the whole country itself.

Scott McCloud talks about the connection between words and pictures in his book Understanding Comics. At the beginning of the chapter, it gives a history of how it first started out with words not really interacting with the pictures and then how they were slowly combining the words to interact with the pictures. On page 152 of his book, McCloud stated how “A huge range of human experiences can be portrayed in comics through either words or pictures” (2015). This quote could be said to directly relate to Guy Delisle comic as it talks about his experience as working in a country like North Korea, a way of comic journalism. But how is that considered journalism? Well, let’s focus on the comic style and how it could be considered a way of journalism. Unlike how someone might think comics are, in Pyongyang, the style is simple with no distraction anywhere. So rather having big detailed backgrounds or characters, Delisle decided to use the background scarcely and made the characters with simple details. Another way that we are able to gain knowledge about North Korea would be from those who have escaped the country and survived. 


Drawn and Quarterly. Pyongyang. 2004. Print. 


He did this simple style to show what he had an experience rather than making it seem too extra with very detailed backgrounds and too specific detailed characters. Now, this is also like something that McCloud talked about in his book, “Duo-Specific Panels” which basically meant that both words and pictures are used to “essentially send the same message” (2015, 153). Delisle used duo-specific panels for most of his comic to help show how his comic is more towards the genre of journalism rather than some basic comics.

Overall, Guy Delisle’s Pyongyang gives readers a perspective on how foreigners and tourists are treated in a country like North Korea. Unlike how Americans have freedom such as freedom of the press, life in North Korea is controlled as it is shown in the comic.



Works Cited
Delisle, Guy. Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea. Drawn and Quarterly, 2004.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. HarperCollins, 1993.

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