Chapter 42 – Understanding Comic Direction (2)
Scratch scratch!
“Here, let’s change the order of these cuts.”
“Oh, that would be better!”
Inside the classroom, the kids are having a fairly serious discussion with earnest expressions.
Some groups are chatting excitedly among themselves in a warm, cheerful atmosphere.
“Hmmmmm… What if we think of ‘hero’ in a slightly different way here? It doesn’t have to be the genre sense of a hero—it could be interpreted as the hero of our everyday lives.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I was talking about the ‘hero and villain’ as genre archetypes.”
“Ah…”
In some groups, when they completely miss the point and veer off in a strange direction, Choi Jung-an steps in to gently steer them back on track.
Meanwhile, in Group 5, where Kang Min-hyuk belongs…
“Okay, ten minutes are up, so let’s share. Shall we start with you, Shin Min-ah?”
“Uh… Me first?”
When Min-hyuk points at one side with his palm, a female student hesitates while looking at her notebook.
It seems she feels burdened about going first.
“Take it easy. It can be short.”
“Um… The hero is a character who doesn’t want to be a hero. And then… in the middle, the villain sees a cat? Or a dog? Anyway, some kind of animal, and catches a glimpse of their other side, you know? What if they fall in love because of that part?”
“Hmm, that’s pretty good. It seems like something people could easily relate to.”
“R-really?”
The other kids nod as if they agree with Min-hyuk’s comment.
“Heh heh, ‘There is no villain among people who love animals’… or something like that.”
Dong-gyo mutters while adjusting his glasses; it’s a tiny bit annoying, but… whatever, moving on.
“Then let’s hear from the next person.”
“Um, I thought of two characters who went through the same terrorist incident in the past. Depending on whether someone held their hand back then or not, their futures diverge completely—that kind of character contrast.”
“Hmm, yeah… Even if people experience the same event, what happens afterward and how they grow can make them turn out completely different.”
“Ooh, that sounds cool!”
As the discussion flows, everyone starts to loosen up and naturally begins sharing their ideas.
Min-hyuk listens seriously while jotting notes in his notebook.
‘As expected, they basically know where the key point should be.’
The details and ideas are a bit simplistic and fleeting, which is a shame, but there are still flashes of brilliance and each person clearly has something they personally like.
If Min-hyuk thinks back to when he was a first-year high school student, even reaching this level would have felt completely out of reach for him.
The problem is… the guy sitting here right now is thirty-five.
“Then I’ll go this time. I was thinking about how to maximize the direction within the hero-and-villain concept itself.”
“Hm?”
While everyone tilts their heads in slight confusion, Min-hyuk continues smoothly.
“First, I want the hero’s overall design to be in white tones, and the villain—from design to background—in black tones. And using that contrast as the core concept… I want to show the process of these two characters changing from hatred to love.”
“From hatred to love?”
They say hatred and love are only a sheet of paper apart.
Or that intense hatred and intense love aren’t actually that different.
It’s a phrase everyone has heard somewhere, but no one has a clear concrete flow in mind yet.
So Min-hyuk continues.
“I want to explore the duality—or the two-sided nature—of hero and villain.”
“Duality?”
“Yeah. Both the hero and the villain possess equally powerful strength, right? But why do these two end up so different? …I want to delve into that.”
The setting: two beings standing at opposite extremes—hero and villain—who actually started from the same place, yet arrived at completely opposite destinations.
If we set that as black and white, and invert the imagery…
There would be so much room to play with direction.
“For example, the first page starts with both characters in the same panel. But then the page splits top and bottom, showing them walking completely different paths. Starting from gray, the top gradually becomes whiter, the bottom gradually becomes blacker.”
A page divided vertically into top and bottom, showing two opposing sides.
Normally, this kind of layout disrupts the usual reading flow and can reduce reader concentration…
But in a short one-shot comic, that drawback is somewhat offset.
Overall, there’s a ton of room to experiment with direction, making it a perfect fit for this comic direction class.
“That’s actually really good. I can already picture the vibe.”
