Manhwa Monday: Post-Con Blues

Welcome to another Manhwa Monday!

The past week was all about New York Comic Con for us here at Manhwa Bookshelf, and manhwa certainly made itself known at this year’s con.

Booth 2265 was the place to be for manhwa fans, where the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) set up shop, promoting manhwa in big, blue letters and offering up comics in both Korean and English for sale at 4-for-3 prices.

As I predicted last week, KOCCA’s English-translated manhwa was provided via NETCOMICS, whose Vice President, Soyoung Jung, was onsite throughout the con. Though I was only able to chat with her briefly, the state of the booth’s inventory by Sunday afternoon spoke for itself, indicating that first volumes (at least) of most series were snatched up early on.

My personal manhwa score included a few middle volumes of BL favorite Totally Captivated to round out my collection, and volume two of historical fantasy Kingdom of the Winds.

KOCCA’s booth was both recognizable and easily visible at a distance, making it one of the most effective of its kind at the con.

Though none of the convention’s attending publishers had new manhwa licenses to announce, the most promising news came from Yen Press, whose newly announced iPad app (launching at the end of this month) will include some of its Korean titles to be downloaded as complete volumes for roughly $8.99 apiece.

In other news, allkipop.com releases photos of actress Moon Geun Young’s transformation into her character, Wi Mae Ri, for the upcoming mini-series Mary Skipped the Curfew, based on a Korean webtoon. Based on what I’ve seen so far, this can be added to my list of “manhwa I wish were available in English.”

And in the manhwa blogosphere, Lori Henderson updates her list of Halloween manga to include two recent manhwa series, girls’ horror manhwa Reading Club from Udon Enterainment and ghost-story manhwa Time and Again from Yen Press.

That’s all for this week!

Is there something I’ve missed? Leave your manhwa-related links in comments!