Seoul's Jamsil district has become a vibrant hub for webtoon enthusiasts this week as the second edition of the World Webtoon Festival runs through Wednesday. The four-day celebration brings together creators, platforms, and fans from around the world at Lotte Town, a massive complex that includes Lotte World, Lotte World Tower, Lotte World Mall, and Lotte Hotel World.

The festival, co-hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency, offers an extensive array of events designed to showcase the creativity and innovation driving the webtoon industry. Attendees can participate in workshops and talk shows covering everything from webtoon creation techniques to strategies for adapting digital comics into television dramas and other media formats. Pop-up stores throughout the venue feature merchandise inspired by popular webtoons, while comprehensive displays demonstrate the medium's artistic evolution.

One of the festival's centerpiece attractions is "The Chronicle of Webtoons," a six-part special exhibition staged at the Lotte World Ice Rink that traces the remarkable journey of digital comics from their early conceptual sketches to today's global blockbusters. Visitors can also enjoy animation screenings including "Maru is a Puppy" and "Dragon Girl Problem," live-drawing demonstrations by professional artists, autograph sessions with popular creators, and a special live dubbing performance by renowned voice actor Nam Do-hyung.

Major industry players are making their presence felt throughout the festival, with companies like Naver Webtoon, Netmarble, and Wacom hosting interactive showcases that give attendees hands-on experience with the latest tools and platforms. At Lotte World Tower, creators behind successful adaptations such as "Terror Man," "Shark," and "Itaewon Class" are conducting detailed discussions about their creative processes and the challenges of bringing webtoons to different media formats.

Additional programming includes educational lectures by Kakao Entertainment producers, who share insights into the business side of webtoon production and distribution. The festival also features award ceremonies for the 2025 Naver Webtoon High School Tournament and the National College Webtoon Contest, recognizing emerging talent in the field. Pop-up stores opened Thursday throughout Lotte World Mall, featuring twelve companies selling character merchandise and lifestyle goods based on popular webtoon series.

All events and exhibitions are free to the public, ensuring accessibility for both casual fans and dedicated readers who want to explore the medium more deeply. This approach reflects the organizers' commitment to making webtoon culture widely accessible and fostering greater appreciation for the art form among diverse audiences.

The festival culminates Wednesday evening with the 2025 World Webtoon Awards ceremony at Lotte Cinema in the World Tower. The prestigious event will honor ten outstanding titles across various categories, including the grand prize, jury president's award, and the newly introduced readers' choice award, which was selected through a global fan voting process that engaged webtoon enthusiasts worldwide.

This celebration of webtoon culture reflects Korea's growing recognition of the field's significant cultural and economic importance in the global entertainment landscape. "Webtoons are at the heart of K-content. They're our core and our original intellectual property. Only when this sector thrives can the entire value chain continue to grow," explained Culture Minister Chae Hwi-young during a National Assembly audit session Thursday, emphasizing the government's strategic view of the webtoon industry.

Korean webtoons have undergone a remarkable transformation from their origins as simple online comics to becoming powerful intellectual properties that fuel films, television dramas, video games, and extensive merchandise lines. Notable success stories include "Sweet Home," which became a global sensation on Netflix, and "Hellbound," another webtoon-turned-series that received international acclaim for its sophisticated cinematic storytelling and production values.

The growing complexity of the webtoon ecosystem is evident in projects like "Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint," which began as a web novel, was adapted into a webtoon, and has now been developed into a major feature film. Similarly, "Tomorrow" evolved from its webtoon origins into a successful MBC drama series and has spawned spin-off performance shows, demonstrating the medium's versatility and broad appeal across different entertainment formats.

Korea's webtoon industry continues to demonstrate robust growth, with expanding global reach driving impressive financial performance. According to data released by the Korea Creative Content Agency in January, the sector's total revenue reached 2.189 trillion won ($1.54 billion) in 2023, representing a substantial 19.7 percent increase from the previous year and marking six consecutive years of steady growth since 2018.

As Korean platforms and production studios accelerate their international expansion efforts, exports have emerged as a crucial growth driver, with particularly strong demand emerging in North America where audiences have shown increasing enthusiasm for Korean digital content. A Culture Ministry official emphasized that the World Webtoon Festival serves as an important global platform where webtoon professionals and readers can come together to celebrate creativity and innovation, adding that the government remains committed to supporting the festival's development into a world-class event that showcases Korea's leadership position in the digital comics industry.