▶ ‘NASDAQ listed’ Naver Webtoon large booth installed… ‘Long lines’ at local author’s signing event
▶ Four Korean content companies also participated in the joint exhibition hall… “If you say, ‘I work in the webtoon industry,’ the reaction will be different.”
A visitor dressed in cosplay is delighted to receive an autograph from the author of the animation ‘Alien Stage’ at the ‘New York Comic Con (NYCC) 2024 event, which opened in New York, USA on the 17th (local time).
Fans are waiting in line for the author’s autograph session held at the Naver Webtoon booth at ‘New York Comic Con (NYCC) 2024’, which opened in New York, USA on the 17th (local time).
Naver Webtoon booth information sign on the floor of the ‘New York Comic Con (NYCC) 2024’ event held in New York, USA on the 17th (local time).
Promotion corner for the ‘K-Webtoon‘ publication at ‘New York Comic Con (NYCC) 2024’, which opened in New York, USA on the 17th (local time).
‘New York Comic Con (NYCC) 2024’, which opened in New York on the 17th, was an event that confirmed the significant increase in the presence of webtoons (webcomics) in the North American content industry.
New York Comic Con, held at the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan for four days until the 20th, is the largest pop culture exhibition event in North America in terms of visitors. More than 200,000 people visit the exhibition hall every year.
Various side events to stimulate ‘fan spirit’ will be held throughout the four days, including various content exhibitions and product sales related to comics, games, movies, animation, etc.
As if demonstrating the status of New York Comic Con, Manhattan’s Hudson Yards near the event venue was crowded with visitors cosplaying in various costumes such as Marvel Comics characters, Star Wars characters, and Japanese animation characters from early this morning.
Even though it was the morning of the first day, when there were the least number of visitors out of the four days, there was a long line of visitors waiting to enter the exhibition hall on the sidewalk in front of the convention center, and the inside of the exhibition hall, which was difficult to enter, was crowded with visitors from the morning.
Entering the exhibition hall, the biggest difference from last year was the presence of webtoons.
Naver Webtoon, the No. 1 web comics service platform company in the United States, set up its own promotional booth at New York Comic Con for the first time this year. Naver Webtoon was listed on the U.S. NASDAQ market at the end of June.
By following the Naver Webtoon booth guidance arrows posted throughout the exhibition hall floor, I was able to easily find Naver Webtoon’s large booth not far from the entrance.
Next to it were large booths of major Japanese animation and game companies, such as Toei Animation and Bandai Namco.
Webtoons have long been established as the mainstream comic content in Korea, but in the United States, content consumption has still centered on paper comic books.
As a result, until last year, most of the webtoon content found at New York Comic Con consisted of works that gained popularity on the webtoon platform and were introduced in the form of comic books through contracts with local publishers in the United States.
However, starting from this year’s event, Naver Webtoon showed off the increased status of webtoons in the North American market by organizing a large exhibition booth and various side events such as autograph sessions for popular writers.
All 11 artists holding autograph sessions during the exhibition are local North American artists.
When the reporter visited, the creators of the animation ‘Alien Stage’, ‘Vivinos’ and ‘Q Meng’, were holding a fan signing event. This work is being co-produced by Studio Rico, a Naver Webtoon subsidiary.
Even though the exhibition hall had only recently opened, dozens of fans were waiting for the artist’s autograph in a long line that wrapped around the outer wall of the exhibition booth.
On one side of the booth, a large mascot of Duolingo, an American mobile learning platform in partnership with Naver Webtoon, was also displayed.
Genie Cho, head of the North American marketing team at Webtoon Entertainment, explained, “We wanted to raise the self-esteem of writers through offline meetings between writers and fans, and imprint the name Webtoon through Duolingo characters that Generation Z is familiar with.”
Jin Martin, a visitor we met at the booth, said, “I don’t know much about webtoons, but I heard that an author I like was doing an autograph session, so I had no choice but to come.”
At this New York Comic Con, other Korean comics and webtoon content companies also participated in the Korean joint pavilion led by the Korea Creative Content Agency, demonstrating that K-Webtoon is expanding its awareness in the North American market.
Conjinwon has been supporting companies participating in New York Comic Con for four years from 2021 to this year.
Four content companies, including CNC Revolution, Content Lab Blue, Rivers, and True Light Korea, participated in this year’s joint pavilion.
Autograph sessions with famous authors, including Rachel Smythe, author of the popular North American webtoon ‘Lore Olympus‘, will also be held at the joint pavilion booth. Lower Olympus was selected as the final winner in the digital book category of the ‘Harvey Awards’, one of the most prestigious awards in the American comic industry, for three consecutive years from 2021 to last year, and is a nominated work again this year.
John Nam (CED), CEO of Content Lab Blue Los Angeles, said, “Just a few years ago, when I introduced myself as working at a webtoon studio, local content company officials in the U.S. responded, ‘What is a webtoon?’ But these days, they say, ‘Let’s talk about it more with me.’ “The atmosphere changed in that way,” he said.
He said, “In the past, Comic Con was an exhibition event focused on the print comics market featuring Marvel or DC Comics characters, but now there are not many young people in those corners.”
Visitors are looking around the exhibits at the Content Lab Blue promotional booth in the Korean joint pavilion of ‘New York Comic Con (NYCC) 2024’, which opened in New York, USA on the 17th (local time).
A participant dressed as a Mandalorian bounty hunter character from the Star Wars series is posing at the ‘New York Comic Con (NYCC) 2024’ event, which opened in New York, USA on the 17th (local time).
