If I have tons and tons of money, I’ll make sure I buy loads and loads of drama manga and also a nice full length bookshelf to store them! Pst, I’ll love anyone who grants me this wish.
To backtrack a little..
Drama manga, or more accurately, 드라마사진만화 are mangas that use photo stills from the drama, instead of hand-drawn pictures. All the better, since the photos are why people purchase such mangas. They are usually published for the more popular drama series with around 5-6 volumes for a mini-series (16-20 ep).
Reasons why people buy drama mangas:
- oogle at the photo stills
- to appreciate their most fav drama in another medium
- to savor all the 명대사 and the classic scenes
For us language learners, there’s another good reason to purchase these mangas: to learn korean! ^^ Yay, so today I’ll be sharing on how to use such mangas to study Korean and the benefits of doing so. I only own ONE manga volume of Princess hours (궁) and I’ll ‘review’ that!
Sidetrack: One volume of 궁 cost 8,500won and I actually bought my copy in Kinokuniya. You won’t want to know how much they jack up their prices ): I’ll never have bought the copy from there, but I didn’t really know about the existence of *ahem* gmarket then. But I’m always on a tight budget so.. NO SPENDING. It’ll be hard to restrain myself if I live in Korea, have some excess cash, and a nice empty bookshelf (:
For those who are into studying Korean via dramas, this is the book to get. The dialogues are all bite-sized and are very .. conversational and natural. There’s alot of slangs too and it makes for a refreshing reading practice besides the formal and boring language in the normal textbooks. It’s the least boring textbook you can find around and for those who are weaker in 반말, it’s a very very good resource.
I like to read aloud the speech bubbles, and pretend that I’m delivering the dialogue instead. For those hard-core drama fans, you can try to imitate the actors and it’s a good method to improving the intonation and pronunciation too (:
The manga is of VERY good quality and the photos are… drool worthy. (:
I bought this manga a long long time back, when I had no idea what 반말 is about. I found it difficult to read at first, but at the same time, very fascinating. I can now easily breeze through the entire manga and this book is especially endearing to me, since it reminds me of how much I’ve progressed over the 3 years. ^^
29 Comments
Chantelle
28 June, 2011 at 12:36 AMCool. I plan to use manga to enhance my Korean study. I think 궁 was the first Korean manga I ever read. I remember it being so hard~ for me. I didn’t know that they had a drama version, though. It was such a cute drama.
hangukdrama
28 June, 2011 at 6:24 AMthe photo quality and the manhwa is really awesome! But it’s quite heavy, so the shipping costs will be expensive too D: I wanna live in Korea LOL
warp3
28 June, 2011 at 1:45 AMInteresting…I didn’t realize this genre of book even existed. 만화 sure, but not TV drama based 만화. I’ve tried to read a few 만화 stories previously, but I could never really get interested in the topic. However, I can think of at least one or two popular drama series that would be fun to re-read in this format.
warp3
28 June, 2011 at 1:50 AMCorrection…I think I did see some of these on Hanbooks before, but just thought they were book adaptations of a TV series, not 만화-style books. I’ll have to rethink those now.
hangukdrama
28 June, 2011 at 6:23 AMi’m tempted by all the hong sisters dramas’ manhwa. 😀 I’m addicted to a weekend drama right now 내 마음니 들리니 and I’ll definitely collect the manhwa if they release it. hard though, it’s not really a popular miniseries ):
closet
29 June, 2011 at 10:27 PMlol same here! i’m watching 내 마음니 들리니 now and i’m loving it! pretty surprised because i’m more a rom-com person and melodramas tend to get abit too… well, melodramatic for me. and the cast isn’t doing much for me either (not alot of eye candy, imo). but still i love the story! the hong sisters are the best!
thanks for tempting me with drama mangas, btw. i never knew they existed… and now i dunno if i can resist! 😛
Carl
28 June, 2011 at 3:07 AMThree things: first thing, I’m greatly encouraged by the daily updates from your blog. Your posts have been encouraging me to stay consistent with my Korean studies. So, thank you.
Second thing, Thanks for writing about this. Now, I have to keep an eye out for these
Drama Manhwas.
Third thing, I don’t see any mention of illustrated Manhwa. What’s up with that? (just kidding) I’ve tried to read Death Note, D-Gray Man in Korean, and some others, but that’s it. Do you read illustrated Manwha?
hangukdrama
28 June, 2011 at 6:22 AMThanks Carl! I love illustrated manhwa but they are so expensive D: I’ve never tried reading them in Korean though >,< I usually read them in Chinese. 😀 I don't really like the true blue korean manhwa, or at least those that are on navertoon.
nora
28 June, 2011 at 9:36 AM우아~~~ this is the 1st time i ever heard of a 드라마 만화~~~ how many pages r there in this 궁 volume?? 우아..i really love the glossy pages..all r stills frm one of my favorite dramas~~
How much did u pay for this book at kino?
