* This could be hidden soon to do better edit, without any notification.
* This article is based on interview of mirugi, Korean manhwa columnist.
Speaker : mirugi (Jeong-U Seon) - Homepage / Twitter
Editor : mrkwang (iSeeToon) - Twitter
Choice of picture & Caption : mrkwang (iSeeToon)
Outline of Manhwa <4> 3. Division of Korean Manhwa by Media type (2) Dae-Bon-So Manhwa (Manhwa for Daebonso, old school Korean version of Manhwa library.)
(2) Dae-Bon-So Manhwa (Manhwa for Daebonso, old school Korean version of Manhwa library.)
Editor's Note : mrkwang will add some more explanation before words of mirugi starts, because 'Dae-Bon-So' could be too hard for US readers to understand.
* Basic information of Dae-Bon-So. (by mrkwang)
'Dae-Bon-So' is hard to explain to foreigners, because it's very special for Korean Manhwa market. It services rental & sit-to-read system. It is similar to library but different, as smoking has been available & some of them has done 24-hour system.
<I'd add 'Dae-Bon-So' pictures. Not sure I could get them, anyway.>
'Dae-Bon-So' had manhwa which was published only for itself, but later also started to serve magazine-based comic book. Later 'Dae-Yer-Jum'(Comic & book rental only store) appeared, similar but different kind of business. 'Dae-Bon-So' and 'Dae-Yer-Jum' also served novels about martial arts(from 1980's) & fantasy(after 1990's).
Picture of 'Dae-Yer-Jum'.
It rents Movie(VHS / DVD) - Manga & Manhwa - Novel (Martial arts / Fantasy / Romance) - Magazine for women - ... etc.
Long ago, Movie & Book stores are divided, but they are combined into 1 years ago.
'Dae-Yer-Jum' gained share of 'Dae-Bon-So', for more casual readers.
Around 7,000 - 8,000 stores were available, even some novelist could earn enough money only to release for rent.
But some manhwa authors blamed it, because they believed rental kill sales.
However from few years ago, even 'Dae-Yer-Jum' became collapsed, due to several reasons as piracy through internet - depression of economy.
At now, it's believed that below 3,000 stores are working at now.
It rents Movie(VHS / DVD) - Manga & Manhwa - Novel (Martial arts / Fantasy / Romance) - Magazine for women - ... etc.
Long ago, Movie & Book stores are divided, but they are combined into 1 years ago.
'Dae-Yer-Jum' gained share of 'Dae-Bon-So', for more casual readers.
Around 7,000 - 8,000 stores were available, even some novelist could earn enough money only to release for rent.
But some manhwa authors blamed it, because they believed rental kill sales.
However from few years ago, even 'Dae-Yer-Jum' became collapsed, due to several reasons as piracy through internet - depression of economy.
At now, it's believed that below 3,000 stores are working at now.
Some authors became big to make 'Production', manhwa factory under the name of president author as 'Bong-Sung Park'. This 'Production' system is somewhat different from Marvel / DC style in US, as sharing author's name not character itself. In fact, it shared similar character all the time, but they are all different person even if they shares same name / appearance.
which can be translated as 'The man who was called as God',
by 'Bong-Sung Park' production.
'Bong-Sung Park' was one of famous 'Dae-Bon-So Manhwa' for a long time, especially for 1980's. This was one of his most famous manhwa series, started from 1990's & still going on. It was kinda remake of his early work in 1980's.
1990's version was featured in 'Sports Shin-Moon', so it's also for 'Shin-Moon Manhwa'.
It's remade as TV drama recently, but it became totally failure.
Even if he passed away at 2005, 'Bong-Sung Park Production' still release this series. (So some people still don't know he already passed away.)
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>>> mirugi's talk starts. <<<
History of 'Dae-Bon-So Manhwa' was not clear exactly, however it begun after Korean War in 1950's. 'Dae-Bon-Son Manhwa' was welcomed in 1960's, while Korean culture is improving. There were very few TVs at then, 'Dae-Bon-So' was only 1 place to enjoy culture content with cheap price.
While 'Dae-Bon-So' style disappeared soon in 1960's at Japan, it gained big share until early of 1990's in Korea.1
In Japan, 'Dae-Bon-So' style shop was for male grown-ups, so most of Mangas were for male grown-ups. In Korea, 'Dae-Bon-So' was mainly for male grown-ups, however became to have wider audience after 1980's. If that's close to girl's school, they had 'Soon-Jung Manhwa'2. 'Il-Sook Shin' - 'Jin Kim' - 'Kyung-Ok Kang' became famous at then, for drawing 'Soon-Jung Manhwa' for 'Dae-Bon-So'.
It has still fans, re-released at 2005 by Anibooks.
It's considered as 1st. SF for 'Soon-Jung Manhwa'.
There are still some active authors who has worked for 'Dae-Bon-So' & work for other market now, and readers who experienced that period. Even 'Dae-Bon-So' lost most of share after early of 1990's, influence of 'Dae-Bon-So' still remains.
>>> mirugi's talk ends. <<<
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* Further pictures & captions (by mrkwang)
While other big-named authors stayed for drawing 'Dae-Bon-So', he quitted it around early of 1990's, proceeded to another manhwa market.
Of course, he did some magazine job while he does it for 'Dae-Bon-So', and after that worked for newspaper. Such a cross-media job happened many times in Korean manhwa scene.
At now, Mr. Huh is one of the famous & success people in the market, as many manhwas were remade as TV Drama / Movies.
He started drawing for magazine at early of 1990's, later became production owner for 'Dae-Bon-So'. At then, 'Dae-Bon-So' started losing share, but he became big.
As other authors, he did some newspaper work as 'Dae-Tul'(Big Thief) above, which became famous even for plain readers.
Due to unusual & nonsense dialogues - storyline, some of his Manhwa cuts became cult among Korean internet youngsters.
And for cover above, it's copy of Korean film [Shiri] poster. 'Dae-Bon-So Manhwa' must release many books for limited time, sometimes (or rarely) such a copy happens.
He even released official manhwa of [Starcraft], which has been only 1 official comics all over the world for a long time. (Yes. THAT Starcraft by Blizzard.)
'Dae-Bon-So' served Martial Arts novel & manhwa from 1980's, which became popular sub-culture even until now.
This cover is from 'Jae-Hak Lee', who was another famous production owner at then.
As 'Bong-Sung Park', even if he passed away, his production released some more Manhwa.
Some of his works were exported to USA in the past, not sure how successful it was.
- Editor's Note : 'Dae-Bon-So' survived after that, even until now. However it was popular until early of 1990's, 'Dae-Yer-Jum' started to gain share. [Back]
- Editor's Note : Manhwa for girls / woman. In fact, it's more complicated genre. This series is not for genre, doesn't have enough explanation, however let's hope for another column series. [Back]
Posted by mrkwang
