Marvin White, a New Yorker, is a fan of comics who commutes to a comic bookstore Midtown Comics. He was into Japanese Manga for a while, and now spends his time reading Korean Manhwa. Because of the opposite book binding to Japanese books, it was a fresh shock to read Korean Manhwa left to right. As soon as he gets into the second floor of the bookstore where comic books are arranged in shelves, he picks up [Priest], a comic books about a bride who becomes an exorcist by selling her soul to a demon only to get a revenge on her dead sweetie.
Planting the Korean flag in the US comic market
The owner of Midtown Comics says “[Priest] is a best seller forming manias for the comic book. Korean Manhwa is gradually coming into spotlight in the US market.” The Korean Manhwa is still classified with the Japanese Manga section. However [Priest] by Hyung, Min-woo, [Demon Diary] by Kara, [Models] by Lee, So-young, [Tarot Café] by Park, Sang-seon and [Lagnarok] by Lee, Myung-jin is considered as best sellers among American comic fans. [Lagnarok] has sold almost 0.5 million copies, and [Priest], of which copyright is bought by a Hollywood film production Screen Jam, will be launched worldwide this summer.
The US comic market is mainly divided into two genres, Comics and Graphic Novels. Comics are colorful magazine-like books consisted of one episode, while graphic novels refer black & white comic books.
As of 2005, the US comic market worth around 0.5 trillion won, and graphic novel market, which is the main focus of Korean Manhwa, takes up to more than 0.2 trillion won. There is not accurate statistics on the market shares, about 100 Korean Manhwa titles have been published in the US market.
Dreaming of Korean Wave for Manhwa
American comic fans pick hybridity of forms and purity of contents as the competitiveness of Korean Manhwa. The artist Hyung, Min-woo of Priest demonstrates “I combined the characteristics of Japanese Manga and American comics. The rough lines and characters of [Priest] come close to the American comics, but I overcame the weakness of America comics, the too much contents in one cut, by adopting Japanese style, the detailed description in the divided cuts. Purity is the difference from the American superhero cartoons like Superman and Batman, and from the sensational Japanese Manga, which contains excessive violence and sex. Korean romance comics such as [Models], [INVU] and [Chocolate] are especially popular among American girls, who are tired of the macho superhero comics.
The director at Ecomix Media Company assures “The beginning of Japanese Mangao was insignificant, but took over the market very soon based on the excellence in contents. Korean Manhwa also has its own know-how such as comics that are suitable for online market and emotional scenario, so we will see the Korean Wave for Korean Manhwa with differentiated characteristics.”
Extract from DongA Daily Newspaper, April 10, 2006 |
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