Comics fans enter the inaugural 2024 World Webtoon Festival, hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency, in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong District, Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul

Korea launched the 2024 World Webtoon Festival in Seoul's trendy neighborhood of Seongsu-dong on Thursday, with the aim of expanding the global reach of webtoons or online comics, which are already hugely popular here and abroad.

Co-organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), this first-ever festival was part of the ministry's January announcement to drive the development of Korea's comics industry to strengthen Korea's position as the birthplace of webtoons and increase global awareness of the medium.

The four-day event kicked off on Thursday featured 16 prominent Korean webtoon production companies. It included pop-up stores selling webtoon character merchandise, talk concerts and drawing shows with popular webtoon artists and experience events showcasing various derivative products utilizing webtoon intellectual property.

Visitors to 2024 World Webtoon Festival participate in an event held by Contents Lab. Blue, an online comics and novel production company, in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong District, Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul

With these events, the festival was planned to cater to a diverse audience, including comics enthusiasts and industry experts, while showcasing the unique appeal of webtoons.

On its inaugural day, the 2024 World Webtoon Festival exhibition hall's outdoor area was brought to life, with beloved webtoon characters greeting visitors as if they had sprung from the pages. Despite the lingering heat of September, the venue was filled to capacity with attendees.

From the entrance, popular characters from comics and webtoons such as "The Ruler of The Land," "Lookism," "Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint" and "Solo Leveling" captured visitors' attention.

Also, each booth offered special events and unique merchandise that reflected the essence of the respective webtoons, offering attendees a diverse range of experiences.

Visitors wait in line to experience Kakao Entertainment's booth during the World Webtoon Festival in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong District, Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul

Kakao Entertainment, which operates KakaoPage, a platform for webtoons and web novels, ran an exhibition utilizing its ALIVE technology, applying various visual effects like motion graphics and screen transitions to 2D webtoons, allowing visitors to enjoy comics with sound and moving images as if watching a movie.

Naver Webtoon attempted to fuse technology and cultural content by offering events where visitors could create their own caricatures using AI technology and chat with the characters from popular webtoon artist Cho Seok's "The Sound of Your Heart."

A visitor to the 2024 World Webtoon Festival takes part in a drawing event using a stylus in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong District, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap

On the sidelines of the festival, the culture ministry and KOCCA also hosted the World Webtoon Awards on Thursday, a ceremony recognizing works published worldwide for their high quality and contribution to the industry's development.

"Solo Leveling" won the grand prize. The web novel-based webtoon centers around protagonist Sung Jin-woo, a hunter catching monsters in a world suddenly changed by their appearance. The webtoon recorded 14.3 billion views and achieved unprecedented success across the world.

Sadly, the webtoon's artist, Jang Sung-rak, died in 2022. Jang Jung-sook, CEO of Redice Studio, the webtoon production company the late artist founded, accepted the award on his behalf.

"We will strive to create quality webtoons that can continue to be loved by global readers with new episodes, honoring the wishes of the late artist Jang Sung-rak," the CEO said.

Culture Minister Yu In-chon, second from left, takes a look at a trophy for awardees of the World Webtoon Awards in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong District, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap

The jury's special award went to "The Great" by Gwangjin and Jimin, which depicts the story of a protagonist living as both a warm-hearted mother and strong head of the family. For the overseas artist award, Greek cartoonist Odysseas Theodoratos' "Tomahawk Angel" was selected.

Culture Minister Yu In-chon remarked Thursday that this event would help establish webtoons as a key cultural export of Korea.

Yu said, "The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will support this webtoon festival and awards ceremony, which started for the first time this year, to successfully settle and expand to become an international event representing Korea."