South Korea Holds 24th Bucheon International Comic Festival (BICOF) Next Month

JAKARTA - The 24th Bucheon International Comic Festival (BICOF) is planned to be held online and offline from September 4 to 12, during which various free events promote Korean webcomics.

Themed 'New Normal, New Connection', the festival organized by the Korea Manhwa Contents Agency will hold various events, such as a fan meeting event, Gyeonggi International Cosplay Festival (GICOF), international seminars on various issues such as minority issues, and the comic category "boys love" (BL). The exhibition will be held primarily on YouTube and at the Korean Manhwa Museum located in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

The opening of the festival will be presented in a virtual space using digital technologies such as holograms, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR). During the opening, the winner of the Bucheon Manhwa Award will be announced with four nominees competing.

The opening ceremony will be translated into English simultaneously, while some key videos such as the fan meeting and exhibition will have English subtitles at a later date, organizers said.

"We aim to show the joy of enjoying the dynamics of this content when we don't have many opportunities to meet offline. We hope that audiences get the energy and comfort of the festival through online-based services," Kim Hyoung-bye, chairman of the festival's steering committee, quoted the Korea Times Thursday, August 26.

Meanwhile, Yoo Soo-hun, director of the festival, said last year, the organizers encountered some technical difficulties in holding the venue online.

"So we try to correct the mistakes so that the audience can communicate well with each other. For example, there are discussion sessions between Korean and French writers and with the Belgian comic festival," he explained.

One of the highlights of this event is the fan meeting with the writer. Comic writers of eight works such as Lee Dong-gun of "Yumi's Cells," HUN and Jimin of "Navillera," Shin Il-sook of "Four Daughters of Armian" and OSIK of "Civilian Control Zone" will hold a fan meeting via ZOOM. About 10 fans will be able to have an online meeting with the author, respectively.

In addition, the live OST concert of JTBC's megahit series "Itaewon Class" will be broadcasted live on September 11. On the sidelines of the festival, GICOF will hold "Cosplay@home", a costume play video festival, which provides videos of costume players from 10 different countries while selecting winners from among Korean applicants who submit play costume videos.

"This festival aims to introduce more web comics that don't have enough opportunities to be promoted amid the industry's rapid expansion," said Lee Yong-cheol, head of the Festival's Cultural Promotion Office.