Ginseng Roots (2019 Uncivilized Comics) comic books 2020-2022
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Issue #3
Published Jan 2020 by Uncivilized Comics.$7.49
$7.49
Story, Art and Cover by Craig Thompson. Ginseng Roots unearths the earliest recorded knowledge of ginseng and its healing properties. From the mythic figure that first discovered it: Shennong, the god of farming and medicine, through tales of ginseng hunters in the mountains of ancient China, to the first ever International Wisconsin Ginseng Festival in the author's hometown. A red thread of history and time binds the ginseng buyers from Asia with rural growers in America. 6 inch x 9 inch, 32 pages, full color. Cover price $5.00.
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Issue #6
Published Sep 2020 by Uncivilized Comics.$9.49
Story, Art and Cover by Craig Thompson. The stratification, planting, and growth cycles of the ginseng seed parallel the seasons of childhood. Ginseng berries are gathered in the last week of summer, just before school resumes and brings with it the awkward transitions of adolescence, sexuality, and friendship… or a parental decision to homeschool. Before planting, ginseng seeds are doused in bleach and fungicide-a purifying ritual of sorts-like baptism-which Craig and his siblings undergo to be cleansed of sin. 6 inch by 9 inch, 32 pages, full color. Cover price $6.00.
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Issue #7
Published Nov 2020 by Uncivilized Comics.$8.49
$8.49
Story by Craig Thompson. The seventh issue of Craig Thompson's Ginseng Roots follows the story of a family of Hmong immigrants that may have been the first to farm ginseng in America. The Hmong story is traced from CIA's Secret War in Laos, through the ethnic cleansing campaign in their homeland, to America's reluctant acceptance of Hmong as refugees. As they struggled with assimilation and discrimination in rural America, Hmong immigrants became the primary labor force in Wisconsin's ginseng gardens. Also, the long-awaited harvest of the roots! 6 inch by 9 inch, 32 pages, full color. Cover price $6.00.
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Issue #8
Published Feb 2021 by Uncivilized Comics.$9.00
Written, Art and Cover by Craig Thompson. A young Hmong boy sacrifices his childhood, his education, and his future dreams to help out in the family ginseng gardens. His father is torn between the traditional Hmong customs, shamanism, and his role as a Christian pastor in America. Spring brings unexpected death and mourning, but in fall the harvest must begin again. As markets change, a new generation struggles to continue the ginseng legacy. Profits have shifted to the retail side at the expense of the farmer's hard labor. Another harvest cycle unearths ghosts in the soil, both ancestral and chemical. 32 pages, PC/PB&W. Cover price $6.00.
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Issue #9
Published Nov 2021 by Uncivilized Comics.$12.00
$10.00
Story by Craig Thompson. Phil joins Craig during a book tour in South Korea, through Seoul and Bucheon, then extending to a research journey in rural Geumsan, the epicenter of Korean ginseng cultivation. Geumsan is the sister city to Marathon, the brothers' tiny American town, but with a deep thousand-year history of art, mythology, and cuisine surrounding the medicinal root. While there, the brothers sort out how Craig's paralyzing writer's block and Phil's marital strain are tangled up in their working-class childhood. 32 pages, PC/B&W. Cover price $6.00.
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Issue #10
Published Aug 2022 by Uncivilized Comics.$5.60
$5.60
$4.20
Written and Art and Cover by Craig Thompson. Phil joins Craig during a book tour in South Korea, through Seoul and Bucheon, then extending to a research journey in rural Geumsan, the epicenter of Korean ginseng cultivation. Geumsan is the sister city to Marathon, the brothers' tiny American town, but with a deep thousand-year history of art, mythology, and cuisine surrounding the medicinal root. While there, the brothers sort out how Craig's paralyzing writer's block and Phil's marital strain are tangled up in their working-class childhood. 32 pages, full color. Cover price $6.00.
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Issue #11
Published Dec 2022 by Uncivilized Comics.$6.00
Art, Cover, and Written by Craig Thompson. Craig Thompson and his brother Phil reconcile, recover from illness, hire an interpreter, and reconnect for the final leg of their journey. The Jilin Province of China is the birthplace of the ginseng story. This hard-to-reach region on the border of North Korea features one of the largest forest preserves in all of China. The brothers encounter a wild ginseng root that wins a $120,000 prize, nude environmentalists protesting ginseng cultivation, and why it's easier to attend university in China than in America. Bootleg versions of Craig's books and Wisconsin ginseng beg the question: What does it mean to be authentic in an age of globalization? 32 pages, full CP/B&W. Cover price $6.00.
