Lee Myung-jin

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Lee Myung-jin
이명진
Born (1974-04-12) April 12, 1974 (age 49)
NationalitySouth Korean
Area(s)Artist
Notable works
Ragnarok
Lee Myung-jin
Hangul
Revised RomanizationYi Myeongjin
McCune–ReischauerYi Myǒngjin

Lee Myung-jin (born 1974) is a South Korean manhwa author and artist.[1] His work Ragnarok was adapted into the game Ragnarok Online by Gravity Corp. This game was later turned into an anime.

History[edit]

Lee Myoung-Jin was born in South Korea in 1974 and graduated from Holy Child Catholic School, Seoul with a degree in Visual Design. In 1992 he began work on his first manhwa series, An Evening When Something Good is About To Happen (Korean: 어쩐지 좋은 일이 생길 것 같은 저녁), which ran for 4 years (nine volumes) and won him the distinguished Champ Super Manhwa award from Super Champ, South Korea's top manhwa publisher. In the Americas, the series was instead called Lights Out.

In August 1995 he put his artistic career on hold to serve his mandatory two years in the South Korean military. Upon his return, he formed his studio Dive to Dream Sea and began work on Ragnarok (for Boy Champ), one of the top-selling manhwa of all time.[citation needed] Expanding upon his epic fantasy, Myoung-Jin Lee has also become involved in the creation of Ragnarok Online, a game that takes the RPG analogies and rules of his manhwa series to the next level. With concepts taken from his own series, there are multiple players, worlds, and enemies to control, attack, and rule, with character designs and scenes somewhat reminiscent of Final Fantasy. The game is in its finished form and has been distributed in over 100 countries by Korean online game makers Gravity Corp.

In 2004 Ragnarok achieved a new milestone, becoming the first Korean manhwa to inspire a Japanese anime series. Based on the character designs and sensibilities of the online Game, Ragnarok the Animation was given a 26-episode series that was broadcast on TV Tokyo.

Lee's studio, Dive to Dream Sea, also created the 2-volume indie comics comedy manhwa Laya, the Witch of Red Pooh. Lee also produced a one volume manhwa named Genocide.

According to a article from 2010, Lee would sign a business contract with Choi Young-geun and Dreamers Entertainment for the publishing of a new comic to be titled Soul Grasper.[2]

Works[edit]

Name Year Notes Ref
Lights Out (manhwa) 1992 Serialized in Boy Champ in 1992
Genocider (manhwa) 1995 Three-part short story serialized in issues 27, 28, and 29 of Boys Champ in 1995 [3]
Ragnarok (manhwa) 1998 Serialized in Boy Champ
Ragnarok Online 2002 Artist
Soul Ark 2017 Korean webtoon serialized on KakaoPage

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Lee Myoung-Jin". Lambiek. Retrieved 21 June 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ "`라그나로크` 이명진 작가, 만화 `Soul Grasper`로 컴백". www.gamemeca.com (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  3. ^ "[만화] 제노사이더|"어쩐지 저녁" 이명진의 잊혀진 망작". 네이버 블로그 | The Urban Glade (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-03-21.