New York Mets season recap, Korean comedy style

[Guest OlerudOwned]

One of the members of the TGG posted this there. I really can't describe it.

=ShadeTree#55]

Also, to quote another member:

=asbcheeks]Ok so she's proficient in Korean, but not so much in baseball jargon, so she couldn't figure out much, but in the Seo cartoon Seo says, "Get some strength, you can get out of this!" and Heilman replies, "I'm going to get out!" In the Wright cartoon, Piazza says, "Haha, I am just as goodlooking and have as much batting power as him!" and Cameron replies, "Goodlooking?" I guess this a crack at Piazza's sexual preference?

Cool, I think.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

These cartoons are great. I'd like to buy some to frame & hang.

[Willets Point]

What's going on in that Jae Seo picture with Seo and Heilman being crushed under a pile of Mets and Pedro sleeping on top of the pile?

[Willets Point]

There are pages of these delightfully odd comics.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Willets Point wrote: What's going on in that Jae Seo picture with Seo and Heilman being crushed under a pile of Mets and Pedro sleeping on top of the pile?

I think its about how Seo and Heilman had trouble breaking into the rotation because of the pictured: Pedro, Glavine, Benson (I'm assuming that's who the unmarked bottom belongs to), Trachsel, Ishii, and Zambrano.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

I would guess it's getting to the idea that Seo & Heilman struggled while stuck beneath other candidates in the rotation.

I'm more intrerested in why Beltran is fat and mad at Reyes.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Willets Point wrote: There are pages of these delightfully odd comics.

I love how Looper is shown crying to what appears to be his mother in a comic about the Angels bullpen.

[Elster88]

Johnny Dickshot wrote: I'm more intrerested in why Beltran is fat and mad at Reyes.

I think he's just way behind in a foot race or something, because Reyes had so many steals and Beltran had so few maybe? And he's crying because he had a crappy year?

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

This is just bizarre.

[Guest Edgy DC]

There seem to be a lot of bloody noses in these things.

Who's the bashful Twin on the toilet?

[Elster88]

Um, is that little purple monster doing what I think it's doing?

[Guest Edgy DC]

How did the sea lion get into Centerfield's tennis fantasy?

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

The Artist.

Here's an article from the Korea Times. I like how he admires baseball for its combination of rules and imagination.

Cartoonist Delivers Big Hit With Baseball Series


By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii tries to memorize the names of his teammates' but gets frustrated trying to pronounce names like Cesar Izturis and Juan Encarnacion as an English-shy Japanese.

Two things that bothered Florida Marlins first baseman Choi Hee-seop for a while were why Juan Pierre wears a hat under his helmet and why Alex Gonzalez shaves his beard in a thin line along his cheek.

Not done yet, how about this? It is because of a mixed martial art battle for the remote control of the clubhouse television that so many Anaheim Angels players are on the disabled list this season.

If these sound unreal, well, you're right _ you never would read any news like this anywhere because they are all story lines from a cartoon series. But who cares, as long as they make tens of thousands of die-hard Major League Baseball (MLB) fans online happy every week.

Cartoonist Choi Hoon posts his 'MLB Cartoon' series on the Korean Web portal site Naver about twice a week and every piece easily draws more than 100,000 clicks within a week.

He's easily one of the most popular cartoonists around theses days but he says he never expected such an enthusiastic response when he started the series.

``(I'm surprised) since most baseball fans here focus on the domestic league, and most contents of the series are somewhat for advanced MLB fans, who have a better-than-average knowledge on it,'' he said. ``I feel lucky with the MLB Cartoon. I can do whatever I want and unleash it online and many people support me for that.''

The 32-year-old studied drawing comics in Japan for several years from 1998. After returning to South Korea, he started to publish 'Hadaeri (Manager Ha)' in the Daily Sports in July 2002. This drama centered around a group of office workers is still being published and most comics fans still recognize Choi as its author.

So then, how did he get to his start with the MLB series?

``I love baseball,'' he said, and left it at that.

Since first encountering MLB in the late 80's on the American Forces Korean Network (AFKN) TV channel, his love for the sport grew bit by bit and now he's a loyal baseball fan.

``I used to be an Oakland Athletics fan back then, when big names like Jose Canseco, Ricky Henderson and Mark McGwire were playing, though I had to look up a dictionary since I didn't know what 'athletics' meant,'' Choi explained. ``Now my favorites are the Minnesota Twins in the MLB and the LG Twins in the Korea Baseball Organization.

``I've always wanted to take a chance and publish a baseball cartoon but couldn't find any place. Then I got this opportunity.''

Originally starting off small on an MLB fan site, the series unexpectedly became popular and that encouraged him. Choi then sent work samples to Naver and now he's at the center of a lot of attention.

