Kim Jung Gi

Kim died in Paris of a heart attack on 3 October 2022, after experiencing chest pains.

Kim frequently collaborated with other writers and illustrators. His first collaboration was with writer Seung-Jin Park, for whom he illustrated Tiger the Long Tail. Kim also collaborated more than once with Belgian comics artist Jean-David Morvan: in 2014 he provided the illustrations for Morvan's SpyGames comics, and in 2016 did the same for McCurry, NYC, 9/11. Besides these collaborations, Kim also provided illustrations for many other properties, including variant covers for Civil War II and 10th-anniversary illustrations for League of Legends. In 2017, Kim published Katsuya Terada + Kim Jung Gi Illustrations Collection, a collaboration between himself and one of his own favorite artists. He also claimed to have been working on a project with Katsuhiro Otomo.

Kim drew in a variety of sizes, but he was especially well known for his large drawings. He drew these pictures directly on paper without the use of sketching or other preparation, improvising them as he went. From 2014, he also publicly exhibited his process at special events, where he would draw over a large white canvas. In 2015, he made an attempt to hold the Guinness world record for the "longest drawing by an individual."

In 2001, he chose "Kim Jung Gi" as his "English name" over his legal name, Kim Jung Ki, because "Gi" was "more visually appealing."

When Kim began his career as an artist between the years 2000 and 2001, his works were primarily military-related. According to his official biography, his first published work was Funny Funny, which ran in the Japanese magazine Young Jump between 2002 and 2003. Following this, he began teaching art at universities and private schools. Kim worked for the art studio SuperAni and taught at the AniChanga Art School, which he co-founded with Kim Hyun-jin. He also taught at and provided video content for the Kazone Art Academy, a private secondary art school located in Los Angeles.

Kim Jung Gi (legally Kim Jung Ki; Korean: 김정기, hanja: 金政基; 7 February 1975 – 3 October 2022) was a South Korean illustrator, cartoonist, and manhwa artist. He was famous for his large, highly detailed illustrations, ink and brush artistic style, and skill at drawing from memory. Kim could complete his drawings entirely from his imagination, without the use of sketches, visual references, or other preparatory aids, and often used exotic forms of perspective, such as curvilinear perspective.

Kim was born in 1975 in Goyang, a suburb of Seoul. He was inspired to begin drawing after viewing an illustration from the Japanese manga Dr. Slump, drawn by Akira Toriyama. In school, his teachers often chastised him for not paying attention, as he was busy doodling in his notes.