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Manhwa

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Manhwa (Hangul: 만화, Hanja: 漫畵) is the general Korean term for comics and cartoons (including animated cartoons). Outside of Korea, the term usually refers specifically to South Korean comics.

Comics by country
Africa
Asia
Europe
North America
Oceania
South America

Manhwa style

The term manhwa is a cognate with Japanese manga and Chinese manhua. Modern manhwa has been influenced by manga. There are many common characteristics shared, but each has been taking different paths in theme, visual and narrative approach in accordance with their own cultural and historical contexts. Manhwa has been influenced by the dramatic modern history of Korea and resulted in diversity of forms and genre, but including a mainstream style similar to Manga. Modern manhwa has been influenced by manga. Distinctive manhwa can be found in editorial comic strips, artistically-oriented works and webcomics serials.

  • the style of character designs - manhwa aimed at teenage girls (which make up the majority of English-translated series) have a distinctively angular style of abstraction which contrasts with the more "cute" and rounded style of their Japanese, Chinese and western equivalents. This is the most obvious difference at a glance, but does not necessarily apply to manhwa aimed at boys or adults.
  • the left->to->right direction of the book (still quite obvious, but not very reliable, as some manga and manhua are 'flipped' around to the western way)
  • the Korean name of the author/artist - usually double-barrelled and with syllables that do not exist in Japanese (usually the most reliable method, the only exceptions being when a culturally-neutral pseudonym is used, or when the artist is of Korean ethnicity but but resides in another country such as the USA)
  • the untranslated sound effects (not always present) are in hangeul, not kana or hanzi.

Fortunately, there are now a number of publishers specialising in English translations of Korean comics, and by and large they are unafraid of calling them "manhwa".

North American audience

Due to the Manga-boom, mostly only the works that are almost undistinguishable from mainstream Manga were published in North America. Recently, long-running webcomics serialized via Internet portal sites (e.g. Media Daum) and personal homepages have become both the creative and popular basecamp among the younger generation in Korea.

Direction of text

Manhwa is read in the same direction as English books, horizontally and from left to right, because hangul is normally written and read horizontally, although it can also be written and read like Chinese and Japanese, that is, vertically from right to left, top to bottom.

Theoretically, the reading direction of manhwa should make it more accessible to Western audiences when compared to Japanese and Chinese comics, but so far the relative obscurity of Korean culture has canceled out this apparent advantage, and the word remains relatively unknown in the English-speaking world. Instead, English translations of manhwa have achieved success by targeting the manga and animé community, to extent than manhwa are often marketed as "manga".

Animated manhwa

Unlike Japan, animations based on Korean comics are still relatively rare (though there were several major hits in the late 80's and early 90's with titles such as Dooly the Little Dinosaur and Fly! Superboard). However, live-action drama series and movie adaptations of manhwa have occurred more frequently in recent years. Full House in 2004 and Goong ("Palace" or "Princess Hours") in 2006, are prominent examples as both have been accounted as the best dramas of their respective years.

Korean manhwa publishers

North American manhwa imprints

Notes

  1. http://capcold.net/eng/blog/?p=10
  2. http://www.time.com/time/columnist/arnold/article/0,9565,1152700,00.html

See also

External links

Manhwa information

Festivals

Manhwa on mobiles

Associations

Information and studies

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