Busan Global Webtoon Festival
🗓️ 2026.10.30 ~ 2026.11.01
The 2026 Busan Global Webtoon Festival is a specialized festival built entirely around webtoons, with webtoon artists, related companies, universities, and the public all taking part. Now in its 10th year, the event runs from October 30 to November 1, 2026, around the Busan Culture Contents Complex. The opening ceremony is attended by webtoon officials and participating artists, with a celebratory performance from an invited singer.
Across the three days, the program covers exhibitions of webtoon works, stage programs that bring artists and citizens onto the same platform, and a family comic drawing contest. Visitors can see how webtoons are created, explore the range of related industries, and take part in the festival themselves rather than simply observing from the sidelines. University booths represent participating webtoon-related schools, while companies and institutions operate exhibition and experience booths, making it possible to examine the path from creation to industry in a single venue.
Business consultation programs are also in place, offering a structured setting for exchange between webtoon artists and related companies. The festival is designed so that creators, industry officials, aspiring creators, and citizens can all share ideas through the medium of webtoons—each group with its own reason to attend.
1. Main Programs
- Opening ceremony
- Artist talk shows, including special talk shows, Global Insight, overseas artist talk shows, and Bromanshow
2. Side Programs
- Webtoon exhibitions
- Food trucks and resting zones
- Caricature & drawing exchange exhibition
- University booth operations
3. Consumer Participation Programs
- The Professor (citizen participation talk show)
- Family comic drawing contest
4. Other Details
- Operation of participating university booths
Practical Information
📍 Address: 140 Suyeonggangbyeon-daero, Haeundae-gu, Busan (U-dong)
🛏️ Accommodation near the event
💰 Fee: Free
📞 Inquiry: 070-4006-8962
⭐️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bwebtoon_fest/
What is a webtoon?
A webtoon is a digital comic that originated in South Korea and is designed for reading on screens. Its main distinguishing feature is the vertical strip format: episodes are published as long, continuous columns that the reader scrolls through on a phone, tablet, or computer. This is different from print comics or page-based digital comics, which rely on page turns and panel grids.
The format has real consequences for storytelling. Without page breaks, the creator controls what the reader sees at any scroll position—how much of a scene is visible, when it appears, and how quickly the reader passes through it. A short sequence can be scanned in a moment; a large panel can take up the entire screen if the story calls for it. Some webtoon platforms also add background music, sound effects, or subtle motion to episodes, but the underlying form is still a sequence of drawn panels.
Webtoons are often serialized on a fixed schedule, typically weekly. Since each episode ends at a narrative pause, readers have time to discuss what happened in comment sections and forums. Some creators adjust their work in response to reader reaction, but this kind of feedback loop is not unique to webtoons; serialized fiction in magazines and newspapers has worked the same way for over a century.
The medium covers a broad range of genres—romance, fantasy, thriller, comedy, drama, science fiction—and the South Korean webtoon industry has produced works adapted into animations, television dramas, and feature films. Those adaptations reflect a functioning commercial system rather than any inherent superiority over other media.
A webtoon, then, is a comic designed for continuous vertical reading. Its conventions allow for particular methods of pacing and audience engagement that print comics do not offer, and those conventions have been developed, refined, and commercialized enough to sustain a distinct industry.
