Mission life: THE KUKMIN DAILY

“I communicate the Gospel with cartoons”

2017-01-16 17:42

Cartoonist Kim Min-seok (31, photo, in his home) has some 12,000 followers on social networking services. We had only just greeted each other when he said, picking up a pencil, “Anywhere with space enough to hold an A4-sized paper becomes my workshop, whether it’s my home, a cafe, or a library.”

I met Kim, better known by his writer name “Kim.miru,” on January 10 at his officetel apartment in Gyomun-dong, Guri, Gyeonggi-do. Currently he runs the series “Mirunamu Drawing Meditation” on Instagram and Facebook. He shares clever cartoons with plain and frank short writings about the Christian faith, touching everyday lives with such titles as “The purpose of our life,” “Dating,” “Before you worry,” and “Nonsense prayer.”

(Provided by Kim Min-seok)


When he was little, he would spend entire days happily with just the white backs of calendar pages and a few crayons. Three years ago, two months before he began studies at Chongshin Theological Seminary, he attended preparatory Biblical Hebrew and Greek classes. “Those languages are so foreign and difficult. We had quizzes every day, which caused us serious anxiety. So I began drawing cartoons of Hebrew words and their meanings. My classmates loved my cartoons and actually studied with them.”

*One of Kim’s Hebrew words cartoons from January 2014 (Provided by Kim Min-seok)


One of his classmates persuaded him to draw cartoons about everyday faith stories and to share them on SNS. For the past two years he has shared about 200 works, which have been published in two books. Now a third-year seminarian, Kim serves as a part-time pastor for middle school students at Doldari Church in Guri, Gyeonggi-do. Every Sunday for his sermon, he includes his cartoons in the bulletin.

“I don’t have a clear plan yet. But it’s clear that I’m a cartoonist servant of our Lord. So at least, I’ll continue to be a cartoonist pastor.”

Reporter Choi Ki-young (ky710@kmib.co.kr), from Guri, with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)
Photo by senior reporter Kang Min Seok


Original Article in Korean:
“신앙 이야기 만화로 SNS에 복음 전해요”: 1만2000여명 팔로어 거느린 만화작가 김민석 전도사

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