Radio shows featuring Min-Woo Hyung, Andy Diggle, Gail Simone, Al Ewing and more

I'm ready for my close-up: Manhwa and Metamorphosis

Two events taking place this weekend are ideal places for fans of fantasy and SF to visit - SCI-FI-LONDON: EAST and Manhwa: Korean Story & Painting - each in venues not known for exploring those genres. Alex Fitch talks to director Chris Swanton about his adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, screening Sunday 11th November at Stratford Picturehouse and to comic book creator Min-Woo Hyung regarding the art he's exhibiting at the Korean Creative Content Agency, 1-3 The Strand. Alex and Chris discuss why the director chose a hard to translate novel by Kafka as his directorial debut, following a career as an editor on such projects as the BBC's Ghostwatch, and Min-Woo talks about his career as a Manhwa creator from his debut Chronicle of a Hot-blooded Judo King to his latest project Ghostface and his most famous series Priest, which was adapted as a blockbuster in 2011.

More info about SCI-FI-LONDON: EAST (9th-11th November) at www.scfilondon.com and Manhwa: Korean Story & Painting (1st-21st November) at www.manhwa101.com

7.30pm, Friday 9th November 2012, Resonance 104.4 FM / www.resonancefm.com / podcast at www.scifilondon.com/podcast

Panel Borders: Writing serialised comics

Continuing Panel Borders' month of shows looking at the writing of superhero comics, Alex Fitch talks to writers Gail Simone, Andy Diggle, Robin Furth and Al Ewing about their work on British and American titles, in a panel discussion recorded at last year's Thought Bubble festival. Gail and Andy discuss their work for DC Comics and contributing to anthology titles, while Robin talks about adapting Stephen King's The Dark Tower for Marvel Comics and Al discusses moving from 2000AD to his first work on American strips.

Thought Bubble 2012 runs from 11th - 18th November, culminating with a two day comics convention on 17th and 18th November at Royal Armouries, Leeds

8pm, Sunday 11th November 2012, Resonance 104.4 FM / www.resonancefm.com / podcast at www.panelborders.wordpress.com

East meets West: Manhwha talents in London for Comics

If you're free on Sunday 4th November and live in London, you may be interested in this event – Korean Manhwa and British Comics NetWorkShop – at Foyles Bookshop in Charing Cross Road.

Five top comics creators from Korea and five from the UK meet and share their projects and experiences in an interactive cultural and creative exchange, hosted by Comica Co-Director Paul Gravett and organised in association with KOCCA and a major manhwa exhibition at the Korean Cultural Centre in London.

Min-Woo Hyung, super-star creator of the international best-seller Priest, adapted into a Hollywood movie starring Paul Bethany, meets David Hine, writer of The Darkness and creator of Strange Embrace.

Respected pioneer Doo-Ho Lee, who contributed to the Korea: As Viewed By 12 Creators comics anthology available in English from Fanfare/Ponent Mon (below), will be meeting British comics virtuoso Ilya, creator of Skidmarks, End of the Century Club and and widely published in the UK, USA, Europe and Japan.

Other modern manhwa masters coming to London include Jeong-Taek Chae (Mr. Kimchi), Jung-hyun Suk (The Ghost) and popular webtoonist Jude Friday, along with another great British talent, Ed Hillyer.

The event will be followed by a signing event of by five Korean artists, with 100 free copies of manhwa books to be handed out to the audience.

Postcards of original artworks from prominent Korean illustrators will be sold in aid of charity.

Entry is free, but do e-mail comicafestival@gmail.com to let them know you're coming.
Free panel, free comics, free drinks and snacks. Foyles, 113 - 119 Charing X Rd, from 2 - 4.00pm.

Tube Surfing: Harker, Comic Book Signings, Manwha UK and a Creators Union

• Brilliant news! The much-praised indie title written by Roger Gibson and drawn by Vincent Danks, Harker - described by one reader as a detective series with an X-Files/Avengers twist, which doesn't do it justice - is now available in 15 comic shops across the UK, with more about to jump on board. More info here on the Harker and Critchley blog

• New Scottish comic store Kingdom of Adventure has announced somme upcoming signing events: on 1st August Al Ewing and Colin MacNeill will be making the trip to Kirkcaldy, quickly followed on 8th August by Gary Erskine and Gordon Rennie.
Kingdom Of Adventure is a games and comic book shop in Kirkcaldy, Scotland and can be found at 21-23 Whytescauseway, Kirkcaldy, KY1 1XF. Tel: 01592 328121 Web: www.kingdomofadventure.co.uk

• (via the FPI Blog): Talking of signings, Forbidden Planet International Belfast plays host to two local artists, PJ Holden and John McCrea on Saturday 15th August. PJ, of course, has carved himself a good (and growing) rep with his work for Image and 2000AD, while John has worked on Garth Ennis’ Hitman, Captain America and The Boys spin-off Herogasm. John and PJ will be in the Belfast FPI, 52-54 Ann Street (phone 028 9043 8744) from 2 to 4.00pm.

