‘Omniscient Reader,’ 9 other works win main prizes at World Webtoon Awards
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The 10 Korean webtoons for this year’s World Webtoon Awards / Courtesy of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
Ten Korean webtoons, including “Omniscient Reader” and “Return of the Mount Hua Sect,” have won main prizes at this year’s World Webtoon Awards, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Tuesday.
Webtoons are digital comics made to be read by scrolling down on a smartphone. The format began in Korea in the early 2000s and has since spread around the world.
The other winners are “The S-Classes That I Raised,” “Debut or Die,” “The Greatest Estate Developer,” “Cry, or Better Yet, Beg,” “Killer Pietro,” “Real Man,” “Jakdu” and “On the Way to Meet Mom.” Each winner will receive a trophy and 10 million won ($7,500).
The ministry and the Korea Creative Content Agency, a state-run body that promotes Korea’s cultural content industries, launched the awards in 2024. The goal is to honor creators and strengthen Korea’s standing as the birthplace of the webtoon. This is the awards’ third year.
The winners were chosen from 20 finalists. Expert evaluations and online reader votes each counted for half of the final score. An 11-member panel of creators, industry figures and academics judged the works on quality, performance and potential for expansion. Veteran cartoonist Lee Hyun-se chaired the panel. Online voting ran from Sept. 17 to Oct. 19.
The grand prize and the jury award will be chosen from among the 10 winners. Both will be announced at a ceremony at 4 p.m. on Dec. 3 at Starfield Library, a public library inside the Coex in southern Seoul. The grand prize comes with an extra 5 million won, while the jury award comes with an extra 3 million won.
A popularity award will go to the non-winning title with the most reader votes. A best overseas work award will go to the foreign title with the highest expert score.
The ceremony is part of the World Webtoon Festival, which runs Dec. 2-6 at Coex Hall B and the nearby mall. The festival features exhibitions, pop-up stores and fan events.
“We hope the awards and festival will celebrate creators’ achievements and become a festival where webtoon fans worldwide come together,” said Choi Seong-hee, the ministry’s director general for content industry policy.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.