hangukdrama
28 June, 2011 at 9:55 AMpretty thick! and worth that 8500 won (that is, if you get it from korea without the shipping etc). i paid.. around 35? for it -.- totally regretted buying from Kino. They jack up prices to around 3-3.5 times the normal amount. D:
mishmash
28 June, 2011 at 1:47 PMBuy from Gmarket. Seriously. It’s a lot cheaper than Kino. (I didn’t know Kino sold these even)
Chantelle
28 June, 2011 at 7:56 PMI don’t know if this is helpful to you, but Yes24.com is selling all 5 of the 궁 drama manwha for 34000 won. Individually, the books cost 6,800won. If you’re in Korea, shipping is free on the set of 5.
hangukdrama
28 June, 2011 at 8:53 PMtempting D: thanks for the tip!
Taliana
28 June, 2011 at 10:06 AMI haven’t seen these 드라마사진만화 before! That’s actually a pretty cool idea, and I’d like to find some of my favourite dramas now ㅋㅋ
hangukdrama
28 June, 2011 at 10:08 AMi just love the awesome quality of the photos. and 궁 has such luscious colors too. 😀
FINALLY, a Way to Study Korean Through Dramas! « The Grand Narrative
28 July, 2011 at 5:01 PM[…] of hand-drawn pictures. Please see Shanna’s post about them at Hangkukdrama and Korean here for more information about them, which so impressed me that I immediately ordered some for Secret […]
jane
13 November, 2011 at 8:22 PMThanks for the introduction to drama manga! I tried looking for it at gmarket but I can’t seem to find it. Can you point me to the right direction?
hangukdrama
13 November, 2011 at 10:12 PMhttp://english.gmarket.co.kr/challenge/neo_search/search_total.asp?page=1&prev_keyword=%BB%E7%C1%F8%B8%B8%C8%AD&sort_field=rank_point_desc&page_size=50&gdlc_cd=&gdmc_cd=&gdsc_cd=&value_id1=&value_id2=&value_id3=&price_unit=&brand_nm=&maker_nm=&gd_state=&maker_no=&link_type=LIST&SearchClassFormWord=goodsSearch&anchor_flag=N&HalbumonthYN=&DiscCouponYN=&RtnOldGdYN=&DelFeeX=&isKR=&isMulti=N&OverSeaTrans=&gdlc_nm=&gdmc_nm=&gdsc_nm=&trad_way=&premium_brand_yn=&brand_no=&show_more_yn=N&keyword=%B5%E5%B6%F3%B8%B6+%BB%E7%C1%F8%B8%B8%C8%AD+&search_type=goods
^^
alternatively, search 드라마 사진만화
Lil' sis
13 December, 2011 at 10:25 AMThe drama mangas don’t seem easy to find.:( The ones on Gmarket (fr searching “드라마 사진만화”) are quite limited currently. I tried looking at Kino in Singapore too, but couldn’t find. You know of anywhere else I can get my hands on them?
hangukdrama
3 January, 2012 at 12:59 PMthere aren’t that many to begin with ^^ i think u can get kino to order them if u really want it!
Hanna T
2 January, 2012 at 10:54 PMAfter finding from your site this interesting method for learning korean, I searched the internet and found a few drama photo books on yesasia.com (ex. Secret Garden photo comic book).
hangukdrama
3 January, 2012 at 12:59 PM^^ did u buy them?
Hanna T
4 January, 2012 at 1:29 AMyes. I didn’t pay additional taxes. ”free international shipping” is free, but slow.
kaekae
19 February, 2012 at 11:36 AMI really want to find these (specifically You’re Beautiful), but You’re Beautiful is out of print and I can’t see spending $60 – 90 for 3 small books.
I wish I knew where to find them cheaply because I know the list price isn’t really $36 dollars.
hangukdrama
19 February, 2012 at 12:06 PMyou can buy them online at gmarket ^^ But of course shipping fees apply
Kess
11 June, 2012 at 9:18 PMWow. Your post made me want to buy drama comics too! I’ve seen some online sellers on FB before, selling Dream High, You’re Beautiful, Heartstrings, etc but I didn’t really understand what they were so I didn’t pay attention. lol. I actually thought they were just photos/photo stills because I think most of them used the word “Photo Book” hehe. If I’d known earlier, I would’ve ordered! Ugh~
Anyway, I hope to buy some drama comics soon (pls don’t run out), though based on the scans, I could barely understand the dialogues yet. Haha. It’s better to keep them than to ‘search for nothing’ when they sold out. :))
lubna
31 August, 2014 at 11:49 PMhey,thanks for your information! i don’t think that these kinds of books are available in my country,can you tell me if they were already available on internet so that i can read them online! i watch a lot of drama but i never catch what they say,am absolute beginner to Korean and i think this is just the best way to get the hang of Korean! Thank you 🙂
Hangukdrama
9 September, 2014 at 11:29 AMnope they are not (: You can try webtoons though. They are Korean manhwa and available online. http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/weekday.nhn
KP
23 January, 2016 at 1:19 PMI cannot find any book online that is based on a drama and turned into a graphic novel. Where can I order those kinds of book? Could not find it on Amazon either.