When Ed Sizemore mentioned to me that this year’s Otakon schedule included a panel about manhwa, I leapt at the opportunity to ask him to write a guest report for Manhwa Bookshelf. And since Ed is a great guy, he kindly agreed. Here it is. Please enjoy! – MJ
Looking over the Otakon schedule this year, I was surprised to see a panel named “The Rise of Manhwa.” Since I didn’t know much about Korean comics, I decided to check it out. Unfortunately, the Otakon programming schedule doesn’t list the name of the panelist and the panelist didn’t introduce himself, so I can’t tell you who ran the panel.
Things got off to a poor start. The previous panel ran over and some of the audience was lingering around, socializing. The manhwa panelist had to ask them to leave, which seemed to put him a belligerent mood. Thankfully, about five minutes into the panel, his mood began to improve, but it wasn’t the best way to begin. …