[Book Introduction]
「TLT(TIGER THE LONG TAIL)」, a business fable comic featuring anthropomorphized animals.
「TLT」 gets its name from the ‘long tail rule’, which in the world of business refers to the changes of a product’s demand curve.「TLT」 lampoons human society through anthropomorphized characters such as the long-tailed tiger, dragon, and cat, and the sharp and detailed viewpoints of the authors are clearly expressed.
This work is the result of collaboration between two titans of their fields. It is the first feature-length comic of artist Kim Jeong-gi, who has become a legendary “Godfather” of the comic work with his outstanding drawing and directing skills, and the story has been composed by none other than writer Park Seong-jin, a KAIST graduate who has polished his skills while penning hundreds of web martial art novels and webtoon comics. 「TLT」, published in Naver and quickly winning the hearts of over 600,000 readers, is an interesting and engaging business fable about a long-tailed tiger and animals that look like humans. This work is a remake of the original TLT (Tiger the Long Tail), which ran from 2008 to 2010 in Naver Webtoons at the peak of its popularity. The original format has been reborn as a storytoon, combining aspects of comics and novels, and produced as an electronic book.
[Publisher Review]: Interpark Books : Based on the Original TLT Webtooon
- A ‘professional comic’ takes on business
The title of the work [TLT] is short for ‘Tiger the Long Tail’. It gets its name from the ‘long tail rule’, which refers to the changes of a product’s demand curve, as seen in cases of Google, Amazon, and e-Bay. In other words, it means that a small number of big hit products bring forth profits considerable to hit products while wading through the obstacles of distribution in this age of digital product distribution. The lengthened demand curve is seen as the long tail. With a bit of imagination, the long tail rule can have a wide variety of applications. The thing that promoters noticed before anything else was the rule’s approach to leadership, one of the main points of business administration along with management. Leadership is talked about in dozens of ways, and even to this day new types of leadership are being advocated. Can the long tail be used by the new leadership? This work was created with the intent of creating a comic based on business in order to answer such questions.
3 students from Yonsei University School of Business (MBA) worked alongside the authors as planners and scripters. The potential of a ‘professional comic’ about business. That is the core piercing intent behind this work.
- Anthropomorphized with Overseas Advancement in Mind
The reason behind [TLT]’s animal characters is simple. It was intended to advance overseas since its beginning stages. The main character Taeho is a long tailed tiger. His strongest rival, a dragon, moves according to a gigantic power that represents China. The cat Natsume was created with Japan in mind. And Major, a pig whose personality undergoes a massive change, takes inspiration from George Orwell’s [Animal Farm].
These animal characters are ideal for advancing overseas without regards to nationality. Furthermore, they make suitable characters for a business fable that satirizes human society.
The personalities of the characters are based on what each animal symbolizes and citations from various literature references. As such, they are expected to naturally open up and become clearer to the reader as the reader becomes more accustomed to the book. It is true that the very first planning motif for the series was George Orwell’s [Animal Farm].
- Support from Korea Creative Content Agency as Advance ‘Planning’ Comic
Preparations for [TLT] began in early 2007, and it achieved the ‘2007 Planned Creative Comic Production Support Business’ from Korea Creative Content Agency. This shows just how much time went into making sure various aspects of [TLT] were at their peak, such as the solidity of the story and perfection of the art. Furthermore, the book was made not just by the writer and artist alone, but also divided the labor among specialists according to their fields, such as coloring, online editing, and offline editing. With these characteristic [TLT]’s storytelling professionalism is all but guaranteed, and the book is steadily proceeding with online publication (Naver), print, overseas advancement, and so on.
- Korea’s Greatest Master of the Pen ‘Kim Jeong-gi’ Meets Professional Storyteller ‘Park Seong-jin’
Cartoonist ‘Kim Jeon-gi’ is famed as an instructor in the art academies in front of Hongik University who provides lessons on how to pass entrance exams for the Department of Comics. Despite only unveiling a few shorts through his ‘Funny Funny’, which ran on [Young Jump], his excellent drawings have won him the hearts of many fans. Meanwhile, ‘Park Seong-jin’ is a major of electrical engineering from KAIST and a seasoned writer whose martial art works number in the hundreds. In particular, he managed Kim Se-young’s sub role during the 4th part of Heo Yeong-man and Kim Se-yeong’s [Tazza]. The meeting of these two titans has elevated [TLT] to the highest level possible.
- Rave Reviews from Netizens on Naver: Comments Flow from Young Adults in Their 20s and 30s
Somewhere along the way, most webtoons made the transition from telling patient and long stories to evoking laughter from their readers. As such, it comes as no surprise that most of the comments for the works tend to be from teenagers and that webtoon culture has shifted from sincerity to levity. However, while [TLT] ran in Naver, it drew out comments from readers in their 20s and 30s and is considered a webtoon nearly devoid of any malicious comments. It stands at a unique position among the works at Naver, and is making a name for itself as a sincere work through its comments section, which is strongly dominated by readers in their 20s and 30s.
[Translator’s Opinion by Jarod Guillette]
The role of a translator is not to just transcribe from one language into another. It is to be a filter through which the authors original intent is conveyed in a manner that can be understood by the receiving audience.
The role is even more complex when it is to make relevant something that is completely foreign to the intended audience, such as Korean business culture. Tiger the Long Tail (TLT) is a comic on the scale of “A Book of Five Rings.” It is a must read series for anyone who is interested in doing business with or in Korea. Though the characters are anthropomorphized animals, each one has a significant symbolism, both in the animal kingdom and also the harsh jungle of Korean corporate life.
