Relatively speaking, I haven't been the editor of King of Hell for that long. It was assigned to me about a year ago, and the first volume I actually oversaw was Volume 13, a full baker's dozen into the series. However, my first exposure to Jae-Hwan Kim and In-Soo Ra's adrenaline-fueled adventure was a good four years ago when I was a freelancer here at TOKYOPOP. As a copy editor, I cut my teeth on the first few volumes of King of Hell. (I even have an associate editor credit in Volume 2.)

As I recall, I wasn't sure what to make of the series then. A combination of fast-paced action, frenetic martial arts and silly humor, it was like Blade of the Immortal meets The Evil Dead, and just when I thought I had the series pegged, it floored me with something entirely unexpected.

In life, Majeh was a gifted swordsman. In death he acts as a whimsical reaper for the King of Hell, collecting the souls of the dead to bring them to the netherworld. All this changes when a mysterious rift opens up between Hell and Earth and evil spirits begin escaping into the mortal realm. Now Majeh must hunt down and destroy these mischievous demons before the rift is permanently opened. Steeped in eastern and western mythology and featuring striking artwork, King of Hell is one of the hottest series running in Korea.

Author:        
In-Soo Ra
King of Hell is his debut work. He also serves as one of two Webmasters for the King of Hell Fan Site in Korea

Artist:     
Jae-Hwan Kim
Jae-Hwan Kim was born in 1971. He has lived and worked in both Korea and Thailand.

He started his career in 1990 as assistant to Il-Soo Son for one year. His works in Korea include:

 Ducal, serialized in IQ Jump magazine in 1993
Rainbow, published in Korea as four volumes 1994-1995 and licensed to France and Thailand
Green Streetcar Ha-Me-Soo, an animated 26-part series about saving the environment that ran on KBS in 1995
Combat Metal He-Mo-Soo, published in Korea as four volumes 1997-1999 and serialized in CHANCE
Majeh, the original title of King Of Hell. It is serialized in "Comic Champ" magazine in Korea, and licensed in 20 different countries including the US, France, Germany, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, and Italy.

In the West, he's known for his work on King of Hell, on Warcraft:The Sunwell Trilogy and his upcoming TOKYOPOP global manga release, War Angels.

For more details, here's an interview with Jae-Hwan  by Chris Arrant that took place during Jae-Hwan's visit to San Diego Comic-Con in 2006.

Majeh
In life Majeh was a great swordsman. In death he is assigned to retrieve the souls of the dead for the King of Hell. Fearful of his incredible strength, the lords of Hell placed a magical seal on him to limit his powers. After a rift is discovered which releases powerful demons to the mortal realm, his job changes to demon hunter. While his current body is that of a teenage boy, he's actually over 300 years old. His mortal body is still preserved in an enchanted lake and watched over by his mortal lover.

Samhuk
A spy sent by the King of Hell to watch over Majeh. After Majeh discovers him, Samhuk reluctantly works with Majeh out of fear of the swordsman's wrath.

Chung-Poong Namgoong
Tired of living in the shadow of his older brother, this young boy is out to prove himself as a fighter. He runs away from home and must resort to thievery to stay alive, but he picks the wrong target when he tries to steal from Majeh. Despite their akward meeting, Majeh lets Chung-Poong join him in his quest.

Dohwa Baik
An independent young woman who fights using needles, she tags along with Majeh and Chung-Poong to mooch off them.

King of Hell
You were expecting horns and a pitchfork? This otherworldly ruler reigns over the souls of the dead like a shepherd tending his flock.

Member reviews:
• The best manga i'v ever read.
by ZeroXZ on March 12, 2007 the point of the story is that the envoy majeh has been chosen, because of his unique talent in his former life, to capture some escaped fiends that escaped from the pits of hell. but they did't tell him that he was going to do it with some " limitations"
• Don't let the envoy fool you...
by nextworldenvoy on March 7, 2007 Behind the action, there's just as much comic relief.
• You'll have a "hell" of a time!
by solidsnakex2 on December 11, 2006 From the artistic genious of Kim Jae-Hwan and the creative genius of Ra In-Soo comes this amazing series.