THE Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines participated in the Philippine International Comics Festival (PICOF) on September 8 and 9 to introduce the growth and future of the Korean webtoon industry.

The Philippine International Comics Festival is an annual event organized by the Filipino Komiks and Art Market (Komiket) to share the current status of the international cartoon market with local cartoonists and aspiring artists in the Philippines.

The Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines invited Ryu Jung-hye, Vice President of Metaverse Entertainment, and Kim Yang-soo, Webtoon Artist of “My Lawyer, Mr. Joe,” as speakers for the event.

Vice President Ryu Jung-hye gave a lecture on the “Webtoon IP Business: Now and Future.”

Citing the Korean drama “Business Proposal,” which was also sensational in the Philippines, she explained, “Business Proposal has expanded its IP area from novels to webtoons, dramas, and drama OSTs. One successful content can be expanded to various business areas.”

She added, “Korea is currently making various efforts to discover super IP content, and will gradually expand its scope through collaboration with other content industries in the future.”

Artist Kim Yang-soo, who received attention from domestic and foreign readers for his fresh material, talked about “Finding Stories: How to Make Eye-catching Webtoons.”

“Webtoons have the advantage of being delivered to readers faster than contents such as dramas and movies,” said Kim Yang-soo, who produced Korea’s first legal and sports drug webtoon. “We can use this advantage to create creative works with universal themes that more generations can relate to.”

About 200 Filipino cartoonists and aspiring writers who participated in the lecture showed great interest in the future of storytelling in the Korean webtoon industry. Topics like owning the copyright work and income distribution structure were also discussed during the lectures respectively.

Discussions on how the Korean government continues to support the growth of the webtoon industry were also mentioned. In response, Vice President Ryu Jung-hye said, “The government plays the biggest role in creating a healthy industrial environment,” adding, “we are always providing writers’ education programs and preparing related legal protection grounds such as copyright.”