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| ▲ This photo, provided by the authors, shows the illustrated versions of authors Kang and Taekyung. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This photo, provided by Kakao Entertainment, shows the cover image of webtoon 'Sacred, Divorce.' (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ These photos, provided by JTBC, show Cho Seung-woo in scenes from JTBC's 'Divorce Attorney Shin.' (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL, Mar. 7 (Yonhap) -- “Divorce is a decision that is as major as marriage. I wanted to deliver the message that no one should badmouth those who make such a major decision and titled my work ‘Sacred, Divorce.’”
During an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Monday, Kang and Taekyung, who wrote and drew the webtoon “Sacred, Divorce” carefully explained why they decided to give their work the title composed of two words that may seem unfitting at first glance.
Their webtoon “Sacred, Divorce” follows the story of Shin Sung-han, a humane divorce lawyer who is also an empath, working on intense divorce cases and passionately fighting on behalf of his clients.
It may seem like a single cartoonist was in charge of both writing and drawing this webtoon, but it was Kang who was in charge of writing the scenario and Taekyung who worked on the illustrations.
“We wanted to dig deeper into this issue and talk about it through our work rather than as two individual artists,” the two cartoonists said. “It was Kang who wrote the scenario and Taekyung who drew his scenarios but we chose our pen name to look like one cartoonist so that it can stick to the readers.”
Their webtoon starkly stands out from all the previous works that this duo worked on, which were mostly crime or action thrillers.
Looking back, cartoonist Taekyung said, “It was quite challenging to change my illustration styles. If you refer to our previous works such as ‘Robber’ and ‘Them,’ all you see are monsters, blood, and soaked squad,” adding that adapting to a new modern and chic painting style with a good-looking lawyer as the protagonist was undeniably difficult.
However, the cartoonist also said, “But we certainly made some remarkable progress, and I was able to further expand my field of drawing,” explaining, “I think it was an essential process that we had to endure for the sake of our work and also for myself as an artist.”
Writer Kang explained, “It was also very demanding to come up with a new divorce case for each episode, and it took a lot of thought as those cases yet had to revolve around our main protagonist Shin Sung-han.”
The cartoonists also had to incessantly ask for legal advice and in-depth coverage as their webtoon dealt with a specialized field.
The two cartoonists said, “Our interview with the owner of the detective agency was definitely one that stood out,” adding, “We were able to set Park Kyung-sun, one of our characters who also runs a detective agency, as a middle-aged woman based on the advice that middle-aged woman will be able to blend in easily here and there.”
Nevertheless, the duo’s webtoon does not only illustrate a whirlwind of challenging divorce cases: The main protagonist Shin, who grew up in a divorced family himself, thirsts for revenge against his mother. How Shin proves that revenge is the best dish served cold is also another main plotline of the webtoon.
While acknowledging that webtoons that are serialized by actual lawyers, who have more materials to refer to, may be richer and more diverse in the divorce cases that they illustrate, the duo said that they tried to differentiate their work by unraveling background stories and messages.
The cartoonists even hand-picked Lee Mi-sook, Shin’s mother and the villain, as the most attractive character.
“Lee Mi-sook is a character full of self-love who is also intelligent and cold-hearted,” they explained. “We adore her character as she is mentally healthy as she knows how to love herself, and she uses that healthy mindset to harm others.”
The duo also shared their high expectations for JTBC’s now-airing television series “Divorce Attorney Shin,” which is based on their webtoon.
The webtoon was adapted into a Saturday-Sunday television series starring veteran actor Cho Seung-woo. It kicked off last Saturday with a relatively high average nationwide rating of 7.3%.
“We portrayed Shin as a slightly twisted, emotionless lawyer, and we really liked to watch him appearing with different personalities. There are many changes that have been made compared to our webtoon, but we actually feel like those changes have taught us new ways to bring excitement and zest to the storylines. We drew many funny but sad scenes, so we are looking forward to how those scenes will be adapted into motion pictures.”
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Ha eun Lee)
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