Bonus #BannedBookClubFact
By adding a single easter egg in a non-fiction comic, I accidentally made my wife's autobiography canon with Garfield.

#BannedBookClubFact 10

It wasn't easy for Hyun Sook to cowrite in her second language. I was writing based on her oral history with her editing. So we printed bound copies of each draft of the script for her to annotate. My favorite bits were where she had to look up words.

#BannedBookClubFact 9
Over the last 6 years, there've been talks of a Banned Book Club show, movie, and even Broadway musical! But with so many shutdowns, strikes, and corporate reshuffles in that time, none of them came to pass.

Wild that Hyun Sook thought her story was too mundane to write about.

#BannedBookClubFact 8
The character that I love the most... and book banners hate... is Suji.

They always point out Suji's love of punching cops, but never notice that every time she says it, she's more and more bruised from the police assaulting HER. She's surviving.

Today's the day! If you ordered the Banned Book Club Color Edition direct @ironcircuscomics.bsky.social, it should arrive today! And I WANT PICTURES!

#BannedBookClubFact 7: When the original came out, I drew Adorable Animals With Molotov Cocktails for everyone who posted a pic. Here are some favs.

#BannedBookClubFact 6

My favorite scene is when Hyun Sook accidentally intercepted the call from the agent looking for her parents.

Many think it seems made up, but reality was even more unbelievable. She'd moved out of her parents' house and just happened to be visiting and closer to the phone.

#BannedBookClubFact 5

The story takes place at Anjeon University. It's a stand-in for Hyun Sook's teal school, Changwon University.

We didn't want her hometown or alma mater mad at her for making them look bad.

Anjeon University is a joke... it means "safety school."

I've never quite understood what it means to "forgive" evil. But this was a moment where the victim realized that all that power was gone and the man who once held his life in his hands was so meaningless to his life as to not even be worth a passing word of hatred.
#BannedBookClubFact

#BannedBookClubFact 4

This bizarre true moment of clarity from a torturer shared the ending that I regret we couldn't include.

The victim did meet him again, decades later, after the world changed. They bumped into one another on the street, made eye contact, and silently kept walking.

#BannedBookClubFact 3

The secret banned bookstore is called 태일 책방 (Tae-il Book Store)

It's named after labor activist Chun Tae-Il, who set himself on fire in protest in 1970. He appears later in the book, which book banners have pointed out as a reason to ban it.

#BannedBookClubFact 2

We worked very hard to make the book accurate.

But there's one lie.

It's when Hyun Sook's mom finds out what she was doing and understands.

In reality, she had no idea until the book came out.

Why the lie? It'd be awkward to make a book where my mother-in-law's a villain.

The poem, translated to English:

"No matter how harsh Winter may be,
Spring always comes.
Like the hope of a new sprout
blooming from frozen earth."

Hyun Sook improvised it in a few seconds because I asked her to simulate bad teen poetry, but it's actually beautiful. #BannedBookClubFact

#BannedBookClubFact 1:
Hyun Sook actually did a single illustration in the book. In the panel where Jihoo writes bad poetry about hope, I handed Hyun Sook a piece of paper and told her to improvise something. This panel is her handwriting, and she added the flower.

Translation in the ALT text!

One week until Banned Book Club: Color Edition comes out from @ironcircuscomics.bsky.social!

(It'll arrive in your local bookstore or library in 3 weeks)

Every day until then, I'll share a #BannedBookClubFact

Do I have enough facts to last? I dunno, I'm winging this. Let's see.