Opening Ceremony Held for Suncheon Global Webtoon Center, the First in Honam Region

3-Story Building Features Comic Culture Experience, Business, and Creative Spaces
Opening Commemoration Includes Special Exhibition by Historical Cartoonist Kim Geumsuk

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] Suncheon City (Mayor Heo Seok) announced that on the 13th, it held the opening ceremony of the Suncheon Global Webtoon Center, the first in the Honam region to lead the webtoon industry.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, no separate commemorative event was held for the opening ceremony. Instead, a special exhibition featuring graphic novel artist Kim Geum-sook and a book concert were held to celebrate the opening.

The Webtoon Center is located on Simin-ro in front of Suncheon City Hall. It is a three-story building housing three webtoon-related companies: local companies Toonys Co., Ltd., Mana Co., Ltd., and Chinese company IIE STAR Co., Ltd., along with webtoon artists and story writers.

The first floor is designed as a comic culture experience space, including a comic library and club cafe, where citizens can directly experience and enjoy comics.

The second floor serves as a business support space for resident companies and is used as an incubating space for domestic and international webtoon companies. The third floor is a creative space including studios for resident artists to showcase their talents.

For the opening commemorative special exhibition, world-renowned graphic novel (historical comic) artist Kim Geum-sook was invited for a signing event and a conversation session about her recently published work, "Kim Alexandra, Daughter of Siberia."

Kim Geum-sook, originally from Goheung, Jeollanam-do, has been active in Paris, France. Her major works include historical comics such as , depicting the Jeju 4.3 Incident, and , portraying the life story of comfort woman grandmother Lee Ok-seon.

Through the Webtoon Center, Suncheon City plans to contribute to the development of the local content industry and invigorate the expansion of webtoon culture by providing various spaces and programs such as webtoon education and experience programs, making it easy for local residents interested in comics to access.

A Suncheon City official stated, "We expect the Webtoon Center to play a central role in leading new comic culture trends in the eastern Jeollanam-do region by fostering local artists, developing local stories, supporting business, and creating jobs."

Currently, the Webtoon Center is promoting the "2020 Regional Webtoon Campus Project" to spread webtoon culture through artist introduction and training courses, creation and production support projects, and contests. It is also linked with a content reshoring project that attracts about 10 leading domestic comic and animation companies, creating over 100 youth employment opportunities.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.