The Divine, a graphic novel loosely based on the story of two young Karen twins who led the so-called God’s Army in a brief rebellion against Myanmar’s military in the late 1990s, is nearing publication in an English version. To learn a little more about the book, we asked the three Israeli artists behind it: Boaz Lavie and twin brothers Asaf Hanuka and Tomer Hanuka. Boaz is a writer, filmmaker and game designer while the Hanuka bros are award-winning illustrators whose work has appeared on the cover of the New Yorker and in the Oscar-nominated film Waltz with Bashir.
Without further adieu, here’s The Divine-ly inspired Q&A, to which we’ve added some sample illustrations. The interview has been edited for length and clarity, and the artist answering the question is indicated by his first name.
1) How did you come up with the idea for The Divine?
Tomer: It was a chance encounter with the news story of the Htoo twins [the child leaders of God’s Army], back in 2006. It struck us instantly as fascinating, mysterious and in many ways, opaque. What was really going on there? The more we read, the deeper the mystery became. This was the spark for The Divine. When Boaz, the writer, came on board very early on, he decided to start from scratch and create a completely fictional story, inspired but separate from the real events.
2) What was it about the story of the twins that stuck with you or resonated with you?
Boaz: The story of the real Htoo twins is remarkable. It’s inspiring in so many levels. For us, I think it resonated with two main personal themes: first – the fact that Asaf and Tomer are twins as well, and second – the unbelievably huge difference between how these twins grew up as kids – leading a guerilla group in the jungle, and how we grew up – sheltered, relatively happy, and safe, in a suburb of a pretty much run of the mill western city. The similarities, multiplied by the differences, felt like a good start for challenging creative process.
Tomer: We grew up reading superhero comics, so the idea of having a super power was something we fantasized about often as kids. Reading about the Htoo twins whom everyone believed to be magical, was a childhood fantasy come to life, but in the most harsh and brutal circumstances.
3) What kinds of research did you have to do to understand the God’s Army background?
Tomer: We read anything that we could get our hands on, including Red Cross reports, with testimonials of survivors and refugees. We’ve also gathered a small library. Here are some books we’ve read, to name a few: From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey; Suffering in Silence: The Human Rights Nightmare of the Karen People of Burma; The Snake Prince and Other Stories: Burmese Folk Tales (International Folk Tales Series). We’ve also gathered visual references, including these books: The Art of Burma, Korea, Tibet (Art of the World Series); The Art of Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Burma, Java, Bali; Southeast Asian Art and Culture: Ideas, Forms, and Societies.
4) Have you ever been to Myanmar or this part of the world?
Boaz: No. The closest I got was visiting, more than once, a few East Asian countries, particularly China and Japan. I know it has very little to do with Myanmar or its culture. From what I’ve learned, Myanmar is a fascinating place and I hope to visit there, sooner than later.
5) Was it difficult to imagine it as a setting?
Asaf: The story is 100% fiction. It takes place in an imagined country called “Quanlom”. So there was no need to be too accurate in describing the setting. It’s not about the real Myanmar. But of course we’ve researched quite a bit in order to get the right combination of elements for our fictitious Southeast Asian country. We’ve collected photography books from the larger area of Southeast Asia, but our visual vocabulary was also inspired from Hokusai woodcut prints. There’s a lot of our own imagination there, and some reality. After all, it’s a fantasy.
6) Who do you think is the audience?
Tomer: First, anyone who loves reading comics or graphic novels will hopefully enjoy it. We did everything we could to tell the most compelling story, working for years on the narrative and art. A more specific audience would be readers who enjoy fantasy; there’s a lot of it in the book. And others who enjoy action. It’s pretty intense. However, the main theme in the book is relationships. Husband and wife, old army friends, twin brothers. Different types of relationships. Relationships are the engine for the story. So even if you’re not too much into fantasy, or action comics, there’s still a lot in this book for you.
7) Do you hope people in Myanmar will read the book?
Boaz: Of course we do. We don’t know much about the book market in Myanmar and whether people in Myanmar read graphic novels or are interested in them, but we’ll be excited if we’d know that people there read it.
8) Will the book be made available here?
Asaf: We don’t know yet. It’s something we’ll be happy to discuss with our publisher once we’re done with the American launch, which is coming up soon.
9) You are all Israeli, but the book seems to have started in French, and isn’t available in Hebrew as far as I can tell. Is there a reason for that?
Boaz: The book was originally purchased for publishing by an American publisher called First Second, together with a French publisher called Dargaud. A collaboration. It was written in English, but was first published in its French translation, in France, because of scheduling consideration: they had us as guests at the Angouleme comics festival, in January, so it was good timing to launch it there.
10) How does your story differ from the true story?
Boaz: Our story is complete fiction. We treated the real story as inspiration only. So only the most basic elements from the real story are there, and even they were changed quite a bit. There are the twins, of course, who have different names in the book, and are younger. There’s this small army of kids around them, and there’s the magic. All others aspects of the story are different. The Divine is actually a story of an American explosives technician who’s offered a contract by an old army friend to go and blow up a mountain in Quanlom [the fictional Southeast country where the graphic novel is set], in order to help the local government mine for minerals. They go there and find themselves involved in a civil war, fighting against a guerrilla group of kids, led by these two twins, called ‘The Divine.’ As you can see, it’s not about the real Htoo twins, but they were the inspiration for these two twins in the book, who have a major role in the story.
The Divine is being released in English on July 14 in print and on Kindle. Go here for more information.
All illustrations via The Divine Facebook page
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