While a child during the Korean War, Kim lived in a refugee camp, where he read the comic strip "Mr. Manhong," featured in a Busan newspaper.

[3] While still at university, Kim made his professional debut in Manhwa Segye Magazine with "A Shining Star at Dawn," a well-received story about fighters for Korean independence from Japan.

Published during a post-war period of great economic distress, Kim used his hero to express the spirit of the Korean people and to urge his readers to overcome their hardships.

With a "ㄹ"-shaped badge on the chest (based on the Taebaek Mountains), and armed with futuristic weapons, Lifi fought against crowds of devils.

[3] In 1966, Kim moved to the United States, setting up a publishing house[3] and working as an art director at the magazines Off Broadway and Village Times.

Kim had been slated to design and illustrate the original series, which he had titled Wrong Country, but the artwork was misplaced and Charlton regulars Joe Gill and Warren Sattler filled in for the duration of Yang's run.

In the early 1990s Kim traveled to China, where he came to believe that six thousand years earlier, ancient Koreans had governed broad areas of that country, including the Shandong Peninsula and Manchuria.

[3] Following his visit to China, Kim changed the focus of his comics to historical topics, including Daejusinjeguksa (History of Great Korean Empire).