Ginseng Roots (2019 Uncivilized Comics) comic books 2021-2023
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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.$6.00
$6.00
$4.49
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.
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Issue #12
Published Sep 2023 by Uncivilized Comics.$9.00
$9.00
Story by Craig Thompson. Four years in the making, the exact duration required to bring the prized crop to harvest, Ginseng Roots reaches its finale. Craig drives across the country for his parents' 50th wedding anniversary and wrestles with the ghosts of his childhood. His mother dreams of the Christian Rapture, his father sleeps in a barn with Mexican migrants, Phil imbibes ginseng moonshine, and farmers leave the ginseng industry to grow marijuana instead. This double-length issue sprawls across rural Wisconsin, reflecting on aging parents, changing America, and where to find a sense of belonging. 64 pages, CP/B&W Cover price $9.00.
