Customer Reviews

Same Difference & Other Stories

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I absolutely adore this beautiful, beautiful, beautiful book. I read his stuff before, via smallstoriesonline.com, but I'm girl who likes things in print. Anyway, I deeply dig the art, style, storytelling, humor and well, everything. My personal favorite, besides "Same Difference", has to be either "Hurdles" or "Valentine's Day", yet I love them all... His work truly moves me.

Derek Kirk Kim is one of the best comic book artists/writers/graphic novelists out there today. He's up there with Alex Robinson, Seth, and that group of select creators who are making quality books for people who are growing tired of some of the stale, stagnant writing in mainstream comics today. As much as I like Frank Miller, Bendis, and the other people working at Marvel and DC, the writing often seems uninspired. Derek Kirk Kim, on the other hand, clearly loves his work and this collection, which you can see on his website as well as buy cool wallets, is fantastic. He captures not just the Korean-American experience, but the mindset of what it's like to be young and finding yourself. He describes life in California so well (and draws it so well) and it's entertaining to watch characters comment on what it's like to grow up and move out of the neighborhood. The dialogue is great and captures that feeling that when you're talking with your friends, someone needs to write it all down because it's so entertaining. Kim already did. And illustrated it. I loved this book and I'm sure you will too.

Derek Kirk Kim is one of the very, very few uproariously talented cartoonists out there who's also a crack-shot writer. I'm a big comics fan, but my tastes err on the side of the artwork. Derek's book won me over for looks hands down. It's normally an added and rare bonus when good writing accompanies the art that makes me buy a book. Derek's book bore such a bonus. Even more rare is the occurrence of top notch art and quality writing coming from the same creator. Derek must have a small star where his brain ought to be. To be as talented as he is to be literally celestial. To produce such grounded, human subject matter that rings true and promises to outlive fad culture is also super(above)normal. The Xeric grant and the coveted Eisner award could not have been given to a more worthy creator. With or without that prestige, Derek's work deserves your attention. BUY HIS BOOK SO HE'LL WRITE MORE.

If it wasn't for this story, I'd probably still be ingorant of the world graphic novels. I had grown up reading comics, your typical Batman, X-men, etc fan, but never realized the world beyond muscle bound super heros. This is a great and amazing story. The characters pull you into their world and when you're done you wish there'd be more. I love this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good read

Derek Kirk Kim is a talented and powerful storyteller. The characters are people you either already know or would like to. His draftmanship is superb, he doesn't cut corners with the art. Every story is daring in its honesty and astute in its observation. I highly recommend this graphic novel.

Derek Kirk Kim is not only a pretty fantastic artist, but also a great writer as well. The bulk of the book is one story, "Same Difference." In the story we meet a group of friends discussing where they are in life and when one of them sees an old friend from High School, two of the friends set out on a journey back to home. Along the way they meet back up with old friends from High School and attempt to right a couple of wrongs. Strangely autobiographical, but brilliantly told and illustrated, Derek shows a brief glimpse of life with this story. Other stories included are often short, one or two pages, that seem to illustrate aspects of Derek's life. Sometimes amusing, sometimes a bit...graphic, but always insightful. Derek's artwork has matured over the years to where his current style, while stylized in some ways, accurately captures the many nuances of the human face.

This edition is out of print, but good news fans! They've got a new edition coming out this December (Same Difference).

Derek Kirk's work is a hallmark of the very best stuff that came from the webcomics era. At first you can be misguided to think it's too focused on the "american-korean blues", but Derek's work goes well beyond that - it sure has an autobiographical tone, but you become quickly involved with the environment.

This book is a unique opportunity to have it in print, and I recommend it as much as the online version.

Simon is a Korean-American who takes his friend Nancy back to his home town in search of a guy she's been secretly swapping love letters with although she's never met him. After learning the truth of who he really is, Nancy gets to nervous to approach him, plus Simon runs into his old schoolmate who had a crush on him, but he could never tell her how he felt about her because he was embarrassed of her being blind. This plus some really funny short comics from the Small Stories webcomic at smallstories.com. If your a fan of anime, or just funny romance comics, then this should make you laugh, and maybe even cry.