Korean webtoons featured at French comics festival

By Baek Byung-yeul

A poster promoting Korean online comic strips at this year’s Angouleme International Comics Festival / Courtesy of Korea Manhwa Contents Agency

Korean webtoons will be showcased at a prominent comics festival in France.

At this year’s Angouleme International Comics Festival, which runs for four days from Thursday to Sunday, the streets of Angouleme, southwestern France, will display 18 online comics from Korea, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Tuesday.

“This special exhibition is to commemorate this year’s 130th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and Korea. We hope this exhibition will provide the opportunity for Korean cartoonists to boost interactions with European fans,” the ministry said in a statement. This event is the fourth of its kind at the French comics festival.

Titled “Webtoon Playground,” the 18 webtoons include Yoon Tae-ho’s “Misaeng,” Park Yong-je’s “The God of High School,” Ha Il-kwon’s “Go Go Go,” Cho Seok’s “The Sound of Your Heart” and Kang Full’s “Moving.”

As part of the festival, cartoonists Lee Jong-beom, known for “Dr. Frost” and Uksoo, an author of “Ho!,” will demonstrate the process of creating webtoons. A conference on the future of online comic strips will also be held on Friday, featuring industry specialists from Korea and France such as Prof. Hang Sang-jung of Sangji University in Korea and Didier Borg, chief of Delitoon, a French webcomic provider.

Established in 1974, the Angouleme festival has been recognized as one of the world’s largest comics festivals along with Italy’s “Lucca Comics & Games” and Japan’s “Comiket.”

The festival made headlines in Korea two years ago, when it featured a special exhibition about Korean women forced into sexual slavery during World War II. At the festival, Korean artists displayed 20 comic strips and video works focusing on the victims.