-Jarod Guillette
[Introduction to the translation]
Korea and the United States have very different structures of corporate law. How a business is composed, who the people are and their respective titles sometimes have no direct relation in English. The hardest part about translating a comic book like this is having to maintain an economy of words when sometimes there are no words to economize in the other language. This translation focuses mostly on being as economical as possible while conveying as much as possible about Korean corporate structure and culture to an English-speaking audience. Lastly as it is a comic, with “ani-people” the use of onomatopoeia is relied heavily upon to imply certain actions, phenomena etc. What a sound sounds like though is always the same no matter what the culture, ears are ears and brains are brains, it is how those sounds are vocalized and understood in the larger cultural context that varies. So enjoy, I did my best to use as many standard comic onomatopoeia as possible and where there was none, I went with my gut. I hope all my days as an elementary school student spent reading Marvel and DC and Archie pays off.
-Jarod Guillette
[Artist Profile]
Kim Jeong-gi (Art)
Born 1975
Busan’s Dong-Eui University’s Department of Western Painting (Quit)
The artist is currently the dean of ‘Superani’ Art School, the main author of superani.com, and a lecturer at the Korean Nation University of Arts, the Korean Vocational College of Information and Technology, and Busan’s Silla University among others.
His brilliant art and directing skills make him well suited not just for comics but also film continuity, commercials, and more. His fame is not limited to Korea alone, and is in fact greater overseas.
He spares no expenses in his penmanship when anthropomorphizing the animals in the book, and his skills are worthy of being deemed unrivaled.
Published ‘Funny Funny’ (Young Jump) / KTF NA Magazine
Korea-Japan Comic Exchange Exhibition (2003)
Announced the short quarterly comic ‘Hike’ (2004)
'2007 sketch collection' (2007)
Published ‘2007 sketch collection’ (2007)
'2011 sketch collection' (2011)
Published ‘2011 sketch collection’ (2011)
'2013 sketch collection' (2013)
Published ‘2013 sketch collection’ (2013)
Worked on TV CFs for ‘GomTV’ and auction.co.kr, CFs for Korean Air, etc.
Bicof 2011 Bucheon International Comic festival Live Drawing
Live Drawing at the Bicof2011 (Bucheon International comics Festival)
Invited to China/France for Exhibit and Show
Invited to Malaysia for Exhibit and Show
Invited to Jakarta, Indonesia for Drawing Show
Kim Jeong-Gi Drawing Show in Commemoration of the Restoration of Seungnyemun Gate
Promotion Video for Bucheon FC
Remember 3.1 Aart & Kim Jeong-Gi 3.1 Independence Movement Day Art Collaboration
Drew Restricted Area 6 for Nexon’s Sudden Attack
Currently working on the French comic 'Agent provocateur'
“There’s nothing that can be done about leaving regrets at this point…
I will strive further to give it my all."
[Writer Profile]
Park Seong-jin (Pen Name: Garuda, Author)
Born 1987
Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering at KAIST(Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
Master’s in Electrical Engineering at Seoul National University (Quit)
The writer is currently active as an author for cartoon stories and martial art novels, and is the CEO of KAISTORY Co., Ltd.
He debuted as a martial arts novel author with 'Nanjisa', and has since released 14 types and over 60 volumes of martial art novels such as 'Lost Soul Chronicles' (2001), 'Invincible' (2006), 'Infinite ChunRoe' (2006), and 'Demon of Light' (2007). As a master storyteller with a wide range of experience, he has written over 600 volume’s worth of scenarios for 30 types of comics including the works of Lee Jae-hak, Ya Seol-rok, and Ha Seung-nam.
His web martial art novel ‘Return of Chil’ and ‘Uncontrollable’ series are currently being published on Naver, and can also be found on Naver Books.
“The long-tailed tiger born of my imagination and fantasy has finally released itself from my dreams and gone out into the world. Can you hear it? Can you see it? It is now your turn to dream.”
[e-Book Producer Profile]
Jeon Jin-hwan
Born 1967
Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering at KAIST(Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
Master’s at the Graduate School of Science Journalism at KAIST(Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
(Former) Research Development and Project Management at Hyundai Group, Venture and Mid-Sized Companies
(Current) KAIST Alumni Secretary General / Graduate School of Science Journalism Alumni Association Director
(Current) CEO of RND Auction
(Current) Vice President of the Daejeon Comics Alliance
The electronic book producer debuted with 「Korean Modern Literature Collection - Baek Sin-ae」, and is currently producing electronic books of author Park Seong-jin’s web novels 「Return of Chil」and 「Uncontrollable」, which are currently running in Naver.
“I plan on producing electronic books of not just comics and novels, but also collections of essays, and works in the various fields including science, general knowledge, and self-improvement as well.
With this remake of 「TLT Season 1」 and 「TLT Season 2」, there is a chance that new works, including 「TLT Season 3」 may also be remade into electronic book format, depending on talks with the authors.
I look forward to a lot of response from the readers, and am personally interested in social contribution, sharing knowledge, building human connections, establishing an ecosystem of coexistence, and so on.”
[Translator Profile]
Jarod Guillette
Nationality: American
Residence: Korea with his Korean wife.
Education: Iowa State University, in USA - Master Degree.
Experience: GLC - Translator & Proofreader
EBS - Translator until 2012
“Rising Currents: Natural Proximities in Landscape Architecture” w/Mira Engler, 2010 ECLAS conference, UK
“Fairview Community Profile” 2009 Planning in Theory & Practice, “The House” 2010