Almost American Girl

Robin Ha is an illustrator, writer, and graphic novelist. She was born in Seoul, South Korea and lived there until she was 14. That summer, her mother brought her to Huntsville, Alabama under the pretense of a family vacation, when in fact it was a permanent relocation. Her memoir depicts her lifelong love of comics, beginning with Korean manhwa comic books, and stretching into Japanese manga and American comic books. Her mother introduced her to comics in Korea and took her to her first comic-drawing class in Alabama, which is detailed in Robin’s graphic memoir.

This passion eventually transformed into a profession. After high school, she attended the Rhode Island School of Design. She worked in the fashion industry in New York while she figured out if she could work on comics as a full-time profession. Though she had wanted to be a cartoonist since childhood, she struggled with self-doubt and financial stressors. When she finally broke into the comic industry, she was an illustrator for other people’s scripts.

While she was doing this, she was approached about making an illustrated cookbook. Robin had never developed her own recipes or learned much about Korean cooking. She contacted her mother and began cooking with her so that the pair could develop recipes that Robin could include in Cook Korean! (2016).