''The Fox Sister'' is a supernatural horror

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

written by

Christina Strain Christina Strain is an American comic book colorist, writer and screenwriter. Strain formerly worked for Marvel Comics as a colorist before pursuing a career as a writer. Strain's notable works include; the award-winning Marvel series '' Runaways ...

and drawn by Jayd Aït-Kaci. The webcomic began in October 2011, updating once a week, before going on indefinite hiatus. Set in 1968

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, ''The Fox Sister'' is inspired by the Korean folk tale ''

The Fox Sister The Fox Sister is a Korean storyHeinz Insu Fenkl , about the mythical Korean nine-tailed fox demon (''kumiho''). Synopsis A man had three sons and no daughter. He prayed for a daughter, even if she was a fox. His wife gave birth to a daughter ...

''. Its first chapter was self-published by the creators in the form of a hardcover graphic novel in 2014.

Content

Set in Seoul in 1968, the comic is inspired by the Korean folk tale ''

'', which involves a

nine-tailed fox The nine-tailed fox () is a mythical fox entity originating from Chinese mythology that is a common motif in East Asian mythology and the most famous fox spirit in Chinese culture. In Chinese and East Asian folklore, foxes are depicted as spiri ...

demon (''

kumiho A kumiho or gumiho (, literally "nine-tailed fox") is a creature that appears in the folktales on East Asia and legends of Korea. It is similar to the Chinese and the Japanese . It can freely transform, among other things, into a beautiful woman ...

'') killing people and eating their livers in order to become human. The story follows Cho Yun-Hee, a priestess (''

mudang ''Mu'' () is an ancient Korean word defining a shaman in the Korean traditional religion. Korean shamans hold rituals called '' gut'' (literally "good") for the welfare of the individuals and the society. In modern Korea different terms are ...

'') of

Korean shamanism Korean shamanism or Mu-ism is a religion from Korea. In the Korean language, alternative terms for the tradition are ''musok'' () and ''mugyo'' (무교, 巫敎). Scholars of religion have classified it as a folk religion. There is no central auth ...

, whose family was killed years ago by a ''kumiho'', trying to find the killer – now wearing Yun-Hee's dead sister's body – with the aid of Alex, an American military veteran and Christian missionary.

Development

Before starting ''The Fox Sister'', Christina Strain had eight years of experience as a

colorist In comics, a colorist is responsible for adding color to black-and-white line art. For most of the 20th century this was done using brushes and dyes which were then used as guides to produce the printing plates. Since the late 20th century it is ...

. She had scripted a few comics before starting on her webcomic with Jayd Aït-Kaci, and she had picked up some knowledge regarding story structure and pacing by reading other people's scripts during her career, but she did not have much experience writing herself. Initially, Strain intended to stick to art and do something with

3D graphics 3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for the ...

, but after following a comics writing class, she realized she was very interested in writing stories. After starting ''The Fox Sister'', Strain decided to switch to writing permanently, noting that her background as an artist helps her in visualizing her scenes. In an interview with ''

Newsarama Newsarama is an American website that publishes news, interviews, and essays about the American comic book industry. It is owned by Future US. In June 2020, Newsarama was merged with the website GamesRadar+, also owned by FutureUS. History N ...

'', Strain stated that she had admired Aït-Kaci's art before the two met, and when a friend brought her in contact with her, Strain started pitching various story ideas to her. ''The Fox Sister'' was the one Aït-Kaci liked the most, and Strain went on to tailor the idea to further fit Aït-Kaci's style and taste. Strain had planned from the start to release ''The Fox Sister'' as a webcomic, while releasing it later as a 9x12 inch hardcover comic book. She described webcomics as "the easiest way to publish and ... the best way to advertise the book." ''The Fox Sister'' was originally updated once a week and was expected to run for four issues, each being 36 pages long. As of November 2017, the comic was on hiatus; the most recently published page is Chapter 4, Page 17.

Reception

Aït-Kaci and Strain won a

Joe Shuster Award The Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards (or Joe Shuster Awards) are given out annually for outstanding achievements in the creation of comic books, graphic novels, webcomics, and comics retailers and publishers by Canadian comics, Canadi ...

in the "Webcomic Creator" category in 2014 for their work on ''The Fox Sister''. Lauren Davis of ''

io9 ''io9'' is part of Gizmodo media since 2015, and it began as blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The site initially focused on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and related areas but over the years has ...

'' described ''The Fox Sister'' as the most "beautifully colored comic

he's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

ever seen" and praised the deeper themes in its story. Janelle Asselin, writing for ''

Comics Alliance ComicsAlliance was an American website dedicated to covering the comic book industry as well as comic-related media, and is owned by Townsquare Media. The site has been nominated for multiple awards including a 2015 Eisner Award win in the catego ...

'', similarly described the webcomic as beautiful, noting that the visual aesthetics hold up well in print.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fox Sister, The American webcomics 2010s webcomics Drama webcomics 2011 webcomic debuts Horror webcomics