• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.30
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• pp.139-168
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• 2013

This article aims to explain the significance and value of cartoons in the 1910s which were largely passed unnoticed in the preceding cartoon studies by scrutinizing cartoons published in Maeilsinbo in the 1910s. Until now, Korean cartoons in the 1910s has been neglected just because it were published in Maeilsinbo. However, this writing analyzed cartoons in this period on the base of the fact that the cartoons in the 1910s printed in Maeilsinbo diversified the horizon of the Korean cartoon. Cartoons in Maeilsinbo functioned as a bridge connecting cartoons published in Daehanminbo in 1909 reputed as a root of Korean cartoon and 1920s, the time when satirical cartoons and comics started being printed in newspapers. The characteristics of Maeilsinbo as a bulletin of government general and periodical characteristics that the agent of popular culture begun to move reside as multi layers in the cartoons in the 1910s. In this article, the process and the development of how cartoons published in Maeilsinbo. As pleasure became important in everyday life in Korea, cartoons were able to earn a portion in the newspaper. In the beginning, modern cartoon style seemed vague, but as time goes by, its own style gradually settled. Cartoons in this period were not fixed in specific section but various kinds of cartoons were developed during the time since works of Korean as well as Japanese cartoonists and illustrators were published. Among them, representative cartoons in Maeilsinbo were analyzed in this article under three categories: first, cartoons represented 'Choseon-ness' through scenes of daily life and customs concurrently contained a view of anti-civilization/enlightenment; second, cartoons represented the accumulation of wealth as valid from the view point of public interest; last, cartoons divided Koreans who suffered from hardships of life in Kyungsung and Japanese in Jingogae in order to divide space. In conclusion, Maeilsinbo disciplined the colonized, Koreans, and exposed the discourse of the colonial power via cartoon.