<Sound of the Heart> is a web-comic that has been serialized in LINE for over ten years since 2006. It is a comedy cartoon that centers on the author’s daily activities and the author’s way of drawing his life with complete honesty makes cartoon extremely entertaining.

Since it has been serialized for such a long time, <Sound of Heart> has various records such as the oldest cartoon existing without any resting period.

 

As stated before, <Sound of the Heart> has been serialized without a break for such a long time that it became a big issue if the author accidentally missed even one episode. However, even when he missed few episodes of <Sound of the Heart> in 2016 and 2018, he still updated his other works such as <Moon You> and <Joe’s Realm>, making readers impressed and confused at the same time.

 

<The Sound of the Heart> is depicted in a typical omnibus style, in which episodes revolve around the artist and his relatives, has been creating many enthusiastic fans with enormous popularity.

 

As the longest cartoon with enormous popularity, this comic was also produced as a K-drama with famous Korean actors/actresses such as Lee Gwang Soo, Jung So Min taking roles his characters. Interestingly, Jo Suk himself also showed himself in a drama as an extra

 

The author draws episodes from the various spectrum by mentioning his own experiences such as military life, part-time experience, family story, brother’s story, romance, school days, and marriage. By using such a mundane event in our daily life as a storyline, he successfully forms a consensus with his readers.

 

In particular, there were lots of military stories in the early days as the writer finished the military service as military police. He frequently compared police and soldiers in a cartoon, and he even used topics such as a soccer game, which failed to draw attention from female readers.

 

In addition to the protagonist Jo Suk himself, the former girlfriend/his current wife Aebong is shown in a cartoon and is one of the most popular characters in his work. He draws Aebong with detail (such as short hair, big eyes, and eyebrows) that people can easily recognize Aebong even if they don’t know well about the character.

 

Moreover, Cho Joon – the elder brother of Jo Suk- is an average company employee but is always drawn in a cartoon with the blue sleeveless tee, boxers and blue hat with bald spots on his hair. At one time, Cho Joon was shown in various episodes as actively as protagonist Josuk.

 

In addition, Cho’s father Chochul is expressed as a brawny and stupid-middle aged man, and Cho’s mother is stated as a bad cook who tortures her sons often like a boss. There are many unique characters such as Sensation, Hangbong (They are the pets of JO Suk), Aebong’s parents, his daughter, friends, relatives also appear in a cartoon. By giving each character specific characteristics and appearance, Jo Suk makes the story much more exciting and entertaining

 

In the case of <Sound of the Heart>, there are so many fans who have watched it for a long time and I myself is a big fan of it too. As readers who have been watching for a long time, most of the fans stay loyal to this cartoon and even suggest Jo Suk take a break as he has been working for such a long time without much rest.

 

In this comic, the Jo Suk draws himself as a man with a big and rectangular head.

He always wears this yellow t-shirt, and Aebong always wears green T-shirts.

In addition to these two characters, every character has a firm personality, and differentiation between characters has been continuously improving as time passed. As a result, the face of characters gradually changed over time and comparing his current drawings with those of early series is also an enjoyable part of this cartoon.

In <Sound of the Heart>, there are repeated lines such as “I'm a cold city man, but my woman will be warm,” and those lines have become so popular that readers started using them in their daily lives. There are a variety of other buzzwords in a cartoon and Jo Suk even openly admitted that one of his goals is creating those buzzwords that audience will love.

 

Looking at the <Sound of the Heart>, the author seems like a smart person as he discusses various materials of the different genre such as movies, dramas, music and even political/social issues in his work. However, sometimes, the topics are too complicated or unknown that it fails to hook readers. But in most of the cases, topics are general, funny, and empathetic that people search for his work when they are having a bad day.

 

As the most extended series in a LINE, <Sound of the Heart> still ranks itself as one of top Tuesday comics with author’s brilliant ideas and diligent work ethic.

 

There must be a reason why this cartoon is getting loved for over ten years.

 

If you want to find out why I recommend you to start watching this series from the beginning