• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.709-723
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• 2013

This study aims to diagnose the present condition of the Digital comics industry, including the "webtoon", which is receiving attention as the new Korean wave (Hallyu) cultural content, and explore ways to vitalize these contents. Considering the fact that the distribution rate of smart devices in Korea is the highest in the world as of June 2013, and that comics as contents have been known to show the easiest and fastest adaptation to changes in the media, the Digital comics industry is certainly an area with high expected growth, but its actual size of the industry shows a very low growth rate compared to other digital contents. This study analyzes the present condition of the Digital comics industry through theoretical and precedent study, and deducts 7 major factors that inhibit the growth of Digital comics industry by summing up the industry structure through making surveys of major businesses in the industry. Further, problems and possible solutions of the digital comics industry are discussed through in-depth interviews with total 10 digital comics industry experts. Building a ecosystem based charged service, realizing a total management system, government support and improvements on restrictions are discussed as solutions to a sustained growth of the Digital comics industry.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.32
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• pp.159-187
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to verify the status of current digital comics research trends and the characteristics in Korea. For this purpose, 87 articles and dissertations published between 19900 to 2012 were analysed by a meta-analysis methods. Digital comics platforms, topics, methods were examined to understand the landscape of the digital comics in Korean context. The main results of this study are as follow. First of all, the number of researches on the digital comics has been in the rise, and the various academic journals have published articles to understand the digital comics on the basis of their own academic background. Despite of the short history of digital comics researches, the range of research subjects has been broaden, and more integrated approaches have been taken from the various research fields. The content of articles, however, was skewed to a certain platform, topic and the method such as the website based comics, the text analysis, and the qualitative methodology. Thus, the more systematic and integrated approaches are needed to understand the digital comics issues and to build up the digital comics studies.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.32
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• pp.91-119
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• 2013

In recent years, the reader of comics get a chance to contact as well as korean comics, and foreign comics has increased to visibly. There was a relatively important progress also on international scale for mutual exchanges, but a variety of ways for the exposure of foreign comics can't help the reader to read easily the foreign comics. Socio-cultural differences also affects the choice of material, but it affects the format more fundamental. Format differences appear most, can be seen in the difference in narrative approach and medium (the book or the digital screen). This Article deals with two different comics, French and Korean comics. French comic is understood as other forms of literature, but the Korean is considered as a multi-media medium. This difference begins with cultural differences dealing with comics. It is also because the nature of the comics called hinge between the multi-media culture and culture of the books. This study will focus on the differences between the French comics which defend the value of the book and Korean Webtoons which suggest a new way in the digital environment. Through their differences, we can recognize the power of comics and can also predict its development in different medium.

• Journal of Game and Entertainment
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.35-44
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• 2006

Whereas comics were printed on a paper in the past, it is now possible to produce digital comics thanks to the development of computer technology. However, it only came to be implemented on a monitor instead of paper and did not fully utilize a digital environment. That is because most digital comics have been made to be transferred in 'one-way' which means that contents of authors are transferred only to readers not vice versa. Recently, the notion of the 'interactive' in the digital contents takes its own shape even at the 'interactive way' of the communications change through the author and the reader's interactivity using the digital technology. As such, the study put more importance on the digital comics in a proper interactive story-telling structure and one of its category through the suggestion of the above and the soil where to develop the following study.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.657-660
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• 2007

The growth of Web comics is very noticeable in Korean comic market as the 21st century is entered. In amongst these1 trends, the scroll comics had established it self as one of the main stream form for expression, outside the form of the traditional published comics, so it is providing a new visual experience for the readers. The scroll method uses the large vertical space that is uncomparable to the column compartment of the printed comics, and its uses of animation-like techniques, innovative partitioning, flob styles and narration partition positioning, the limitless canvas and the scroll bar of the web page, is leading the digital comic age. However, it is still very uncertain whether the 'scroll comics' will still be valid in the age of Web2.0. It is concerning that even though there are limitless potential in the realms of digital and web, the web comics seem to be bound to one particular medium, 'scroll'. In this report, the form of expression in the scroll centered web comics will be analyzed, and based on this, the future evolution of digital comics shall be investigated.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.8 no.7
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• pp.153-160
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• 2008

It devides that a comic book is based on paper and the other one is serviced through the medium of internet. Each one called conventional form of comic book and digital one. Currently digital comics are published on the various portals and WEB sites and they become one of the comic media and service. However, it is simply uploaded scan-images of comic book on monitors instead of paper. This is just only difference of output form of comics and it does not bring out any digital feature. Now we need a new comic research and experiments that are applied characters of digital for the conventional comic directing. Thus this research presents that the new possibility of digital comics with the core of digital contents, interactivity is applied for comic frame-manner and user customized storytelling.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.290-293
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• 2006

Whereas comics were printed on a paper in the past, it is now possible to produce digital comics thanks to the development of computer technology. However, it only came to be implemented on a monitor instead of paper and did not fully utilize a digital environment. That is because most digital comics or published comics have been made to be transferred in 'one-way' which means that contents of authors are transferred only to readers not vice versa. Recently, the notion of the 'interactive' in the digital contents takes its own shape even at the 'interactive way' of the communications change through the author and the reader's interactivity using the digital technology. As such, the study put more importance on the digital comics in a proper interactive story-telling structure and one of its category through the suggestion of the above and the soil where to develop the following study.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartD
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• v.10D no.7
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• pp.1213-1224
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• 2003

In recently, digital comic content distribution was not stable for illegal distribution and the weak of intellectual property right in the internet. The research activities of suggest the distribution model and secure intellectual property right are going in international standard communities, not yet in Korea. As the basis of the research, the general framework of international projects and standards such as MPEG-21, IMPREMATUR, FILIGRANE was analysed. Targeting on the domain of digital comics industry, the digital comics distribution structure and business flow model are defined adapting secured distribution system, DRM. The detail content of this research consist of three themes. The first, survey and analysis of the international standard ＆ leading DRM project's models. The second, suggestion of the service scenario on the digital comic content distribution. The third, suggestion of the model on the secured distribution of digital comics. Through this research targeting at the digital comics business, we found that standards technical items and requirements was well adapted into target domain, and would affect other domain in digital content industry.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.27
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• pp.79-97
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• 2012

Comic book readers have respectively different reading speed and this means that time in comics is translated by readers' view. The authors arrange panels and gutters to control time, but time recognition in comics depends on the readers and generally it is the readers' role. On the contrary, the phenomenon having occurred by infinite canvas varied the authority of timing. Infinite canvas can give the comic book authors more authority of controlling timing than the readers by intervening in readers' relative time as an agents and transforming their fictive time into absolute time. Following to the concept of "Agency" in games, agency is the power which satisfies the players by reemergence of their intentions. Since some of digital comics absorbed the properties of other media such as animation and sound, we can see that the reader's timing agency is shifted to the author's timing agency. The purpose of this study is to analyse this phenomenon and to remind that agency motivated by the balance between material constraints and formal constraints becomes a condition of readability of digital comics but excessive timing constraints given to the readers causes a decrease of the readers' timing agency. This also can be a considerable matter when we produce digital comics.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.652-656
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• 2007

It devides that a comic book is based on paper and the other one is serviced through the medium of internet. Each one called conventional form of comic book and digital one; however, it is simply uploaded scan-images of comic book on monitors instead of paper. This is just only difference of output form of comics and it does not bring out digital feature. Thus the new possibility of digital comics will be searched with the core of digital contents, interactivity is applied for comic frame-manner.