• Online, the Facebook Comic Con Summer Gala scheduled to start on Thursday 13th August gathers pace, with an impressive line up of talent due to take part, including Paul Grist and Strangehaven creator Gary Spencer Millidge heading up the British Comics Panel. More info on the entire weekend, which will include Art Jams, contests, competitions and the launch of the Comic Book Creators Union, a coalescence of industry fans and professionals striving to improve conditions under which comic book creators work here on Facebook

• ComicBitsOnline reports on Seoul Graphics, a company aiming to get Korean Manhwa graphic novels onto the English speaking market, starting with the UK. The company is fronted by Dr. Jeeyeon Kim (BA, MA, PhD), Managing Director of Seoul Graphics and Korean / English Translator, who is looking for a British co-publisher.
One of the main projects is Hong’s Classical Mythology. Official site (under construction):
www.seoulgraphics.com

Manhwa Galleries, Mixed Media Graduates and Manga Girls…

Starting cross cultural comics month on Resonance FM's Strip! comic show, Dickon Harris introduces the 100 years of Manhwa exhibition at the London Korean Cultural Centre (see our report, here) and talks to a couple of recent illustration graduates this eveing (Thursday 4th June).

Alex Fitch also interviews a couple of female indie manga creators – Sally Jane Thompson and Kate Holden – at the Docklands Manga Expo and discusses the brutality of nature with Melody Lee, whose comics depict woodland animals in the style of Beatrix Potter but who also shoot and swear like troopers and are, shall we say, not shy when it comes to under the sheets activity!

Sally Jane Thompson is a postgraduate student who grew up in South Africa and was one of the finalists in TokyoPop's 2007 Rising Stars of Manga Contest.

"Manga was essentially my first exposure to comics that covered a wider range of genres, and showed me how much scope comics have to communicate!" she said in in an interview back in 2008. "So it’s been a fantastic influence, and I’ve learned a lot through it. But I wouldn’t class my work as anything more than manga influenced. As manga has become a more prevalent influence over western comics, there is of course lots of debate over what counts as manga and so on, but I think the more varied influences people have, the better, and I’m glad to see the comics world opening up like this."

Kate Holden is just one of the team involved in IndieManga.com, a grup of people who crate comics with a manga influence. A "freelance sequential artist" and Designer and MA Video Game Design student, her credits include a webcomic called FanDanGo about magical knights in a retro-punk setting (retro-punk being my word for a 1960’s influenced Fantasy world).

• Strip!: Manhwa Galleries, Mixed media Graduates and Manga Girls… will be broadcast at 5.00pm today, 4th June, repeated 11.30pm 7th June on, Resonance 104.4 FM (London). The show will also bestreamed at www.resonancefm.com and extended podcast online at www.panelborders.wordpress.com after broadcast…

Manwha 100 Opening Report

Last week David Baillie was our downthetubes roving reporter lucky enough to be invited to a private view of the new Manwha 100 exhibition in London which, if the name hasn’t already given the game away, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Korean comics... Heres how the evening went...

The Manhwa: A Language of Unlimited Imaginations Launch Party was a lavish affair, abundantly attended as it was by Korean officials, journalists, people in spectacular costumes and cartoonists from both the UK and Korea. As Tripwire's Joel Meadows snapped photos, Mark Stafford (of Cherubs fame) quaffed copious amounts of free wine and Leon 'Doc' Hewitt discussed the technological implications of setting up a Manwha webcomics portal with a like-minded Korean tech-savvy businessman, I stuffed my face with an exotic delicacy I had just discovered in the finger buffet.

The Korean ambassador, upon noticing this, crossed the busy floor and politely informed me that they were called tok and apparently are very difficult to source here in London. I tried to thank him for the information, but my mouth was full of gooey rice.

A diplomatic disaster was narrowly averted when Sean 'Necessary Monsters' Azzopardi loudly declared he wasn't eating anything that looked like eyeballs.

Still busy chewing, I took the opportunity to wander around the exhibition and couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the work on show. Anyone who, like me, is addicted to visiting the Cartoon Museum on Little Russell Street will not want to miss Manwha 100. The Art Toon Art gallery area features the work of twelve contemporary Manwha artists, cherry-picked from the annual 'Masterpieces Meet Comics' exhibition which specialises in the cross-over between fine art and comics, and provides an intriguing hint at where the art form might be headed today.

Also on offer was a selection of work from some of the recognised masters of Manhwa – including artists such as Min-Woo Hyung and Kwang-Mook Lim. Meanwhile, in the back, Chul-Ho Park was hectically sketching and signing prints for fans in a room decorated with facsimiles of his comic pages.

