12 Days - Production

Production

Partially modeled on a story told to Kim by a stranger, 12 Days began during her sophomore year in college as a way of coping with the end of a relationship. Kim soon abandoned the unfinished comic after moving on emotionally from the breakup, and considered the early concept "poorly built." After completing her junior year in college in Seoul, South Korea, where she had been studying Japanese language and literature, Kim moved to New York, United States. There, she attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, New York, for four years, and graduated in 2002 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in cartooning. In addition to illustrating the cover of Australian rock band Jet's 2003 debut album Get Born, she had three of her short comics published in anthologies: "SheepSheepSleep" (2003) in Broad Appeal, "B-612" (2003/4) in New Thing Vol.2, and "Repeat" (2005) in SheWolf Vol.1.

At the 2004 San Diego Comic-Con International, she encountered now-former Tokyopop editors Mark Paniccia and Lillian M. Diaz-Przybyl, who helped to pitch 12 Days to their publisher. Kim later expressed surprise for her successful pitch of 12 Days, and commented: "It made me believe there is room for diverse stories." Resuming work on 12 Days in early 2005, Kim felt that her "slow speed, other projects and family matters" delayed its production. Additionally, the South Korean-native Kim, who speaks Korean, English, and Japanese fluently, would think of ideas in Korean that did not translate well over to English, ultimately leading her to change her method of thinking for the comic. She considered her creation of a global manga "a bit ironic," because she "wanted to do something different from manhwa or manga," which she had grown up around. Completed in the middle of August 2006, 12 Days was published by Tokyopop in North America in November of the same year. However, in May 2011, Tokyopop shut down its North American branch, with the status of global manga titles left unclear. 12 Days is also published in Germany by Tokyopop Germany.