Asia in Comics 2004 - The World of Comics by Asian Women

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NOTE: The translations were typed as they appeared in the program, though the English is awkward at times. Asia In Comics 2004 - Comics by Asian Women February 21, 2004 (Sat.) 14:00-17:00 February 22, 2004 (Sun.) 14:00-17:00 The Japan Foundation Forum Organized by The Japan Foundation Asia Center [page 8] (Japanese-language version of presentation) [page 9] Session 1/Presentation No. 2 Korean Girls' Comics of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow by Kim Young Joong Born in 1962. Founding member of Korea's first magazine specializing in girl's comics, the monthly Renaissance. After working on the girls' comic magazines Mini, Color, Issue, and Party, she is now Editor in Chief of the girls' comic magazines Mink, Sugar, and Wink. (1) Korean Girls' Comics From Birth to Development After Korean girls' comics experienced its first boom in the early 1960s, Candy Candy and other such Japanese comics were introduced in 1978, leading to emergence of many girls' comic artists and the arrival of the second boom. A boom also began with the founding of the first girls' comics monthly magazine Renaissance in November 1988, the consequence of which was countless bestsellers popping up and new comic artists bursting forward like new shining stars. The largest booming period lasted from the beginning to the middle of the 1990s. Excessive competition by publishers, however, forced the artists into over-production of works, which diminished their quality and appeal, and as hits no longer appeared as a result, the comics market dived into a period of stagnation. (2) The Structure of Korean Comics Market Drastically Changes with the Advent of 21st Century Appearance of comic rental shops in the early 1990s and rapid development and spread of the Internet adversely affected the comic market, and with the start of the new millennia the Korean comic publishing market faced another new crisis. Without consideration of the readers' circumstances, the Internet-related companies proceeding with marketing and business strategies of offering comics for free as a means of advertising revenue added even more hardships onto the published comic market. The publishing companies are making every effort to protect the published comic market from this on-line free comic service over the Internet. Such a service gave impetus for thorough management of rights and jurisdictions by comic artists of their copyright and by publishers of their publishing rights. (3) Characteristics of On-line Comics and Effects to Those Off-line The bourgeoning of color comics imbued with the distinctive qualities of on-line comics drew the interest of "netizens," wherein they developed communities around popular websites and created fan clubs. Works benefit in terms of publicity by being posted on-line, but there are still many obstacles before the number of access hits amounts to profit. On the other hand, the cases are increasing of on-line comics becoming huge bestsellers upon being published off-line. Noteworthy is how the serialization of on-line comics has been serving as extremely effective publicity, whereby the works published off-line sparkle all the more, and find that their profitability also raised. (4) Tomorrow's Korean Comic Market and Vision The biggest pending problem for the recent Korean girls' comic market is the presence of bestsellers but absence of steady sellers. Publishers and artists indeed need to keep abreast of the readers' tendencies and the trends of their tastes to produce bestsellers from selected genre and materials, but this is disappointing from the standpoint of editors. In no way does this mean the completed works are inferior. Quality of illustration and creativity can compete on the same level in the international arena. Readers' tendencies and tastes also are losing national boundaries and are becoming similar. These days, Korean girls' comics are gaining interest in East Asia, Europe, the U.S.A., and other regions, with consequently licensed publications surging. By licensed publications, we are becoming convinced that the most Korean is in fact internationally appreciated. We need to encourage diverse efforts to overcome these difficult situations and pour our efforts into nurturing new artists that can produce works competitive on the international stage. It seems important that we perform our given tasks faithfully in the interests of again spurring the comic renaissance in the 21st century, wherein publishers make maximum use of the strengths of means on-line and off-line, doing their utmost to create a boom, and comic artists also produce works that can lead the way for readers.

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