Seo Ducky

'NOTE: Please note the similarities between names. The mascot will be referred to as Ducky, whereas the artist/singer will be referred to as Duck-Hwan. The latter contradicts the surname-before-forename rule, and is only to avoid confusion.'

Seo Ducky (Japanese: せおだっきー/セオダッキー, Korean: 서덕 키) is a Japanese-Korean mascot character created by artist and former singer Seo Duck-Hwan in 2003 as part of a comic series to promote his albums. He rose to fame in 2007 with the VidSpace video ‘Seo Ducky Loves You’, a short film made to advertise his newest album at the time ‘VALENTINE DREAM’ (バレンタインドリーム), and gained mass popularity in several East Asian and Western culture. Since becoming a media sensation, Ducky has appeared as a special guest at several events, festivals, appeared in major brand commercials and TV shows/specials, and has had 2 anime series made of him, both of which Duck-Hwan worked on himself.

History
Duck-Hwan started his music career in the year 2000 with his now-famous single Y2Kryptonite at age 16. The song was recorded in his home town of Yuza, Yamagata in Japan. He had a small career in the art industry by creating his own manga series and selling them at his secondary school, and continued to do so until graduation.

SeoHub and Childhood Memories with My Friend Ducky
In 2002, Duck-Hwan launched SeoHub, a website dedicated to his art and music. SeoHub would feature digitalized versions of his own manga, and a new westernized comic series called Childhood Memories with My Friend Ducky ( 友達のダッキーとの子供時代の思い出; often abbreviated to My Friend Ducky).

The comic was based on Duck-Hwan’s younger self, and many of the odd scenarios he’d often gotten himself into, like his first crush and attending his parent’s wedding. The comic is now widely recognized and a favorite to those who still read it. My Friend Ducky was primarily used to advertise Duck-Hwan as a musical artist. He said in a 2009 Fuji Television interview that he ‘wanted something that would appeal to the Japanese market, and cute stuff and anime was rising like hell these times.’ In addition, each album CD he released would be accompanied by a 3-5 panel strip of his comic, and each vinyl would have a 10-20 panel strip, to save space.