“The Divine,” a graphic novel released earlier this year in French and nearing its publication in English, was inspired by the true story of Johnny and Luther Htoo, the child leaders of Myanmar’s ‘God’s Army.’
The adolescent Karen twins weren’t even teenagers yet when they rose to prominence during a battle in 1997 in which they helped repel Myanmar’s military. Their exploits made followers pray to them and treat the adolescent boys as holy figures, believing they could not be killed by conventional weapons.
In some ways, Luther and Johnny fulfilled the prophecy. Though the God’s Army lasted only a few years, the twins are still alive today and are in their 20s. Luther moved to Sweden but Johnny stayed behind and lived in a refugee camp in Thailand.
The brothers reunited briefly in 2013.
Tomer and Asaf Hanuka, illustrators from Israel, came across the story nine years ago and were fascinated by it, in part as they are also twins. They worked on the project with a friend, filmmaker and writer Boaz Lavie, and released it to fans at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in January.
“It was the story of a photographer who traveled to the jungle in Burma and met two 9-year-old twins who were leading a rebel militia against the Burmese army, and everyone believed they had superpowers,” Tomer told Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz. “After that, when I saw the photographs of the twins I told Asaf, ‘Come on, let’s do something with it.’ We wanted to do something together, and it seemed a good place to start.”
“They were a riddle for us,” Asaf added. “Because as twin boys we read too many American comic books, we really dreamt we had superpowers. And suddenly, we ran into a story of twin boys who really had such powers – and in a real war. Okay, not really, but at least in their world.”
The story is not a word-by-word retelling of the strange saga. The word Myanmar isn’t even mentioned. Instead, “The Divine” is set in a made-up Southeast Asian country called Quanlom and the plot focuses on an explosives expert named Mark who takes on a mining contract in the far-flung nation.
In Quanlom, he encounters a civil war and two young twins who lead their own army (sound familiar?) but the battles aren’t of the normal variety. This being a graphic novel, there is far more fantasy, including an “actual goddamn dragon,” as Amazon.com’s description puts it, and giant godlike warriors.
But if one story lends itself to a little exaggeration and imagination, it’s this one.
The book is available in French and is being released in English on July 14. No word yet on its availibility in Myanmar.
We’ve reached out to the brothers for comment but have yet to hear back.
Photo via The Divine // Graphic Novel Facebook page
