2024 BICOF to kick off focused on international exchanges in comics

Korea Manhwa Contents Agency President Shin Jong-cheol speaks during a press conference held in Jung-gu, central Seoul on Tuesday. (Yonhap)

The Bucheon International Comics Festival, one of the largest comics events in the nation, is slated to commence its four-day run from Oct. 3 to Oct. 6, with this year's festival placing a special emphasis on fostering international exchanges in comics.

The 2024 BICOF will kick off with an opening ceremony at 4 p.m., Oct, 3, at Korea Manhwa Museum in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. The ceremony will include the Bucheon Comics Awards, an event which annually honors popular Korean comics.

According to Korea Manhwa Contents Agency, or KOMACON, the organizer of the festival, webtoon series "Jeongnyeon" clinched the grand prize this year. "Jeongnyeon," a popular Naver webtoon series that chronicles the journey of a woman aspiring to become an actor in "gukgeuk" -- a form of all-women musical storytelling -- is set to be adapted into a tvN television series starring Kim Tae-ri and air in October.

Following the opening ceremony, the festival will entertain visitors with a range of events, including comic exhibitions, signing sessions with popular webtoon creators, talk shows by both international and domestic cartoonists, cosplay contests, as well as free animation screenings.

The festival will also feature the "Cartoon & Webtoon Original Creative Music Festival," a contest that evaluates original music scores inspired by comic works. The event will showcase performances by the top seven contestants, followed by an awards ceremony.

According to KOMACON, a highlight of this year's festival is its focus on strengthening international exchange events.

"This year, we are reviving B-COM, an international comics market that was previously held regularly but was paused due to the pandemic. We're excited to see the comics market return once again," the Korea Manhwa Contents Agency President Shin Jong-cheol said during a press conference held in Jung-gu, central Seoul on Tuesday.

"Foreign buyers interested in Korean webtoons will visit Korea, and a platform will be established for conducting transactions involving Korean comics and webtoons," he added.

According to Shin, a key strategy for the growth of Korean comics is to enter overseas markets aggressively.

"The Korean comics market has grown to the point where it's fully saturated, and there isn't much profit to glean if we only look at the Korean market," Shin said.

"Therefore, we are recognizing the need to go into the global markets to expand our pie," he added.

By Lee Yoon-seo(yoonseo.3348@heraldcorp.com)