Eric Kim
Korean-Canadian comic artist and illustrator known for Love as a Foreign Language, Zeroed Out, and Dinosaurs from Outer Space. Two decades of work across comics, children's books, and video game art.
Eric Kim has spent over two decades proving that a pencil can take you anywhere—from the neon-drenched streets of Seoul to the farthest reaches of outer space, from the pages of children’s books to the cover art of cult-classic video games. A Korean-Canadian artist based in Toronto, Kim’s career is a masterclass in creative versatility: he’s drawn romantic comedy manga for Oni Press, illustrated children’s books like Mamaqtuq! (with The Jerry Cans), created video game cover art for They Bleed Pixels, and currently writes and illustrates the serial Dinosaurs from Outer Space for Owl magazine alongside Wai Khan. Every project he touches carries that unmistakable warmth—a style instantly recognizable whether he’s drawing a lovesick ESL teacher or a shapeshifting alien.
He’s probably best known as the artist of Love as a Foreign Language , the beloved K-drama-inspired romantic comedy series written by J. Torres and published by Oni Press . The series—a six-volume saga spanning 2004 to 2007—follows Joel, a Canadian ESL teacher in Seoul who falls for Hana, the school secretary. Kim’s expressive art breathes life into every awkward encounter and tender glance, earning critics’ praise for his “great command of body language” and his ability to make “every page flow perfectly from one panel to the next.”
In 2024, the 20th anniversary deluxe edition of Love as a Foreign Language brought the series roaring back into the spotlight, collected from start to finish for the first time with remastered colors, new lettering, and brand-new cover art drawn by Kim himself. The re-release introduced a new generation of readers to his work—and reminded longtime fans exactly why his art has endured for two decades.
Beyond Love as a Foreign Language, Kim has built a remarkably diverse body of work. He teamed up with Jim Munroe on the sci-fi rom-com Zeroed Out (published by At Bay Press), which the Toronto International Festival of Authors lovingly described as “a tale of galactic supply chains and sexy shapeshifters.” He created the satirical webcomic The Complete Plays of William Shakespeare, distilling all 36 of the Bard’s plays into two-panel spreads published by his own Inkskratch Publishing. He’s contributed to Negative Burn, illustrated for fantasy and role-playing publications, done freelance work for UDON Entertainment, and even provided manga illustrations for Red-Blooded Risk: The Secret History of Wall Street by Aaron Brown (Wiley, 2012).
A graduate of Sheridan College’s traditional illustration and computer animation programs, Kim is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto, with minors in English and East Asian Studies—a fitting pursuit for an artist whose work draws so deeply on visual storytelling. He’s shared his illustrative wisdom through lectures at libraries and schools nationwide, and at TCAF (the Toronto Comic Arts Festival), he’s showcased personal projects like his anthology Superzine.
Perfect for fans of manga-influenced Western comics, K-drama-inspired romance, and anyone who believes that art can bridge any cultural gap—one perfectly timed comic panel at a time.
