World Webtoon Awards celebrates year of comics, 'Solo Leveling' takes grand prize

The inaugural World Webtoon Awards and Festival launched in Seoul, celebrating webtoon culture. Key awards were given, including Best Webtoon to 'Solo Leveling.'

Visitors look around the pop-up stores at the 2024 World Webtoon Festival held in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul, on Sept. 26. [YONHAP]

The first World Webtoon Awards and the World Webtoon Festival took place on Thursday in Seoul with the aim of becoming the Academy Awards of webtoons.

The 2024 World Webtoon Festival kicked off its inaugural event at the S-Factory event venue in Seongsu-dong, eastern Seoul, on Thursday with exhibits, seminars and networking events for creators in the web comics field. The event has been co-hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Seoul Metropolitan Government and co-organized by the Korea Creative Content Agency (Kocca) and the Seoul Business Agency.

“The very first Academy Awards is said to have taken only 15 minutes from start to finish,” First Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yong Ho-seong said in his welcome speech for the ceremony.

Yong spoke in the stead of Culture Minister Yu In-chon, whose prior commitments held him back from attending. Yu took part in the festival later in the evening.

Winners and presenters of the 2024 World Webtoon Awards ceremony held in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul, on Sept. 26. [YONHAP]

“And now, just as the Academy Awards is the leading ceremony in the film industry, we hope to grow this event to the largest event in the webtoon world,” Yong continued. “The government will not spare a penny in our support for webtoons.”

Thirteen webtoons were awarded on Thursday in total: 10 Best Webtoons, among which one was given a special Judge’s Pick and another the Grand Prize, and three Special Prizes for a newcomer, overseas creator and “Novel Attempt.”

The Judge’s Pick, awarded by chief judge and veteran cartoonist Lee Hyun-seh, went to “The Great” by Gwangjin and Jimin. The Rookie Award went to "Jobless Gye Baek-sun" (translated) by Jibal, the Overseas Award to Greek creator Odysseas Theodoratos for his work “Tomahawk Angel” and the New Attempt Award to “Tastes of Horror” by Storyplus and TOH Crew.

The Grand Prize was awarded to “Solo Leveling,” one of the most well-known webtoons that has been turned animated series and video game and recorded billions of views online. The award was especially meaningful as the original cartoonist Jang Sung-rak passed away in July 2022.

The 2024 World Webtoon Festival held in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul, on Sept. 26 [YONHAP]

A visitor takes part in an AI-drawing experience at the 2024 World Webtoon Festival held in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul, on Sept. 26. [YONHAP]

“Just 10 years ago, the webtoon genre had been this large scale that we see here today,” Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hun said.

“At a time when Japanese manga was dominating the world, Korean comics and webtoons were so weak in comparison. But today, Korea is the proud home to the webtoon industry and dominates the world with our content. I stand here today grateful for every single creator and person in the webtoon industry.”

The festival will continue until Sunday at S-Factory. The event will include pop-up stores themed around webtoons and their production studios, merchandise sales and hands-on experiences such as having faces drawn by an AI program. Talk shows will also be available by authors and creators.

Entry to the World Webtoon Festival is free. Online reservations are available.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]