At first there was “Lake,” and then there was “Island.” Or was it the other way around? A story told in two parts, it is up to the reader to determine where they'd like to begin this eerie journey. Based on a true story that Yeong-shin Ma felt compelled to help share, together these two parts are Hodo—the story of a painter, whose hard and dark past is brought to life with sensitivity and authenticity.

Lake— Hodo is haunted—by her mother and step-mother, her classmates, a neighbor, and yes, literal ghosts. She is also five years old. Through masterful cartooning, we see a child's despair in the face of pervasive violence, and her confusion as to why bad things keep happening to her. We see the edges of her depression begin to appear.

Island— Hodo is haunted—by her past, a friend's suicide, her sister's heartbreaking yet unsurprising betrayal, and yes, literal ghosts, still. Through masterful cartooning, we see a woman reckoning with her past and the shadow it has cast on her adulthood. But we also see her develop her artistic practice and witness her determination to find herself through her paintbrush. Because despite the incredible pain, Hodo is a story of light in the dark—a story of hope. . . .

HODO: A Life In Two Acts has a story and art by Yeong-Shin Ma. Translated by Janet Hong. Lettering by Jillian Tamaki. Published by Drawn & Quarterly (September 15, 2026). Rated M.

Content Warning: sexual assault, domestic abuse, bullying, victim blaming, suicide

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

You need to be sure you're in the right headspace for Hodo. Over the course of the years in the title character's life, she is raped, assaulted, and abused. She tries to commit suicide. She struggles to overcome her own worst impulses and to learn to stand up for herself. Whether she succeeds in those last two is left up to the reader's interpretation – she does appear to find some solace in her art and in her relationship with Hajin-oppa, but it feels all too temporary. It's not an easy book, and I wouldn't give it a blanket recommendation despite the extraordinary skill it is written with.

Hodo is a bit of an oddity these days in terms of English translations of manhwa. While there are exceptions, such as Fantagraphics' editions of Yudori's works or pretty much any manhwa Drawn & Quarterly releases, most Korean comics that come over are glossy webtoons. Many of those are great, but they don't showcase the depth of Korea's comics culture, often feeling more commercial in nature. Hodo is literary fiction, with ghosts as the only remotely supernatural element. It follows a woman from her early childhood through the moment when she feels like she may be making progress in her career, and it's told in two separate stories: “Island” and “Lake.” (“Hodo” means “island in the lake,” she tells us.) You can start at either end of the book, with her childhood or her adulthood, and both provide a slightly different view of her life in terms of nature vs nurture. I preferred starting with “Lake,” the childhood section, but either really is a valid choice.

Hodo's childhood is a series of abuses that inform her view of the world. Abused by almost every adult she ought to have been able to trust, bullied in school, and sexually abused by men and boys from childhood, Hodo retreats inside herself, unable to trust that she can make good decisions – or, as “Island” shares, that others can do the same. One of the major events of “Island” is the fact that her sister refuses to break up with her boyfriend even though he raped Hodo, and their mother even blames Hodo for her own assault. The only person who is unequivocably there for her is Oppa, who begins as a passing teacher at her art cram school and ends up as the one person she can trust in adulthood.

The art here is deceptively simple. Nothing is explicitly shown, but implication is handled masterfully, and we can see years passing on Hodo's face and body even without being told. It's not a long book, but it feels very much so, and it deserves time and thought while reading. If you can handle it, it is more than worth it.