One of the reasons people like his work is his deliberate description. He depicts the characteristics of famous players with amazingly accurate detail, from their habits at the plate or on the mound to even the angles of the pitchers' arms and stances of the hitters' feet.

``(It takes) more than three hours and with more figures appearing, it can take a whole day just to gather all the information needed for an episode,'' Choi said. ``These days I seriously lack time but I can't care any less, since readers have keen and sharp eyes so they never miss a single mistake coming from not preparing properly.''

So far he's posted over 20 episodes and confesses he had a special feeling while drawing one in particular. It is also one of the most controversial ones, getting more than 400 comments on the page. In the piece about one pitcher, he says, ``As Koreans, at least, I feel we all have a kind of debt to support and trust him to the end, whatever results he makes.''

``Unlike other cartoons, I put my genuine feelings in the Park Chan-ho episode,'' Choi said. Usually he tries to keep his emotions out of his works and focuses strictly on making them witty and comfortable to read. But not in this case.

``When I was having a tough time in Japan studying, watching Park pitch on TV really encouraged me and gave me strength,'' he said. ``I regret that he's not welcomed by his homeland fans these days like he used to be, just because he's in a slump.

``I can't really understand those who post insults and various attacks on the Internet about him,'' Choi continued. ``They say it's just fair criticism but to me it's just being a menace. In the end it's just distorted affection and attention."

Choi says that he was originally drawn to the sport because of its complexities.

``Baseball is the best sport of all,'' he said. ``It has the most organized and systematic rules, and its diverse tactics offer spectators ample room to think and imagine. Another attraction is that all the positions have particular characters and roles.''

Choi hopes to expand his coverage to the NBA as well as domestic pro sports leagues but baseball remains his No. 1. A baseball game broken up into innings, just like the squares on a page of comic strips. As a lover of sports and a comic artist, it may naturally follow that he inevitably loves baseball.

[Elster88]

One of the Williams sisters has a mean goatee. I wish I could grow facial hair like that.
_____________________________
This post had the designation 123) Galen Cisco

[Elster88]

I don't suppose there's a way to get that naver.com page in English?

Or at least Mandarin, I can't read Korean.

[Centerfield]

The sea lion is a recurring theme for me.



Crap. There's another one.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm thinking that the little purple monster is either an alien rapist or a personification of Brett's hemmoroids.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That guy's actually a little stocky and frumpy for Centerfield.

[Valadius]

This is the funniest thing I've seen all day!!!

[Centerfield]

I forwarded the strip to my wife and got a few translations (keep in mind, her Korean is not great either so these might be all wrong):

Pedro

Pedro: Pedro 45 reporting for duty

Peterson (looking at Ishii): I told you not to fall asleep when you drive!


Jae Seo

Jae: Keep trying! We can get out!

Heilman: I'm getting out!


David Wright

Wright: Crack!

Piazza: You know, I was once that good and that good looking too

Cameron: Good looking?


Cliff Floyd

Floyd: I'm healthy (literal translation: I don't hurt)

caption: His health is the best!


Carlos Beltran

Beltran: (huff) I...I can't catch him because my belly's too big


Looper

We couldn't figure this out. But it's something about being the worst player (duh) and something to do with hell.

[Elster88]

Centerfield wrote: (who's 49?)

I think it's 44.

[Centerfield]

Oh, I see.

Thanks Elster. I'll Edit.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

I found one about Trachsel's return to the rotation.

[seawolf17]

Oh, I get it! Trachsel comes back to the rotation, but there's no room for him because everyone's pitching so well, so he gets all mad and turns into some sort of female bird superhero. Remind me next Halloween; Steve Trachsel, Female Bird Superhero would make a great costume.

[Guest Edgy DC]

And he's blond.

And Pedro's hair is flat on top and then breaks out into sausage curls.

And Glavine and Seo are dating.

Very odd.

[Valadius]

No, it looks like Glavine is backing Seo over Trachsel.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Holy crap, I just figured out the reference of this cartoon!

The other members of the rotation let him know that they don't need him, as they only need five members, like G-Force, the heroic crew of the Phoenix in the revolutionary late-1970s cartoon, Battle of the Planets, which in the United States version featured the voice of Casey Kasem as team-leader Mark.



To illustrate their point, they don their G-Force costumes and zoom away. After they leave, Trax puts on his costume and cries that he used to be Princess (above, right, in her civies) and wants to be again.

Here are G-Force in uniform.

[Valadius]

Yes, I knew it was G-Force. Just forgot the name.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

More frightening:

A. The cartoon

or B. Edgy unlocking it's secret?

[Guest Edgy DC]

See how the G-Force members, like a pitching rotation, each have a number designating their place in the pentatonic order:



That's Mark (1), Keyob (an unseen 4), the ironically named Tiny (5), Jason (2), and Princess (3).