RSS Feed
Facebook
Twitter
THE BLOG AT THE CROSSROADS
Top Korean Webtoonist Yoon Tae-ho in London!
Posted: March 27, 2014
As I touched in Comics Art, my latest book from Tate and Yale, in Korea ‘webtoons’ are a remarkable phenomenon, an addictive online version of Korean manhwa with some 10 million people downloading episodes of their favourite gags and serials every day onto their smartphones and while surfing the internet (example menu below). The ubiquity and speed of Wifi is a major factor in boosting this appetite for low- or no-cost, portable digital comics that you vertically scroll through. Might daily webtoons just be a wave of the future of comics reading and creation elsewhere?
So it’s a real pleasure and buzz to get the chance to talk with a top webtoonist Yoon Tae-ho (above), who is over next month as part of the Korean focus at this year’s London Book Fair. He is famous for his unique works such as Moss, later adapted into the successful film of the same name (below).
Last year his prequel to director Bong Joon-ho’s film Snowpiercer (based on the French graphic novel by Lob & Rochette, translated by Titan Comics) was released as a webtoon entitled The People who Board the Train. If you like the sample below, take a look at more of his great comics at online publisher Daum here.
Yoon will be at the Korean Cultural Centre off Trafalgar Square at Grand Buildings, 1-3 Strand, London WC2N 5BW on Tuesday April 8th, 7-8pm, for a ‘Toon Talk’ discussion with me and comics creator Ilya, author of Room for Love from SelfMadeHero. We’ll be exploring his career and techniques in both print and pixels and the mutability between online and print formats. There’s simultaneous translation, so it should be genuinely revealing exchange. Tickets are free but limited, so email info[at]kccuk.org.uk to reserve a place - book now! Join me and discover the comics of tomorrow!
Read The Blog At The Crossroads here.
