KOCCA, the Korea Creative Content Agency, plans a signing event at its Frankfurter Buchmesse stand in Hall 6.1, No. A64, from 1 to 3 p.m. CEST on Frankfurt Saturday, October 19 with the Web-toon artist Yaongi. Image: KOCCA
Publishing Perspectives Staff Report
The Rush to Screen Adaptations, and More
The Korea Creative Content Agency, referred to as KOCCA, says that it supports production, planning, creation, distribution, overseas expansion, business growth, training, R&D, policy financing, and policy study of content including comics, broadcasting, video games, fashion, music, and more. KOCCA’s offices say the agency is dedicated to “promoting the welfare of the people by turning Korea into a major player in the content industry worldwide.”
At Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 16 to 20), the company plans a signing event at its stand (Hall 6.1, A64) from 1 to 3 p.m. on October 19 with the Web-toon artist Yaongi.
And the agency’s stand has been designed to introduce seven publishers of Korean Web-toons.
Here’s a quick introduction to the publishers that trade visitors will find on the KOCCA collective stand.
C&C Revolution is a professional comics and Web-comic production company founded in 2001. The company says it “breaks through the boundaries” of standard comics panels and speech bubbles, which makes its stories more available for development into books, television productions, and games. “Our dream,” the company’s media messaging says, “is to expand the imagination and universe of Web-toons to further intellectual property businesses.”
Some of the titles that C&C Revolution will be presenting:
- Surviving the Game as a Barbarian
- I Tamed My Ex-husband’s Mad Dog
- How to Use a Returner
- Father, I Don’t Want this Marriage
- The Esper’s Game
DCC ENT was established in 2009, and sees itself as a “comprehensive content company,” successful with publications on platforms including Toptoon and Kakao.
The company sees itself as being “at the forefront of ‘snack culture,'” with one of its hit series of Noble Comics being I Was Born as the King’s Daughter. Creating multiple media approaches from one intellectual property, DCC ENT nourishes development of properties in publishing, animation, drama, and merchandise, a “one-source multi-use” approach that the company’s leadership says has helped it establish “a strong presence in both domestic and international markets” with what it says are more than 2 million subscribers.
Looking for partners to work with, the company will present several intellectual property titles:
- The Broken Ring: This Marriage Will Fail Anyway
- Corpse Knight Gunther
- How to Survive as a Maid in a Horror Game
- I Don’t Trust My Twin
- When the Villainess is in Love
Daewon C.I.‘s key point of pride may be its introduction in 1991 of the first comics magazine to Korea, Comic Champ. That’s the basis for its claim to have “created the foundation” for Web-toons, the internationally recognized Ragnarok being one of its best-known original works. That title and The Ruler of the Land have crossed many borders and languages, reaching as many as 40 nations, the company says.
Hollywood film treatments and Taiwanese stage adaptations have helped raise the visibility of Daewon’s Priest and Queen properties, with the company making the move to Web-toons in the last decade. In what some might see as an irony, the company calls its inclusion of novels and general books as being “reborn,” while more companies, of course, would see going to comics and from more traditional literature as the more unusual move. At Frankfurt, Daewon will be presenting:
- Into the Light, Once Again
- Wished You Were Dead
- Night of Muheun
- Love Interest Zone
- The Dragon Slayer Academy’s Hotshot
An artist’s conception of the South Korean KOCCA collective stand at Hall 6.1, stand A64, which will present seven Web-toon publishers at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2024. Image: KOCCA
Dreams and Goals: Cross-Media Development
Riverse specializes in “content business based on rich experience and intellectual-property expansion know-how in international business that focuses on digital content.”
The company says it’s “diversifying our unique Web-toon international distribution and business operations.”
At Frankfurt, expect to see Riverse’s presentations of:
- I’m the Queen in This Life
- The Infinite Mage
- S.K.T (Swallow Knights Tales)
- Revenge of the Baskerville Bloodhound
- Myst, Might, Mayhem
Seoul Media Comics was founded in 2018 to take a more digitally based direction than that of its parent company Seoul Cultural Publishers. The younger company’s media messaging says that it’s “shaping the new values of Korean comics culture.
The company takes pride in what it describes as “discovering and setting new trends in the rapidly changing digital market. And—like several of its brother comics companies on the KOCCA stand—Seoul Media says its stories “become movies, dramas, musicals, and other forms of media. Clearly development, especially to performance media, has captured many of these companies as a key goal.
Seoul Media Comics plans to present at Frankfurt:
- The Legend of the Northern Blade
- What It Means to Be You
- ENNEAD
- The Big Apple
- The Forbidden Marriage
YeaRimDang Publishing is the oldest of these seven companies that work hard to attract young consumers. Established in 1973, YeaRimDang has published a variety of children’s books.
Its educational comic series—Why?—is reported to have sold 86 million copies, with rights deals taking it to more than 50 countries in 13 languages over 20 years. Recently, a new Web-toon style series Olympus Hero has been exported to Russia. Like seemingly all its colleagues on the stand, YeaRimDang has its eye on that “one-source multi-use” direction—called “cross-media” in earlier times—and looks forward, its messaging says, to “leaping forward” as an international content group by developing such development in e-books, online content, exhibitions, musicals, and animation.”
On the KOCCA stand, look for YeaRimDang to present:
- Olympus Heroes with 10 titles
- Science Battles
- Cartoon Aesop’s Fables
- Why? science series
- INSSA Family
ToYou’s Dream isn’t afraid to wear its ambition on its sleeve, announcing, “We aim to become Asia’s No. 1 Web-toon IP Studio.” Founded in 2009, this is a company that works with some 300 artists and writers to produce what it says is more than 530 titles in various genres published on 20 platforms in many parts of the world, including Thailand, France, Japan, China, and the United States.
Some of its series, ToYou’s Dream’s self-descriptive text tells us, are “action noir,” and the company says it already has “ventured into the film industry, creating successful movies and dramas like Tong: Memories and Shark: The Beginning.
In fact—and this is a distinction we don’t see in the other companies—ToYou’s Dream’s media messaging says that in 2021 it launched its own filmmaking studio, called Studio Toyou. Clearly, and like its compatriots on the KOCCA collective stand, ToYou’s Dream has its own dreams of big success in mind. While at Frankfurt, this company will be presenting work including:
- Villain to Kill
- From a Knight to a Lady
- Zombie Revelation: 82-08
- The Male Lead’s Little Dion Daughter
- Ranker
As for KOCCA itself, the agency says it “plans to systemically and strategically support the industrial infrastructures by closely working with stakeholders, relevant organizations, and local promotion centers.”
It would seem that the seven Korean comics-based companies you can meet at the Korean pavilion at Hall 6.1, A64 are in good hands.
More from Publishing Perspectives on the South Korean publishing market is here, more on comics and related media is here, and more on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here.