Naver Webtoon’s original webtoon ‘Lore Olympus’ won the Best Webcomic category at the US ‘Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards’.
This is the first time that the vertically scrolling webtoon genre has won an award in the webcomic category.
The ‘Will Eisner Award’ is a representative American comics award ceremony created in 1988, named after the great American comic artist Will Eisner. It is the most prestigious comics awards ceremony in the United States and is also called the ‘Academy Awards’ of the comics industry. Every year, a panel of professional judges selects candidates in each category from this year’s series and announces the winners at San Diego Comic Con, America’s largest entertainment festival.
The Best Web Comic category selects the best works among online comics published throughout the year. Among the five works nominated this time, in addition to ‘Lower Olympus’, the original webtoon ‘Batman: Wayne Family Adventure’ co-created by Naver Webtoon and DC was also nominated.
Author Rachel Smythe said at the awards ceremony held at the San Diego Comic Con convention on the 22nd (local time), “I am grateful to the fans around the world who love ‘Lore Olympus,’” and “This work changed my life.” “I am proud to be able to share this story with Naver Webtoon’s global readers through my work,” he said in his acceptance speech.
‘Lower Olympus’ is a romantic fantasy that reinterprets the Greek myth of the underworld king ‘Hades’ and the fledgling goddess ‘Persephone’ in a modern way. It was first released through Naver Webtoon’s English service ‘Webtoon’ in 2018, and officially began serialization in Korea in August 2020. It has been recognized worldwide for its originality and artistic value, and has accumulated over 1.2 billion global views.
Author Rachel Smythe is a New Zealand writer who debuted through ‘CANVAS’, Naver Webtoon’s overseas challenge comic system. Canvas is an amateur creative space platform that applies ‘Challenge Comics’, a creative comics (UCC) bulletin board established by Naver Webtoon for the first time in the industry, to the global market. Currently, over 820,000 amateur creators from around the world are gathering to create a global large-scale creative ecosystem.
In terms of users, it is also recording significant growth. Naver Webtoon first introduced its English service in July 2014, and the number of monthly active users (MAU) in the United States, which was 6 million in 2019, exceeded 15 million early this year. Even in terms of app market comics revenue, it ranks overwhelmingly first in the United States.
Kim Hyeong-il, general manager of Naver Webtoon’s North American business, said, “’Lore Olympus’ is a work that has captivated global readers with its amazing artistry and storytelling,” and added, “I am happy to be recognized in this way for my efforts in steadily promoting ‘webtoon’ to the American market since the beginning, and we will continue to work hard to create a variety of projects in the future. “We will do our best to promote the expertise and quality of webtoon works to the global market,” he said.
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
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