“It’d feel fresh, right?”
Everyone’s eyes sparkle with interest.
It’s clear they already like this idea the most.
For Min-hyuk as well, with this concept and material, he feels he can unleash his directing skills without holding anything back.
But at that moment.
“Hmmmmmm…”
“What’s up?”
“Nothing. It’s my turn to present now, right?”
“Yeah.”
Oh Dong-gyo remains strangely silent for a while.
When Min-hyuk asks again, he waves his hand dismissively and starts his presentation.
“I interpreted this theme as ‘boy meets girl.’”
“…Huh?”
“Hero and villain romance. One side is the beautiful girl, and the other is the protagonist. Ahem! The basic setup is that the beautiful villain girl knows the hero’s true identity and has a crush on him! Because she’s a mid-level executive in the evil organization, she has her pride to maintain, so she hides her feelings while constantly causing incidents just to meet the hero… How’s that concept?”
“…….”
For a moment, everyone’s eyes widen in shock.
Min-hyuk quietly lifts the corner of his mouth.
‘This could actually be fun. And it’s pretty typical of him, too.’
It seems he wanted to preserve the tone of a sincere, male-oriented love comedy.
No wonder he’s not just any participant—his idea feels noticeably more fleshed-out and concrete than the others’.
Min-hyuk strokes his chin and asks further.
“Do you have any specific direction in mind for the comic directing?”
“Of course! Since it’s boy meets girl, we have to focus on the heart-pounding moments between the two characters and the villain-chan— I mean, the villain character’s emotional line when she looks at the hero!”
Dong-gyo excitedly rambles on.
However… the girls’ faces take on subtle, unreadable expressions.
‘They’re clearly not relating to this at all.’
Everyone’s probably thinking something similar.
Dong-gyo’s story is pretty entertaining, but… how should he put it… it feels way too honest about the author’s own desires.
“Anyway, that’s my take. Done!”
Dong-gyo finishes by raising his hand like a blade.
Min-hyuk asks.
“Then shall we vote?”
“Hmm… I think we should go with Kang Min-hyuk’s.”
“Same here. The directing direction feels solid, and it seems like the one that’ll produce the most convincing result.”
“Yeah.”
In an instant, the mood completely swings toward Min-hyuk.
“Well, I don’t have any particular reason to oppose it.”
Even Dong-gyo looks a bit dissatisfied but seems to accept it.
But sensing that faint awkwardness, Min-hyuk throws out a question.
“Do you have anything else you want to say?”
“…Ahem, not exactly.”
“Go ahead and say it. Anything’s fine.”
Dong-gyo hesitates, lips twitching, before speaking in a surprisingly serious tone.
“First, please keep in mind that this isn’t because I dislike your idea, Min-hyuk-kun.”
“Okay.”
“…The directing direction is good, the freshness of the concept is good, everything’s good… But the thing is, I… I…”
“You?”
“I want to see a beautiful-girl villain.”
“…….”
For a split second, bewildered expressions appear on the kids’ faces.
“Then we’re going with Kang Min-hyuk’s, right?”
“Let’s get started.”
“Heyyyy! Are you all just ignoring me?!”
The kids in Group 5 quickly flash smiles and stamp the decision as final.
But just as they’re about to start working—
“…Hmm.”
Min-hyuk suddenly stops his hand and seems to be thinking about something.
‘Beautiful-girl villain, huh…’
Dong-gyo’s offhand remark.
As Min-hyuk quietly chews on those words, he closes his eyes tightly for a moment, then opens them and speaks.
“Um, sorry everyone, but… what if we go with Dong-gyo’s idea for this piece instead?”
“Huh?”
“S-Suddenly?”
The unexpected statement leaves everyone wide-eyed.
“I think Dong-gyo’s idea would actually be more fun than mine.”
“F-Fun?”
“Yeah. Mine presented a conceptual direction and a flow for the directing, sure… but saying this makes me feel a bit embarrassed, but I don’t think it would actually be that entertaining.”
