(The following text was written as the intorduction in the sampler catalogue on Manhwa that was?distributed at the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2003 (and in following SanDiego ComiCon as well). It was the initial year when the Korean Ministry of Culture?started promoting Manhwa to the Western world. For the sampler I selected the comics, wrote notes. For the event itself, I planned and wrote the script to the presentation show. Anyway, here it is…)
Introducing ‘Manhwa’: The World of Korean Comics
Contemporary Young Korean Comics
by Kim NakHo
Young Comics
Comics are forms of expression filled with diversity and youthful energy. Since the beginning, comics broke away from the rigidity of the standard art to freely express its messages and become an integral part of the popular culture.
If freedom to overcome the existing limits is indeed one of its virtues, such freedom is bound to be most ardently embodied by the young artists. The younger generation tries to communicate their diverse inner sensitivity and thoughts by using this effective new method rather than being confined to the old frame. In particular, young artists in Korea hold the added responsibility to create greater comics and thus overcome the trap of being tied to the mainstream genre that could easily become standardized under the industrial interests of capitalism. In addition to creating a new awareness and narrative style within the frameworks of the traditional comics style, their weapons are new visual styles, new comics grammar, up-to-date sensibility and message as well as the capacity to exterminate the borderline between various forms of media. With these progresses being made, it would be ideal to expand the world of comics by joining hands with many other youthful progresses around the world.
The Life of Korean Comics
by Park InHa (Eng. translation: Kim Nakho)
To talk about Korean comics several things should be taken into account: their artists, the times they lived in, the lives of people of the times – in short, the life of Korean comics itself. Throughout the last century, Korea underwent a succession of turbulent events: Japanese Colonialism, Liberation, US Military Occupation, the Korean War, uprisings for democracy, military dictatorship, democratization movements in 80s and movement for democracy in 1987. Amid such turbulences, Korean comics provided consolation to the tired people, offering a respite for the jobless and providing new epic fantasies to women. Like a life form undergoing the process of evolution, Korean comics continued to evolve.
The Fascination of Korean comics and Cross-Cultural Exchange
by Kim NakHo
Cultural Regionalities of Comics
In every society comics has been developing so closely in accordance with the public, making it literally the most ‘popular’ medium and art form. As comics are under strong influence of each society and its culture, they can be subdivided into several cultural regions, just like any other art form. Taking artistic trends and industrial formats of mainstream comics into account, some of the major regions are European, North American and Asian comics. It is a interesting fact that each major cultural region has a history quite independent from one another; Each one has not only its unique form of distribution or industrial format but also different themes, contents, forms of expression, readership and creative environment.