Korean Comics Advance to China, Indonesia

Recently, exports of Korean comic books have been active and an Internet site showing Korean comics in foreign languages has made a debut.In recent months, some best-selling comic books were also published in Indonesia. They include Shin Il-sook¡¯s ¡°Four Daughters of Armanian,¡± Lee Kang-ju¡¯s ¡°Tar Tar,¡± and ¡°Boy of Martial Art Kkomang¡± by Choi Sang and Park In-seo.Indonesia is the tenth foreign country to which Daewon CI exported these comic books.

Other countries include Taiwan,Hong Kong, Thailand, France and Italy. A soccer comic book written by Chon Se-hun was the first Korean comic book to be exported to China.An executive of Daewon CI said, ¡°We have exported mainly youth comic books, but now we have also introduced some love stories to Indonesia.¡± Meanwhile, ¡°Comicstoday¡± (www.comictoday.com), a website which opened on July 7th , offers comics in Japanese editions. Customers may read the comics, comparing the Korean and Japanese words simultaneously.

The website plans to offer editions in English and Chinese around this October. Ecomix (www.ecomix.co.kr) also started a foreign language service. The website is now offering Lee Hyun-se¡¯s ¡°Nambol¡± and ¡°Alien Baseball Team¡± in English and other famous works in Japanese .

Myungnam Kim starla@donga.com