Graphic Novel Review: Made in Korea by Jeremy Holt, George Schall, and Adam Wollett

Posted on July 21, 2022 at 6:47 am by Gene Ambaum

Made in Korea by Jeremy Holt, George Schall, and Adam Wollett. Image, 2022. 9781534320116. Includes #1 – #6.

Chul is a Korean programmer who creates an AI algorithm and secretly (he thinks) uploads it into a proxy.

In Conroe, Texas, Bill and Suelynn visit friends who are celebrating the arrival of their artificial son, and soon they want a proxy of their own. (These so called proxies seem common, though expensive, because of some unnamed condition that makes having a biological child very difficult.)

The “daughter” they get, whom they name Jesse, is completely lifelike and adorable and also unlike any other proxy they’ve ever heard of. She reads voraciously, tries to make sense of the world, and soon wants to go to school.

Chul is fired and comes to the US in an attempt to become the person who raises Jesse, since he knows her nature. At school she becomes an annoying know-it-all for a bit and then she falls in with the wrong crowd — two guys planning a school shooting who realize that, functionally, she has super powers.

Telling more would ruin the story which is unpredictable and has such a lovely ending. Make this adult graphic novel part of your Pride Month display next year so that older teens can find it there.