BUCHEON, Gyeonggi Province -- Writing about one of the most lethal weapon ever invented, Didier Alcante and Laurent-Frederic Bollee, the authors of “Atomic Bomb,” never expected to visit South Korea -- much less to win an award. “This was our first time to win an award outside of our respective countries. We won a prize in Belgium, Canada and France. It is very nice to get international recognition,” Belgian author Alcante said in an interview with The Korea Herald at

Vertically scrolling comics on smartphones are being brought to the big screen by CJ 4DPLEX, a tech subsidiary of CJ CGV, and Naver Webtoon. While retaining the webtoon format, including the typography, speech bubbles and cartoon layout, “4DX Moon You,” which opens in theaters Oct. 12, is "told" with motion seat action and environmental special effects, including wind, fog, snow and more. The result is a fully immersive experience for the upcoming 4DX webtoon’s audien

One of the best known Naver Webtoon IPs is being adapted as an animation. Global streaming service Netflix announced on Sunday that a new webtoon-based series “Lookism” is scheduled to be premiere Nov. 4. Unlike the service’s previous webtoon-based titles -- “D.P.,” “Hellbound,” “All of Us Are Dead” and “The Sound of Magic,” “Lookism” makes its debut on Netflix as an animation. According to the company, the series, bas

Bucheon International Comics Festival is scheduled to kick off its four-day event from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3 at the Korea Manhwa Museum in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. The festival returned after a two-year break as South Korea removed its major COVID-19 social distancing restrictions earlier this year. The theme of this year’s festival is “Another universe,” highlighting the ideas from fantasy and imagination. Dividing the world into real and virtual, offline and online, digital

A leading power in the new era of the Korean Wave, or Hallyu, webtoons are expanding their global presence and being adapted into different formats: TV dramas, variety shows, films and K-pop. Vertically scrolling comics on smartphones have captured readers' attention with innovative approaches such as animation effects, background music and their own soundtracks. Though Korean webtoon companies began global businesses in 2014, it is only in the last few years that the companies have been

In August 2002, the online portal site Daum created a category called “Webtoon” on its platform. Following Daum, South Korea’s largest online portal and search engine Naver launched a similar platform in 2005. Twenty years after their conception, webtoons have become a veritable industry of their own. South Korean webtoons have emerged as a strong multiuse source that create enormous economic value not only in Korea, but also globally. Domestically, it raked in 1.053 trillion

Marvel Comics’ Korean superhero squad will take center stage in their first solo series, “Tiger Division,” set to be released on Nov. 3. Marvel announced a five-issue limited series for “Tiger Division” last week at San Diego Comic-Con. The seven Korean superheroes are: Taeguekgi, the powerful patriot with a heart of gold; White Fox, a character based on the nine-tailed fox legend; K-pop star Luna Snow; mysterious sorceress Lady Bright; street-brawling demigod Mr

Pinkfong, the company behind the hit YouTube “Baby Shark Dance,” is set to sell shark family-related non-fungible tokens on the digital art platform and marketplace MakersPlace in the third quarter of the year. According to the company, a total of 10,000 generative art NFTs, including the members of shark family -- Mommy Shark, Daddy Shark, Grandma Shark, Alec (the grandfather shark) and Ollie, the Little Baby Shark -- and background images, will be produced for the upcoming projec

Television channel ENA’s courtroom series “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” will be adapted into a webtoon, media content company Astory announced Tuesday, unveiling a cartoon image of the lead character Woo Young-woo. According to the production company, the webtoon “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” will be serialized in 60 episodes, drawn by illustrator HwaUmJo and written by Yuil. The webtoon will be serviced in four languages -- Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese, t

Kakao Entertainment announced the animated adaptation of its popular webtoon series “Solo Leveling” on Monday. According to the company, the action-fantasy will be co-produced by Kakao Entertainment and Japan’s renowned animation studio A-1 Pictures, the company behind many successful animated adaptations such as “Sword Art Online,” “The Seven Deadly Sins,” “Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, Erased” and “Your Lie in April.”

Kakao Entertainment and the Korean Cultural Center Thailand will present a webtoon about Thai veterans who participated in the Korean War. The webtoon has been created to inform the younger generation about the history of the Korean War. Titled “One Day, My Beloved Idol Group‘s Leader Disappeared!” it will be launched in September in Thailand. The story begins when the leader of the famous K-pop boy band Little Tiger disappears, even from people’s memory. The main charac

Kakao Entertainment’s popular sports webtoon “The Gift” is coming to the small screen. “The Gift,” a webtoon series written and drawn by author J1212, centers around baseball coach Jung Min-yong who has a supernatural power to rate the level and ability of baseball players. Min-yong starts coaching at a high school and scouts Tae-hoon as a first team pitcher, seeing in him potential to become a great player. The story develops as the players show their dissatisfa

Naver Webtoon, South Korean tech giant Naver’s web-based cartoon platform, and DC Comics revealed the release date for their latest titles, “Red Hood: Outlaws” and “Zatanna and the Ripper.” During a discussion about the future of comics at the Collision Conference, Marie Javins, DC Comics editor-in-chief, and Naver Webtoon head of content David Lee said their upcoming series will be available on July 11 and Aug. 14, respectively, according to Naver Webtoon’s

Kakao Entertainment on Thursday announced the hosting of the webtoon competition “Global Raid Kakao Webtoon Contest.” The webtoon showdown, which will receive applications from Aug. 1-7, is aimed at discovering popular webtoon-IP targeting both local and global readers. The upcoming contest seeks to find creative projects in action fantasy, school action, noir, sports and martial arts genres. Both rookie and veteran creators can participate the contest individually or as a team.

Television celebrities and movie stars may not only be competing with virtual social media influencers like Rozy, but also with other 2D characters for advertising gigs as a growing number of businesses show interest in webtoons and animations to target millennials and Generation Z, locally known as the MZ generation. Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Motor Group’s auto parts maker, revealed a racing animation titled “Dead or Arrive” on the company’s official YouTube channel &ldqu

Naver Webtoon, South Korean tech giant Naver’s web-based cartoon platform, announced that it is receiving applications for “The Greatest Webtoon Contest 2022” starting Wednesday. The contest will be held twice this year, with the goal of promoting the creative content industry and local webtoons as well as finding webtoon creators to lead the company, Naver Webtoon said. Applicants are required to submit a maximum of three episodes and may present additional documents, inclu

While webtoon-based Korean films and TV series have risen as a tried-and-true source of fresh ideas for creators throughout the world, a growing number of Korean digital comics are making their own presence felt on the global stage. "Navillera: Like a Butterfly," written by Hun and Jimmy and published by Kakao Entertainment, was nominated for the Best Webcomic section at this year's Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, or Eisner Awards for short. The four other nominees are "Ba

South Korean webtoon “Navillera” will be competing in the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, Kakao Entertainment announced Wednesday. According to the company, “Navillera” has been nominated in the best webcomic category alongside “Batman: Wayne Family Adventures” by CRC Payne and StarBite, “Isle of Elsi” by Alec Longstreth, “Lore Olympus” by Rachel Smythe and “Unmasked” by Breri and Nuitt. Named after Will Eisner, a pion

When asked about the famous line in the drama “The Sound of Magic” -- “Do you believe in magic?” -- the webtoon author and illustrator Ha Il-kwon replied with a brief answer: “I want to believe in magic.” “I think the question, which is continuously repeated throughout the webtoon, was my personal question to the readers, asking if they still have childhood innocence and dreams in their hearts,” Ha said in an email interview with The Korea Herald