Ad slogans and product descriptions awkwardly translated from Korean to English. Sketches from 2001-2002.
I’m going to assume that “pudae zzigae” is a variant spelling of the stew more commonly romanized as budae jjigae; and that this product was a powdered, just-add-water version of said stew. I can’t find any evidence of it ever existing, but I’m sure it did, and it was probably pretty okay.
The artist on this one is a mystery to me. If you have any ideas, let me know.
by John Boissy
Art from Ypsilanti, MI-based cartoonist and graphic designer John Boissy. I like how his characters appear on the lunchbox.
Whatever happened to Good Morning Chicken? Was the brand discontinued? Did true love last? I have no idea.
by Pam Bliss
Pam Bliss writes: “The fairy seems to have stolen her outfit from the actual woodsman, so she probably doesn’t have a leg to stand on ethically.”
Pam (who posts her own sketchbook drawings here) also stated that she has no recollection of drawing this. It’s fun to hear artists’ interpretations of things they don’t remember drawing.
Personally, I don’t think this is a picture of a fairy in woodman’s clothing. It’s actually a half-fairy/half-woodman creature, who had an unfortunate encounter with an identical looking, sticky-fingered frozen confection (made by Haitai, of course).
But if the anterior part is the fairy, wouldn’t it take the wand, not the axe?
To further muddy the waters, there’s the snack food’s namesake — this Korean folk tale — in which the woodman steals the fairy’s clothes*.
by Jerry Dombrowski
With this one, you get to see the top part of the sketchbook page where I had handwritten the quote for the artist to draw. I usually crop that part out before I post these, but I didn’t want to lose any part of Jerry Dombrowski’s work. Jerry’s my one-time neighbor who used to do a comic called Hamtramck Funnies. He’s still around and, as far as I know, still drawing.
For another take on beautiful women and their scents, here’s a video montage of Acacia gum wrapper art, set to their mellow radio jingle.
Also, a European ad which touts Haitai as “thoroughly un-American gum.” It’s not Acacia gum, but it still seems appropriate for this post.
by Jenny Gonzalez-Blitz
Jenny DevilDoll Gonzalez-Blitz writes: What was I overmedicated on when I came up with this?!?
Jenny’s just as active as ever. Check out her blog for her comics, paintings, performances, rants and rats.
Frank Cho was the target of much ridicule in the small press comics community following his contentious role in the 1999 Ignatz Awards. I think he made some dismissive comments about minicomics as well? Maybe? I don’t remember exactly, but it sure seemed important to us at the time.
Matdongsan is Haitai’s most popular product, or at least its best known. It made The Korea Blog’s listicle of Top 10 Korean Snacks, at any rate. Someone must have taken another stab at translating the above quote, because Haitai’s website now claims “The people have endlessly loved Matdongsan for over 28 years.”  According to this article, it’s been around since 1975 — better tack on another decade of love to that figure.