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Death of cartoonist stirs sadness: ‘Rest in peace’

The death of 32-year-old cartoonist Jo Soo-jin, who had an online Web toon about her battle against lymphatic cancer, has caused a wave of sadness nationwide.

The cartoonist died Saturday, when her condition took a turn for the worse while receiving cancer treatment.

Obangtteok Sonyeo

The news spread three days after her death and tens of thousands of fans visited her blog to post condolences.

“You gave us smiles and hope, although you were the one who was suffering. We’ll never forget you,” reads one of the posts.

Widely known by her pen name “Obangtteok Sonyeo,” Jo gained fame by drawing and writing on her blog about her six-year struggle against cancer.

After gaining vast popularity, she published two collections of her comic strips in 2009 and 2010.

The comic strips contained stories about what it’s like to go through a day of chemotherapy, how she spent a boring day at a hospital and even her secret crush on a doctor. She also drew about her ardent love of the boy band 2AM.

Upon hearing about Jo’s death, Lee Chang-min, a 2AM member who was a subject of Jo’s comic strip, expressed his sympathy on his Twitter page yesterday by saying, “Your book that I read again is still lying on my desk.?.?. Thank you for your love and rest in peace.”

The young cartoonist took an elite path - graduating from a prestigious science high school and then Seoul National University, the country’s top university, and eventually getting a job at Samsung Group - but in 2005, her illness came upon her like a bolt of lightning.

Jo thought she had overcome the cancer, but a year later, when she was being treated for pneumonia, she was struck by news that her cancer had returned.

Because Jo’s childhood dream was to be a cartoonist, her older sister suggested she write comic-strip diary and post it online.

So, Jo started to upload her diary in September 2007. Numerous cancer patients have said Jo’s cartoon gave them hope and they will continue to fight the disease.

By Yim Seung-hye [enational@joongang.co.kr]

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