Netcomics, an affiliate company of Ecomix (a leading online publisher of comics in Korea), will begin publishing a line of Korean manwha graphic novels in the U.S. in January. Thanks to the relationship between Ecomix and more than 150 of Korea's top creators, Netcomics has access to a line of topflight manhwa titles ranging from classic romance stories from the 1980s to groundbreaking new format online comics. Netcomics will utilize a series of major online marketing campaigns to promote its books to a potentially huge audience and readers will be able to sample Netcomics releases via the company's online pay-per-view service. Ingram Publisher Services will distribute Netcomics titles to U.S. bookstores and specialty shops.
Netcomics first three releases are due out in January and include Zero/Six Vol. #1 ($9.99) by Youjung Lee. Originally published in the Korean manwha magazine Young Jump, Zero/Six is the story of a wimpy high school boy who finds his hidden self when the beautiful (and invincible) female automaton no. 6 is delivered to his home. Youjung Lee is one of Korea's top creators -- his current project Gunbari is a fixture in the popular Japanese manga anthology, Young Magazine, no mean feat for a Korean creator -- and Zero/Six is cited by the author as his most cherished creation. The 176-page Zero/Six Vol. #1 is rated 13+.
The other two Netcomics January releases are 13+ rated shonen-ai titles that have been extremely successful with the female audience in Korea. Seyoung Kim's Boy Princess Vol. 1 (200 pg. $9.99) is one of the hottest manhwa titles in Korea where it is published online and via mobile phone service as well as in book form. The story of a medieval prince who dresses as his sister and weds a neighbor prince in order to save his kingdom, Boy Princess has been a huge hit with shoujo audiences and should do well with the teenage female audience that has made shonen-ai titles such as Gravitation and Descendants of Darkness so popular in the American bookstore market.
American shonen-ai fans should also warm to Let Dai Vol. 1 (240 pg. $9.99) by Sooyeon Won, Korea's best-selling shoujo creator. The first volume in this 15-volume series was published in 2000 and the series just concluded in 2005. Sooyeon Won is the creator of Full House, which inspired a hugely popular Korean live action TV soap opera that has been a huge hit throughout Asia and is still on the air in many countries. Let Dai is a very poetic account of the relationship between an ordinary boy and a charismatic boy.
