Gu Ajin's 'Future Antique Shop' Wins Bucheon Manhwa Award

The Newcomer Cartoon Award goes to Lee Myung-jae's 'We Are the Zombie'
The Overseas Work Award goes to Didier Alcante's 'Atomic Bomb'

Guajin's work, The Antique Shop of the Future, has been selected as this year's Bucheon Manhwa Award winner. The Korea Manhwa Contents Agency announced the results on the 1st after the selection committee reviewed works published last year. The grand prize, which combines artistic merit and popularity, was awarded to The Antique Shop of the Future. The story follows Mirae, a lonely girl on a cursed island, who unravels the curse of Haemal Island to stop Baekmyeon from destroying the world. The selection committee praised the work, saying, "The thorough research borrowing ideas from Korean folklore and legends stood out," and added, "The story, artwork, theme, and direction are all flawless. It masterfully handles the challenging subject of Korean shamanism with high completeness." The Antique Shop of the Future also won the Reader's Choice Award, narrowly beating End of Century Green Apple Supplement Academy by a margin of eight votes in the online poll.

The Newcomer Manhwa Award went to Lee Myung-jae's We Are the Zombies, a work set in a massive shopping mall during a zombie outbreak that addresses issues such as racial problems. The selection committee commented, "It humorously incorporates the socially significant issue of youth problems, awakening the joy of storytelling," and praised it as "an incredibly well-crafted work for a debut author." The Overseas Work Award was given to The Atomic Bomb, a collaboration by Didier Alcante, Laurent Fr?d?ric-Boll?e, and Denis Rodier. The work received high marks for its dense artwork and original direction tackling a subject rarely addressed in Korean manhwa. The Academic Award was presented to researcher Park Se-hyun for A Study on the Curation Structure of Webtoon Platforms, which explores various methods of collecting and selecting webtoons. The selection committee explained, "It is a practical study necessary for the current manhwa and webtoon industry structure, which provides diverse recommendation services on webtoon platforms." The awards ceremony will be held at the opening ceremony of the Bucheon International Comics Festival on the 30th of next month.