Comic Review: "Sweet Home"

Comic Title: "Sweet Home"

Comic Author: Kim Carnby

Release Date: October 2017 - July 2020

Country: South Korea

Sweet Home is a Korean apocalyptic thriller comic produced by the collaboration between the author, Kim Carnby and illustrator, Hwang Young-chan. First published in October 2017, it has a total of around 140 chapters with its final chapter published in July 2020. The comic has become a huge success with a global readership and a Netflix adaptation into series of the same title which further popularizes the work.

It follows the story of a high school social recluse named Cha Hyun-soo who is estranged from his family and friends. Not much is known about the family, except that his father is rarely at home due to preoccupation with his career while Hyun always distances himself from outside world. Secluding himself in his own room, he spends much of his days playing video games and even avoid school altogether. So one day his family arranges for a special trip to once again come together as a family but Hyun adamantly refuses to participate, insisting on staying at home inside his room like usual. Embittered, his family members proceed with the plan without him but things take turn for the worst when they are killed in an accident while driving to the destination.

Now orphaned, Hyun is totally devastated. He plans to hang on to life just for a little longer, at least until he can watch the final episode of his favourite show before he commits suicide. He moves from his original home into a small room at Green Home, an apartment complex where strange things start to happen. Some people have mysterious nosebleed while others hallucinate about killing the rest. One day Hyun witness his neighbour turning into a monster and then he discovers that the rest of the world is about to be taken over by a monster apocalypse, where people are either mangled by the monsters or turn into the monster themselves. Hyun and the rest of other survivors have to work together to stay alive and at the same time need to watch out for any new monsters coming from among themselves. Along the way, they discover that the "monsterization" is not an infectious disease, but rather a strange transformation prompted by repressed desire.

As if the apocalyptic world is not despairing enough, we will later encounter each characters' disturbing trauma which plague their life, making this comic as much a realistic horror story as supernatural. As they fight against the monsters, they are also at the same time confronting their own inner monsters aside. A lot of dark things seem to have transpired long before the monsters first appear, from the overbearing guilt and trauma to the social problems of domestic violence, broken family, school bullying, abuse of workers and debasement of the weaker people's lives at the hands of the richer wealth owners.

The first and foremost theme of this comic is about the curse of desire and trauma that shapes our world. Even the most honest person who just smile can keep the darkest emotions within, which is a reason why we should not underestimate what people are keeping inside based on how they outwardly appear. Greed, anger and grudge form a significant bulk of humanity's main passion that colours the world, alongside the force of desire. Is the end of desire the answer to our social and personal problem? Would a world without passion be the only solution to the ever blackening darkness of our societal conditions? This is the questions that readers will find in the comic as they continue to read it.

There are a lot of the conceptual notions of desire put forth in this comic. Where does it reside? What kind of role it plays within the structure of our souls? Plato thinks of human soul as a chariot pulled by two horses, the white horse of noble passion and the black horse of wild appetites. Our catastrophe and downfall originate from the inability to properly drive the horses but at the same time they play an important role in giving our lives direction and purpose. Without them, the chariot of our souls will be stranded and forsaken in the desert of total apathy. However Buddhist concept of desire at the same time seems to ring true as well, considering how desire and passion bring so much pain to our life, thus the importance of breaking free from desire as a step towards peace and enlightenment.

The second important theme is about the nature of human being, as readers of this comic will find a variety of human characters. Some of them exude bright light of nobleness that is very heartwarming, as they are willing to put their own selves on the line for other people. At the same time, there are other group of people who are just outright wicked and their monstrosity knows no boundaries, blurring the dichotomy between humans and monsters. Employing the Freudian concept of ego, Stephen King once mentioned, that monsters always exist deep inside our subconscious, as brilliantly illustrated by this quote "With a devil that was not a red-horned monster complete with spiked tail and cloven hooves, or a serpent crawling through the garden—although that is a remarkably apt psychological image. The devil, according to Freud, would be a gigantic composite id, the subconscious of all of us". Humans have the capacity to be just as murderous and barbaric as the literal monsters without developing any of the horns, fangs or claws because the ability to commit evil has always existed inside them.

When we are dealing with a black-hearted character, we may wonder where does the wicked nature come from? Is evil something innate and inherent inside people, or does it appear after one has been corrupted in a gradual manner by the external circumstances such as disordered society and dysfunctional family? This comic is set in an apocalyptic world, where scarcity and disorder are bringing to light some of the worst sides of humanity. In multiple circumstances, few characters commit selfish and ignoble acts to survive. They are condemned, but it is also highlighted that they are just weak little humans who are pushed to desperation. It is also mentioned that deep down many of them indeed have the passing thought of feeling glad that they survive while others are dead, implying that the innate instinct tends to favour self preservation above everything else. But that doesn't mean that they will always succumb to the instinct, because on multiple occasions we see one altruistic act after another commited by the people who are willing to save others at the expense of their own selves.

The theme of the influence of social circumstances on human behaviour is brought up again when there is this one character who is convinced that he has no fault for being evil because his father abused him in the past. This suggests that there is nothing one could do to escape the curse of evil passed down by depraved parents but in this comic, we will also find characters who have bad trauma too, after being abused by the society but that character still choose to do good. Some people may be born into a broken family and maltreated by their parents or societies but not all of them will become as bad as their abusers are, because humans are not totally helpless without any sense of agency to decide their own principles.

The third recurring theme is about the moral dilemma of killing. People have to kill monsters to stay alive, but all of them are once humans before they transition into monsters. Adding more to the moral predicament is the realization that the most opportune time to kill the monsters is when they are still in the transition state between humans and full fledged monsters. In other words, the monsters are best murdered while they are still humans on the verge of being transformed because their regenerative ability in the transition state is still weak when compared to the time when they are fully monsterized. Does that mean killing monsters is the same as killing humans? What makes killing humans sacrilegious in the first place as opposed to the monsters? Sentience, throughout the comic, is implied to underpin the sacredness of a human's life but later they would explicitly mention that what truly makes humans distinct from the monsters is the capacity for empathetic sensibilities. While most of the characters in this comic are depicted as not religious, there is one character who is a devout Christian and he refers to the religious value and God as the basis for the importance of saving human lives.

The fourth pervading theme is about finding reasons for living and surviving. Hyun is planning to commit suicide after the release of the last episode of his favourite show but throughout the apocalypse, suddenly he is developing a strong will to live and survive. In such a bleak condition, it is emphasized that finding reasons to survive is much harder than to actually survive, but the characters keep on trying their hardest to live and survive all odds. The phrase "even the blackest darkness disappears in the faintest light" becomes the guiding watchword for surviving and building hopes even though the imminent danger closes in on them from all angles.

Instead of relying on the run-of-the-mill trope of infectious spread, the comic takes a rather unique approach and twist by using innate desire and inner passion as the paths towards "monsterization". This comic presents not only pure terrifying horror but also raw emotions and trauma that uncannily echo those of our real world with its riveting storytelling. Each of the chapters is dense packed with actions, thrill and gripping plot development which make this comic an irresistible page turner.