Daehan Association published the first edition of ？？Daehanminbo？？, a daily, on June 2nd, 1909. ？？Daehanminbo？？ published artist Lee Do Young''s comic strips serially sponsored by Oh Se Chang, the first president of ？？Daehanminbo？？. Comic strips were used to arouse the public to reality. In this sense, ？？Daehanminbo？？ was strongly enlightening and it used differentiated styles with the purpose of education. Comic strips were also published on the purpose of making people aware of society properly. However, in reality, comic strips of the day have not been studied enough, but they just have been celebrated in that they were the first comic strips in Korea. Therefore, this article examined the themes and purposes of comic strips in ？？Daehanminbo？？ more exactly.
？？Daehanminbo？？ became an influential journal as it added comic strips into typical newspaper forms. The efforts to enlighten people were strongly expressed through comic strips and these comic strips attracted people''s attention with visual factors. That is, comic strips led people to have more interests in social issues by expressing important events with pictures.
Comic strips in ？？Daehanminbo？？ can be classified roughly into four types. The first type of comic strips aimed at enlightenment of the public. These types of comic strips were published in the early days of ？？Daehanminbo？？ and explained the purpose of Daehan Association properly. The second type dealt with social issues. ？？Daehanminbo？？ tried to let the public recognize reality by using comic strips that were familiar to people because of their sequence of drawings and words combined. The third type of comic strips mainly dealt with issues between the Daehan Empire and the powers. Gojong of the Korean Empire wanted to protect Korea against a Japanese invasion diplomatically, so he tried to weaken Japanese influence over Korea by dividing economic advantages and alienating them to Western powers. However, Gojong and the government of the Daehan Empire knew little of the international situation, so they were deprived of their economic rights by Japan. ？？Daehanminbo？？ put an effort into letting people know the Japanese invasion as well as social issues. The fourth type of comic strips criticized pro-Japanese Koreans, groups, and press. Pro-Japanese politicians and groups'' anti-national activities reached an extreme when Japanese annexation of Korea came to the finish. Their activities were good subjects for comic strips and ？？Daehanminbo？？ criticized those anti-national activities.
？？Daehanminbo？？ was forced to cease publication on August 31st as the Daehan Empire lost the sovereignty of a nation completely due to the Japanese annexation of Korea. Japan controlled the Korean press until the 1919 Independence Movement of Korea took place. After that time, the Japanese forced their culture on Koreans and permitted the press partly. Thus, newspapers started to be published and comic strips started to appear again by Kim Dong Sung of Dong-A Ilbo. Comic strips of that time were not severely satirical and critical compared to the ones of ？？Daehanminbo？？ but people were at the stage where they could enjoy the cartoons and share their criticisms. Starting with the study of comic strips in ？？Daehanminbo？？, hopes of continuous studies of Korean cartoons describing the times are anticipated.