The job of an editor is frequently misunderstood. We’re more than just project managers, robots who check spelling, or even concept developers who help aspiring creators focus their ideas into a coherent form. There’s a lot that editors can do to make a manga really sing that I suspect the average reader doesn’t fully appreciate, and it’s not easy. But having an amazing story and art to start with makes being an editor a pleasure and a dream.

I met June Kim at San Diego Comicon in 2004, about three weeks after I started my career at TOKYOPOP. A fellow editor, Mark Paniccia, was trying to recruit her, and he got me involved with pitching the project and putting together exactly what this book would be until I got to take over for real when Mark left the company for his own dream job at Marvel Comics. 12 Days has been a long time coming, with some pretty big ups and downs along the way as June worked on becoming a stronger storyteller, and I worked on learning how to do my own job better, but right from the start, I knew that this was going to be a very special book. But I can’t say I really can take much credit for it, aside from being June’s one-woman West Coast cheering squad. From the gripping central premise, June’s stunning art, and beautiful, elegant writing, she fought this battle on her own, and has produced a truly unique, elegiac story. Give it a shot, consider the consequences of losing the love of your life before you could ever tell them how much you really cared, and I’m sure you’ll agree.

Lillian M. Diaz-Przybyl
Editor

When Jackie's ex-lover Noah dies, she decides the best and quickest way to get over the love of her life is to hold a personal ritual with Noah's ashes. Jackie consumes the ashes for 12 days, hoping the pain will subside with her profound reaction to Noah's death. While she and her partner-in-crime Nick, Noah’s brother, spend the time in the closed space her apartment, they slowly become consumed by Noah's tragedy.

June Kim is an illustrator and cartoonist. Before coming to New York, June Kim studied Japanese language and literature at college in Seoul Korea. Upon finishing her junior year, she came to New York to study cartooning at the School of Visual Arts. Since graduating in 2002, her comic work has been published in a few highly acclaimed anthologies such as New Thing Vol.2, but she is most well known for her work on Australian rock band JET’s debut album cover, as well as contributing illustrations to Flaunt magazine, Teen People, and Tokion. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, and when not working as a freelance illustrator, she can be found slowly chasing her dream to become a full time cartoonist. Her chase can be witnessed at www.nofishentertainment.com

Nick Yoon:
Nick is Noah’s half-brother, becomes closer to Jackie after Noah’s death. He was the only one in his family who knew how Noah felt about Jackie. Nick resents his conservative father’s authority, and always ends up having conflicts with him.

Noah Yoon:
5’10” Korean American Although she appears to be strong, she is really extremely sweet and soft. Noah is a bit shy and naive for her age. On first impressions she might seem one-dimensional, but her personality runs between two extremes.

Jackie Yuan:
Cantonese/ Korean. Jackie’s a stubborn, intelligent, proud and strong woman. Jackie is composed and cool in appearance, but she gets easily hurt and recovers slowly. Jackie loathes showing her weaknesses to other people, but oddly enough, seems to feel comfortable enough around Nick to reveal her mind.

Two things struck me about 12 DAYS right off the bat. One, June Kim has become an amazing draftsmen since her earlier anthology work. Her ink line has strengthened while still remaining delicate, and she has a newfound attention to detail that makes her environments come across as strikingly real. Just look at that cover. It has an incredible depth and is full of gorgeous little pieces.

Two, this is a daring book for a writer/artist on her first time out. 12 DAYS is a one-off graphic novel about two people living in grief. Jackie first lost her lover, Noah, to the heterosexual world and marriage, and then to death, as Noah died in an accident coming home from her honeymoon. Now, with the help of Noah's brother, Nick, Jackie is going to cleanse the memory of the departed from her system. She will do so by consuming Noah's ashes. Over the course of twelve days, she works her way through the jar, reliving her time with Noah in her head and developing a camaraderie with Nick. Yet, something keeps the girlfriend and the brother from bonding completely. There is some contention in their new friendship, and he definitely has something of his own going on.

The storytelling in 12 DAYS is confidently structured. June moves in and out of past and present with subtle transitions, sometimes purposely disorienting the reader to cause the two timelines to blur together. She also uses parallel actions so that one event triggers the recollection of another. The mourning is heavy, willfully so on the part of the characters. They want out of it, for sure, but they are going to squeeze every ounce of sadness out of each day they have allotted themselves. When they aren't speaking, what they're feeling causes their faces to sag; when they are speaking, what they say displays their emotions the way opening a paper fan shows us the picture between the folds. Even when Nick and Jackie tease one another, the jokes are morbid, and they can never carry them so far as to completely leave their grief. The writing is brutally honest, and yet the reader never feels crushed by it. We are a quiet observer, watching with fascination as the characters move from page to page.

12 DAYS is a remarkable comic. It deserves to be bought and read and praised by everyone everywhere. I can offer no higher praise. Get it now, thank me later.

~Jamie S. Rich