SAN DIEGO — Jae is a struggling artist studying in Paris, and her dream of becoming a successful painter is floundering. So she is prepared to return to her home in Korea. But late one night, a friend hurriedly drops off a breathtakingly beautiful man to sleep off his drunkenness at Jae’s apartment, and so, into her life enters Michael. Immediately, Jae begins to have the life sucked out of her — literally — by this mysterious being. Michael, you see, is a vampire.

Jae’s creator, artist So-Young Lee, does not have to worry about finding success. She has already achieved acclaim and countless fans worldwide as the author and illustrator of the best-selling “Model,” the Korean comic book, or manhwa, that tells the story of Jae and her relationship with Michael. Lee is, however, encountering all manners of monsters at the 2005 Comic-Con International in San Diego, where she has come for the first time to share her love for manhwa with American audiences.

With manhwa slowly gaining a more sizable foothold with American comic book readers, Lee has a panel all to herself on July 15 at the largest comic book convention in the country, and she is describing to some of her fans just what is involved in bringing “Model” to life. Like how it takes her three to four months to write and illustrate one volume — about 200 pages — of the saga, which has recently come to an end with the publication of the seventh and final volume in August.

The 33-year-old never expected that she would be at a point where an American publisher would release a series of her manhwas.

Her relationship with the graphic storytelling form began in junior high. “A friend introduced me to manhwas, and I fell in love with them,” says Lee.

So-Young Lee (left) speaks on the process of making a manhwa on a panel at Comic-Con International last July, with Carol Fox from Tokyopop moderating.

She also had a love for drawing. “Ever since I was young,” Lee says, “I would always draw.” She was also self-taught. “I never took lessons. I never went to school to learn how to draw. I learned all by myself.”

It dawned on her that she could combine her two passions. “I thought, ‘Hmm, I should be a manhwa artist.’”

And so at the age of 22, Lee’s career as a creator of manhwa began. She produced titles such as “God of Death” and “Check,” with story ideas often inspired from watching movies.

Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire and its film adaptation starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt was the starting point for “Model.” “There are a lot of vampire movies. That’s a common topic. I know that,” Lee says. “What I wanted to do was to take a common topic into my manhwa and make it really special for my audience.”

That audience is mostly women. And as soon as Michael begins sucking on Jae’s blood, Jae discovers that she has found a muse in the vampire who will fuel her art. Thus, an unusual love story begins.