In the late 1990s and early 2000s, as the high-speed internet system was gradually taking over the Korean market, the country’s paper comics industry began to show signs of decline. In the 1997 IMF crisis around the world, consumers began to consume less essential goods and so did comic book products. Almost businesses have to witness the freezing of merchandise sales in the market, more and more people are starting to stop buying paper comics or magazines, they also stop hiring comics from stores for renting stories like in the 90s, instead reading copyrighted and illegal series of books scanned the internet. In order to avoid making things worse, according to Manycomic Entertainment, all adult comics and adult magazines had to stop production immediately in that dark 1997. Because of that, of the more than 29 comic book publishers in the Korean market, only six businesses survived this economic crisis, a large number of comic book experts. Bankruptcy, omitting manhwa will never be published.
But in the period after 2000, a major transformation happened to the Korean comic industry. The appearance of webtoon manhwa and the internet culture system has completely changed the way readers read comics, bringing a profound influence in the entertainment industry not only in Korea but also in the world. The internet has completely destroyed the printed comic market with its negative effects on the industry. Paper comics, badly damaged by the 1997 crisis, have become increasingly unstoppable, slipping down due to the rapid growth of the internet. A variety of online entertainment such as free manga online, online games, online chatting, etc. gradually replace comics. However, the emergence of the online comic platform and smartphones has since changed dramatically in the next 10 years of the century.
Since 2003, many official portal systems such as Manytoon, Naver, Daum or Nate, have started building online comic systems to attract increasing users. The number of smartphone users using smartphones as a useful tool to read online comics is growing exponentially, the way these webtoon sets work is also based on an environment. in particular, is the phone screen. Since then, webtoon manhwa began to build from the foundation and created its own imprint that is bold compared to hentai manga, namely the popularization of comic forms and comic genres in social community. Naver, for example, one of the main pillars of webtoon manhwa comics in the Korean market, has set a record with more than one billion page views per month, especially the online comic section. .
In this essay, we will give certain reasons to prove that webtoon manhwa officially becomes a new wave of comic book market in Korea. First, manhwa webtoon has expanded its readership range based on the booming of the internet system and the broad spectrum of computer devices; Moreover, webtoon manhwa has also broadened the genre of comic authors and experts by breaking the line between karmic and non-amateur karma. Because of that, webtoon manhwa evolved the traditional comic form, instead of reading comics through the phone screen. It seems that we have to admit that webtoon manhwa has successfully opened a golden era for the new generation of comics, attracting not only the younger generation of love stories but also attracting significant attention to the generations. middle-aged comic readers are trying to integrate with the digital industry today.
2. Definition of webtoons manhwa
Used in the Korean market only, the term “webtoon” is a new noun phrase created by a combination of “website” and “cartoon”, meaning that comics are published through websites. and read through the phone screen. The reason why the founders decided to use the term webtoon rather than webcomics is because “webtoon” has a different meaning level than that of “webcomics” – the phrase has been used in some other countries. In the world. For example, in the United States or Europe, webcomics are intentionally used by authors including traditional comic systems and pages that turn over on the web. In other words, webcomics seem to be reproduced on screen with more vivid colors only. In Japan, where the whole world is known for its unique comic style called Free Manga online, webcomics is still unpopular because the traditional printed paper comic system still holds an extremely important role. important market in this country. Compared to the above cases, it is clear that the widespread popularity of webtoons in Korea is an exception. And more than that, the webtoon has different characteristics that we will not find in other countries in the field of comics, such as its unique, uninterrupted charm, but presented in a “scrolling” way. vertical “phone screen.
Webtoon created the genre of stories including: Action, fiction, detective, horror, mature, Romance, drama and especially Boys Love Webtoon, teens love, girls love, adult webtoon. Manhwa Raw episodes are usually released every Wednesday.
The film adaptations from webtoon manhwa have a different style from the doujins manga that are so familiar to global readers. With the rapid development, more and more manhwa webtoon series are released and help readers read free webtoon manhwa with rich and new content and it will definitely be a source of content that is also broadcasted by Korean television. National endless exploitation.