Guy Deslisle's 'Pyongyang' provides a rare and interesting look at the nation of whispering prisoners. Deslisle was an animator before he started making comics, and oddly enough, North Korea has been a world leader in cell animation for decades. This meant he was one of the few westerners to live the surreal life in Pyongyang, spending two months on a work visa. 
 Animation is the most unlikely of North Korea's rare export success stories, and a dying one; cell animation continues to diminish in favor of easier, cheaper and better computer animation. But North Korea's richest domestic crop is fear and paranoia, and what with the insane dicktators and the nuclear bombs and all, it's become their top export as well; now the rest of the world can enjoy cold war-type armageddon-shivers with a spicy Korean flavor. Hey, man... remember the 80's? You haven't lived until you've escaped a post-apocalyptic nightmare of the irradiated, un-walking-dead variety... waking up in a cold-sweat, still believing that a mostly wax-based muppet-turned-president -- or a toddler-sized maniac who built an ICBM arsenal just to compensate for an endless array of shortcomings-- got bored and kicked off WWIII; running outside, naked and weeping in the middle of February, just to reassure yourself that it's snow, and not nuclear fallout. Fun shit, but we're nowhere near the glory days of nihilism, circa 1984. 
 'Pyongyang' is going to be far less dire and dramatic than a native North Korean's account. Westerners, of course, only get vague hints of the clockwork nightmare behind the curtain, though portraits of the fat little wizard and his Pop were everywhere. I guess Big Brother is the proper analogy, since Pyongyang sure as hell isn't the Emerald City, and there's nothing remotely similar to a yellow brick road. On the other hand, Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un are clearly munchkins. 
 Although he keeps the atmosphere light and entertaining, and his artwork has a charming, minimalistic style, the creepiness of it all adds up to an unsettling look at the institutionalized madness of North Korea. 
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