Manga vs manhwaManwha is a Korean term for comics or print cartoon but outside of Korea, manwha is referring to South Korean comics. It can be said that manwha was being influence from manga. With the flow of manga into Korean peninsula during the colonial era (1910-1945), manga has influence Korean artist into creating their adaptation of manga. ‘the comics literacy of Korean readers and authors was formed in three ways: via adaptations of Japanese manga, by the distribution of pirated “how to draw manga” books, and through the spreads of comics by domestic artist who used manga style’ (Berndt, J, Kümmerling-Meibauer, B 2013, p88) There are many different between Japanese manga and Korean manwha. As you can see from the picture (to the right), manga is almost always black and white and read from right to left. While manwha is read from left to right.
One form of manwha that is very popular in South Korea is webtoon (internet comics), which is term that commonly describe manwha style that is typically published in chapters and published in Korean website. Some of the popular webtoons are Noblesse, Tower of God and Girls of the Wild's. A webtoonist, Park Soo In describe the different between traditional comic books and webtoons that traditional comic books were written in black and white in order to save printing fees and had definitive boundaries. However, with webtoons, they have no space limitations and have various kinds of multimedia effects such as flash and sound. Without limitations from page space and priniting fees, webtoon can have a very long page and in full colour. Another reason why webtoons have a very long page might be because it is easier for reader who read it through mobile phone or table to just scroll down, without having to zoom in and out like traditional comic. Reason why webtoons is popular in South Korea
Reference Berndt, J, Kümmerling-Meibauer, B (ed.) 2013, Manga’s Cultural Crossroads, Routledge, United Kingdom. |
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