[Report] Korean webtoon hot in New York… 3-hour waiting line for Korean artist’s autograph session

Around the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, New York, USA on the 10th (local time), the Columbus Day holiday in the USA.

It is filled with various costume characters, from Spider-Man and Deadpool to Darth Vader and the main character of the Japanese animation ‘Demon Slayer’.

Although a one-day ticket costs around $100 (about 134,000 won) and a four-day ticket costs well over $300 (about 300,000 won), it is a fandom-type pop culture festival that attracts more than 200,000 people every year.

‘New York Comic Con’ (NYCC), the largest event in the eastern United States, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

Comic Con is a global expo that promotes new works such as animation, movies, dramas, and video games, focusing on published comics, and showcases related products. It is known as a place where fans can enjoy cosplay by dressing up as their favorite characters and directly interact with creators and actors.

Visitors to the New York Comic Con, which was held for four days starting on the 8th, were holding shopping bags containing limited edition posters, figures, and goods in their hands. In particular, a large non-woven bag with a large illustration of the Naver webtoon 'Fogland' printed on it caught a lot of attention.

This is a bag received by stopping by the Naver Webtoon booth, downloading the app, participating in an event, or purchasing limited edition goods.

Naver Webtoon's parent company, Webtoon Entertainment, welcomed fans with two large standalone booths for the first time this year. This is the third time this year since the first solo booth participation in 2024.

The booth was decorated with the theme of the Korean webtoon Forgrand, which is being serviced in the global market. A large structure over 6 meters high and artwork extending from floor to ceiling were erected to recreate the gigantic prison world view in the work. There was a long waiting line in front of the character photo wall in the booth, as well as in front of the large drawing machine where you can draw goods.

The solo autograph session held by Forgrand's POGO author at the venue was also hot. Due to the influx of local fans, the autograph session, originally scheduled for one hour, lasted nearly three hours.

POGO artist, who visited the United States for the first time through this event, said, "I was just drawing my work in the corner of my room, and then I suddenly got a call and came back. The booth was big, and I was surprised and grateful to see American fans cosplaying as characters from my work."

He explained, “If Japanese comics were centered on books and animation, the greatest strength of webtoons is their accessibility, allowing them to be easily viewed anytime, anywhere by scrolling vertically on a smartphone.”

He also said that while K-pop has reached the 'Venus' level, which is close to the center of the solar system, webtoons are still at the 'Saturn' stage with a long way to go, but said, "People have the same perspective, and what is fun in Korea is also fun overseas, so I focus only on that fun in my work for now."

At another booth of Webtoon Entertainment, the beta version of the ‘Marvel Comics’ app, developed in partnership with Disney, was unveiled for the first time.

The new app, which will be officially released on November 16, contains more than 35,000 Marvel and Star Wars digital comics, and provides new issues as early as a month after the print version is published.

It supports both traditional page turning and vertical scrolling methods, and reading optimization technologies such as personalized recommendations and smart panel mode have also been applied.

Marvel terminated its existing digital comics subscription service, 'Marvel Unlimited', and entrusted the development and operation of the new platform, the Marvel Comics app, to Webtoon Entertainment.

It has 155 million global monthly active users (MAU), and it is analyzed that this is the result of a high evaluation of the technology of webtoon entertainment that has been accumulated over 20 years.