Cho Pyŏng-Kwon (Story) / Im Wal-Yong (Art)

The Great General Mighty Wing (1994)
Published in 1994 by Gold Star Children’s Press 

The Great General Mighty Wing encapsulates many of the realities of contemporary North Korean society. In a pattern common to much socialist art, it glorifies the state through images of workers, bountiful food resources and a beautiful homeland. The primary storyline follows a conflict between anthropomorphic honeybees and wasps over control of the Garden of a Thousand Flowers, which is the source of all the honeybees’ food. The Garden of a Thousand Flowers represents the socialist ideal of a workers’ paradise. The workers in this metaphor are represented by the honeybees, which (in another pattern common to socialist art) are always depicted in a state of activity that conveys visual motion. The main character, Mighty Wing, is a highly symbolic and ideological figure.He looks similar to Japan's Atom (Astro Boy) and South Korea's Chumŏk Taejang (Fist Boss). He is a collectivist, social insect and is loyal to the queen bee. Interestingly, in The Great General Mighty Wing, North Korea’s traditional patriarchy has been recast as a matriarchy: the queen bee represents North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.  Mighty Wing’s loyalty to the hive leadership has a transparently political purpose. The Great General Mighty Wing was published in 1994, shortly after North Korea’s leader of 46 years, Kim Il Sung, died of heart attack and his son, Kim Jong-Il had ascended to complete power. In stressing the loyalty of the honeybees, the comic was aiming to reinforce its readers’ attachment to North Korea’s leadership during a period of political change. Throughout its dramatically drawn frames, The Great General Mighty Wing expresses the underlying values of North Korean society. Every page includes a socialist axiom, such as: “To win happiness one must first endure suffering and overcome hardship,” or “A hundred allies are not enough and even one enemy is too much.” In its time, The Great General Mighty Wing was one of the most powerful advertisements for North Korea’s particular brand of communism.