Manhwa Review: Delusion Vol. 1

Some jobs come with a warning. In Delusion Volume 1, artist Yun Iho accepts a commission from the mysterious Madam Song Jeonghwa and discovers a chilling note from the previous artist: "Do not finish the portrait." When Yun Iho meets Madam Song, he is surprised to find her young and beautiful, but she wants him to paint her as an older woman. As he learns more about her past and what happened to the artists before him, it gets harder to know what is real and what is not. This volume delivers a steady sense of unease, striking artwork, and a mystery that keeps you guessing.

It’s 1935 in Seoul, Korea, and struggling artist Yun Iho has been commissioned by the elderly, reclusive Madam Song Jeonghwa to paint an updated portrait of her. When Iho goes to pick up the art supplies from the previous artist’s room, he finds an ominous note tucked between paint tubes: “Do not finish the portrait.”

When he actually meets Madam Song, he finds her to be startlingly young and beautiful, yet she asks him to paint her as though she were eighty. What could it all mean? Listening to her seemingly unrelated stories about a spate of unsolved murders in Shanghai that happened long before Iho was born does little to allay his confusion.

In a slowly unfolding revelation, each panel drenched in more dread than the last, Iho learns that no artist has ever left Madam Song’s hotel alive. He starts to suspect the horrifying truth of what she is, and what, exactly, she might be capable of. . . .

A Gripping Work

Delusion by Hongjacga gave me so many trust issues. It’s the kind of plot that makes you feel nauseous with uncertainty, constantly second-guessing who to believe. You try to connect the dots and figure out what makes sense, but staying sane yourself while reading this is difficult. I read it during the day specifically because the art is so beautiful yet so scary at the same time. I didn’t want to end up with nightmares!

The story is very interesting, a mysterious "how do you survive this" type of tale. It follows Yun Iho, who has been commissioned by the elderly, reclusive Madam Song Jeonghwa. She is known for employing people to paint her, but her request is specific: paint her with an appearance that is 20 years older.

When I read that, I immediately thought that she has to be a vampire. As someone who read and watched a lot of vampire-related stuff when I was younger, I sensed something was up from the early chapters. The key things to know about vampires are that they don't age. So when they talked about how she wanted someone to paint her looking older than she currently appears, I was like, she has to be a vampire, there's nothing else that makes sense. And then it was revealed that she was one, and my instincts were correct!

Next Steps for Iho

Now Iho is trying to figure out how to handle this and survive. He has been going through events that he first thought were illusions, making him feel like he was going crazy.

He looks at other artists' work that did paintings for Madam Song placed around her place, and he sees patterns. As an artist, he can tell these artists were just trying to get it done as quickly as they could before they died. He can tell by how they lack the imagination to show someone ageing or what she wants to look like when she gets older. From the looks of it, the audience is trying to get her to think that they're doing it right, even though they just change a little bit, like putting wrinkled faces or gray hair, because normally people think that's how it works when you get older, but it doesn't really feel realistic.

Maybe Madam Song is actually very kind, but she has a difficult past. No one is born evil. People are shaped by their backgrounds and how they were raised. As you read, you see how others view her, how stories can be changed by others, or even by her own hand. Iho still has to decide who to trust. It seems natural to believe someone telling their own story, since they lived through it, but even they can change the truth. The story is full of mystery as you try to learn about her past and how things ended up this way. Piecing it all together feels fulfilling.

Release Details

Delusion Volume 1 is now available to purchase in paperback and ebook, published by Inklore. Volume 2 is scheduled for a release in April 2027. The series is also coming soon to Disney+ as a live-action adaptation under the title Portraits of Delusion. You can also read the series digitally on WEBTOON.

Carolyn Grant with Iasmin Omar Ata handled the lettering for this release, while Christa Guild served as the production editor.

This Korean webcomic was originally published in 2019 and ran for 60 chapters total, later compiled into three volumes.

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, reading this first volume was haunting. Watching Yun Iho try to survive while uncovering Madam Song's past kept me on tenterhooks the whole time. I liked that the mystery was revealed through the viewpoint of different characters, which made the story feel more personal and real, even with the supernatural parts. The characters are complicated, and nobody is just good or bad; everyone’s past affects who they are. I really enjoyed this volume, even though it left me with a lot of trust issues.

Delusion.© 2022 by Hongjacga
Anime Atelier received a copy of the book to review.