Korean Cultural Center in Belgium introduces webtoons and comics at the Brussels Comics Festival

Various side events such as Silky author book talk, webtoon drawing, AR filter creation, etc.

The Korean Cultural Center of the European Union in Belgium (Director Kim Dong-eun) participated in the Brussels International Comics Festival last weekend (8th to 10th) and introduced various Korean comics and webtoons.

This festival, held at Tour & Taxis, a representative exhibition center in Brussels, is an event organized by the Brussels City Tourism Office every year since 2010. This year, it includes an exhibition commemorating the 77th anniversary of the founding of Lombard, a leading comics publisher in Belgium, the home of comics, as well as exhibitions in Spain. More than 10 countries, including Poland, participated and various cartoons were introduced.

Four Korean comic artists (Kim Yong-gwan, Lee Bin So-yeon, Eom Yu-jin, and Silky) invited to the festival displayed their works at the Korean Cultural Center booth and communicated with local comic fans through various workshops.

Artist Eom Yu-jin guided participants to the ‘Booklet Making’ workshop, and Kim Yong-Gwan guided participants to experience a new perspective on comics in the ‘Cartoon Drawing through Rules and Constraints’ workshop.

In the 3-cut webtoon animation workshop of one's own face using a tablet with artist Silky and the creation of AR filtering by artist Bin So-yeon Lee, children's cartoon fans enjoyed seeing their own faces reflected in filters they had created.

Jeong-Hyeon Yoo, Ambassador of the European Union to Belgium, visited the festival and encouraged the artists and said, “Our comics and webtoons are already the center of K content, attracting the attention of locals at the international comics festival held in Belgium, which is full of pride in comics such as Tintin and The Smurfs.” “We will actively support the expansion of our comics and webtoon content into the local market,” he said.

Last Monday (11th), a book talk was held with Silky, the author of <Kimchi Baguette>, at the Korean Cultural Center in Belgium. With local comics fans in attendance, author Silky introduced a work that contained the prejudices and prejudices he experienced while living in France as a Korean.

<Kimchi Baguette>, published this year and attracting attention at the Angoulême Comic Festival, depicts concerns about cultural differences in a humorous and warm way through images as crude as prints.

The Korean Cultural Center of Belgium participates in the Brussels International Comics Festival every year to introduce Korea's excellent comics. It is currently holding the <Korea-EU Comics Exchange Special Exhibition> in the cultural center's exhibition room, introducing the works of eight artists from four countries.