“Um…”
While Min-hyuk speaks,
‘As expected, he’s sharp.’
At the teacher’s desk, Choi Jung-an subtly lifts the corner of her mouth in an almost invisible smile.
At that moment, Min-hyuk continues with even more conviction in his voice.
“Having a clear intention behind the directing is a good thing in itself. But what I came up with feels… kind of backwards. It’s like I’m not using directing to showcase the fun that the work itself should have—instead, it feels like I’m forcing an idea just to show off the directing.”
“But isn’t that basically what this class is about?”
“We’re agonizing over it precisely because we’re studying directing.”
“Well, I might be overthinking it, but I feel like the more accurate direction would be ‘studying comic direction in order to make an entertaining comic.’ What do you think, Dong-gyo?”
“As expected of Min-hyuk-kun…! You’ve finally awakened to the charm of a beautiful-girl villain too!”
“No, that’s not it. Anyway, I think basing the piece on your idea would make the work more fun for us to create, and it would also be better for studying comic direction. What do you guys think?”
“Hmm, yeah… I do think that one would be easier to get into.”
“Well then, let’s go with that.”
Only then did the others nod as if they finally understood.
“W-Wait, we’re really going with beautiful-girl villain?”
“Should we… just drop the beautiful-girl part?”
“Hey, no way! Absolutely not!”
When Min-hyuk shot back like that, the kids in Group 5 let out small laughs.
***
After that, the Comic Creation Department’s “Understanding Comic Direction” class continued.
What was interesting was that even though everyone was in the same classroom, the atmosphere in each group was completely different.
“How about this line: ‘Love… what even is that?’”
“C-Cute!”
The group with Kim Rok-hee kept letting out high-pitched squeals—kyaa kyaa!—and the mood was bright and cheerful.
On the other hand…
“How’s the directing in this part?”
“Um… some of the dialogue feels a bit too heavy. What if we shorten it?”
“For example?”
“I can’t say exactly, but… maybe use a slightly more metaphorical comparison when talking about love?”
“If you don’t have a concrete alternative, it’d be better not to say anything.”
“Ah… yeah, sorry.”
“Then I’ll reduce the text volume here and move on. Next, give me your opinion on this cut.”
Han Yu-ra’s group had an atmosphere like a boss dealing with subordinates—making it hard for the kids to speak up.
Overall, Han Yu-ra tightly controlled the flow of the storyboard, evaluating and filtering everyone’s ideas.
Her personality was close to perfectionist to begin with… and since everyone knew her actual skill level was far above theirs, they seemed too intimidated to really jump in.
And finally, Kang Min-hyuk’s Group 5…
“What if, right when the hero pins the villain down here, we use a long vertical cut right in the center? Then place each character’s face separately on either side.”
“Ooh, that’d have real impact.”
“If we fill one side with black ink, the contrast in imagery would be super clear. Nice!”
“Hooo… that’s actually a pretty good idea.”
They were exchanging opinions nonstop, constantly revising the storyboard.
In a way, it almost felt a little overheated.
But everyone was taking it quite seriously.
Then, when the clock pointed to 11:20—
Clap clap clap!
“Okay, that’s it for now! One person from each group, come up and submit your storyboard!”
Choi Jung-an clapped her hands and smiled brightly.
“Aaaah… we were almost done…”
“It’s fine even if it’s not finished. Hurry up.”
Sighs and reluctant groans echoed from various places as the kids handed in their storyboards with visible disappointment.
“Alright then, let’s take a look starting with Group 1’s storyboard.”
Choi Jung-an projected the A4 storyboard sheets large onto the whiteboard using the enlargement projector she had prepared.
As she flipped through page by page—
“C-Cute!”
“Wow… look at the character details.”
Admiring voices began to leak out from all over the room.
“Hehehe…”
Kim Rok-hee and the kids in her group had confident grins spreading across their faces.
Of course…
‘Uh, well… in a certain sense, it really is an impressive storyboard.’
While watching, a subtly complicated expression appeared on Kang Min-hyuk’s face.