The pièce de résistance of this exhibition, however, is the Manwha Bang (‘bang’ being the Korean word for ‘room’) which features a stunning library of Manwha titles in both English and Korean in a relaxing lounge setting. Having returned when the place isn’t flooded with people stuffing their face with Korean cakes and wine, I can thoroughly recommend The Great Catsy and Priest, among dozens of other titles. Interestingly, Manwha reads left to right like English language comics, so if you’re the sort of reader normally turned off by the initial cognitive dissonance of reverse reading Manga, this will be right up your street.

Now – can anyone tell me where I can find more tok?

• Manwha 100 runs until 24h June at the Cultural Korean Centre, 1-2 The Strand, just off Trafalgar Square. (Although the entrance is actually on Northumberland Avenue. You can’t miss it there’s a big Korean flag outside which can be seen as soon as your turn the corner.)

Tel: 020 7004 2600

Web Link: http://london.korean-culture.org

London Hosts Centenary Manwha Exhibition

The Korea Creative Content Agency and Korean Cultural Centre UK have announced a celebration of the centenary of Korean comics, known as manhwa, with a host of interrelated special exhibitions, events and film screenings, starting next week.

Manhwa: A Language of Unlimited Imaginations, which opens on 21 May, celebrates manwha's 100th anniversary, a popular art form in Korea which began with the first publication of Doyoung Lee's political cartoons in the newspaper Daehanminbo, which was founded on 2nd June 1909.

As an art form, manhwa is used to comment on a wide variety of topics. It can often spotlight societal injustices. Sometimes, manhwa tells marvelous tales of dreamy romance. At other times, the art form simply uses its simplified figures and their exaggerated gestures to provide amusement and entertainment.

To this day, as with western comics, manhwa continues to evolve and hold a special place within the hearts and minds of Korean society.

The history of manhwa highlights unique traits within each distinct era of Korean history, and the exhibition throws light on how authors of each generation interacted with the public. Following its birth, manhwa had to endure Korea's tumultuous history under Japanese colonial rule, then survive the country's national liberation, the dark years of the Korean War, and through the dismal military dictatorship.

The 1980's and 90's marked the renaissance of manhwa, while new work from 2000 onwards employs digital media technology offering exhibition visitors the opportunity to interpret present-day Korean comics in a new light and, perhaps, even predict the industry's future.

Within the exhibtion are two special displays. Art Toon Art brings together the work of 12 artists, including Dong-Hwa Kim and Young-Ok Kim, whose work pushes the boundaries of conventional comic book art humorously by reinterpreting famous masterpieces. This small display is derived from the exhibition Masterpieces Meet Comics, which is held annually in Korea and is based on the theme of convergence between comics and art.

Manhwa Illustrations offers a small collection of work by famous graphic illustrators including Min-Woo Hyung and Kwang-Mook Lim, shown together for the first time.

• Manhwa 100: A Centenary of Korean Comics runs from 21 May - 24 June at the Korean Cultural Centre UK, Grand Buildings, 1 - 3 Strand, London WC2N 5BW Tel: 020 7004 2600. Web Link: http://london.korean-culture.org
• A number of tie-in events have also been scheduled: see details below.

Events

• Meet Korean Manhwa Artist Chul-Ho Park
Wednesday 20 May 6.30-7pm

• Live Drawing Performance & Workshop with Manhwa Artist Chul-Ho Park
Thursday 21 May 2-3.30pm
Manhwa artist Chul-Ho Park leads a live drawing workshop with London based journalist and leading authority on Asian comics Paul Gravett.

• Manhwa Bang
Bang is the Korean word for room. It's a social space where you can hang out with friends and read a wide variety of Korean Manhwa.

Film Screenings
Admission to the films is free but tickets must be booked in advance with the Korean Cultural Centre. Tel: 020 7004 2600

• Hello Schoolgirl
Thursday 21 May 6pm
Venue: Multi-Purpose Hall, Korean Cultural Centre UK
Two civil workers at the local district office find love but in distinctly different directions. Written by famous Korean comic artist Pool Kang, featuring Ji-Tae Yu (Oldboy) and K-pop singer turned actor Kang (Attack on the Pin-up Boys).
South Korea 2008 Dir. Jang-Ha Ryu (English Subtitles) 113 min

• The War of Flower
Friday 22 May 4pm
Venue: Cinema Hall, Korean Cultural Centre UK
Go-Ni loses his entire savings and the money that he stole from his sister in the high stakes card game known as "Hwatu." Go-Ni figures out shortly after the game that he was swindled and he spends the next six months tracking down the person that robbed him of his money. Starring Seung-Woo Cho, Hye-Su Kim, Yun-Shik Baek.
South Korea 2006 Dir. Dong-Hun Choi (English Subtitles) 139 min