banner_jpg
Username/Email: Password:
Forums

Kkonnim Publisher and their "mass manwha pseudonym"

You must be registered to post!
From User
Message Body
user avatar
Member

10:43 pm, Apr 20 2013
Posts: 704


When I came across couple of works by HWANG Mi-Ri, i decided to search up the author a bit, and i got this from baka updates

"Hwang Mi Ri is a pseudonym created by Kkotnim to publish massive amounts of manhwa under one name."

and then i realized that the Kkotnim publisher have couple of other "authors" like this: HWANG Mi-Ri, YEON Young-Hee, HAN Yu-Rang, and NA Ha Ran.

So my question is....why? is there a reason to not reveal who the artists are? Does this manner of contract give some mysterious advantage in sales? Does this mean artists are paid salery and not commision?
This doesn't seem like he triditional publisher-manwaga contract, so i'm curious. How does this work? who are the real artists of the specific Hwang mi ri work??

Member

10:52 pm, Apr 20 2013
Posts: 187


This is really interesting. I always thought it was odd how prolific this manhwa artist was. I know in an older thread, there was some speculation that it could have been a few artists working under one psuedonym (or that person had a lot of assistants). Someone pointed out that their style had remained consistent for years- no improvement whatsoever.

Looking now at her list of works- interesting. It seems a good large portion of them are gone. IIRC HMR used to have one of the highest amounts of works listed under their name. (Several hundred if I remember correctly)

user avatar
manger le toupee
Member

12:06 am, Apr 21 2013
Posts: 306


I know that some publishers back in the days used a similar approach: A lot of work was done in a bullpen/studio fashion and credit would only be give to the lead artist. Even now, with manga, an entire "staff" could be working on a series but the assistants are not always credited, though I believe they are now being "acknowledged" for their contributions by the author.





________________
[We need more staff!] Visit us at: http://www.stilettoheelsteam.net/
Post #595865 - Reply to (#595780) by hatsumimi99
user avatar
Member

2:29 pm, Apr 21 2013
Posts: 704


Quote from hatsumimi99
I know that some publishers back in the days used a similar approach: A lot of work was done in a bullpen/studio fashion and credit would only be give to the lead artist. Even now, with manga, an entire "staff" could be working on a series but the assistants are not always credited, though I ...


its not the same though. a person called hwang mi ri doesn't exist. there is no lead artist in this case.

user avatar
Member

6:49 pm, Apr 24 2013
Posts: 704


well, i searched around korean sites, and this is what one of the person said:

http://kin.naver.com/qna/detail.nhn?d1id=3&dirId=305& docId=52059328&qb=7ZWc7Jyg656RIO2ZqeuvuOumrA==& enc=utf8&section=kin&rank=9&search_sort=0& spq=0

something like hwang mi ri is called "factory manwhaga" it's essentially a company that hires assistants and train them to draw manwha in a specific manner (that's the reason why there's no change in style) they company also hires several storyboard makers who essentially makes the story, and the trained 'drawing team' consisting of dozens of artist just draw the art based on the storyboard. The company is able to produce 3-5 volumes a month in this manner, and several artists work on a single volume/page at a time. (I'm amazed how similar the arts are)

the workers are paid salaries, like you would if u were hired by any other company, and not commission. Since there is no actual artist (hwang mi ri is like a brand, not a person) there is no such thing as interviews or profile or anything like that at all.

a lot of korean seem to really dislike this kind of manwha. It ensures that the series will be produced quickly and will not be discontinued, but it also means there will not be any change in style, and being paid in salaries means it doesn't encourage creativity or innovation all that much. It valuels quantity over qualities (also, apparently artist salaries are pretty low)



Post #597807 - Reply to (#595780) by hatsumimi99
Member

4:37 pm, May 5 2013
Posts: 170


Quote from hatsumimi99
I know that some publishers back in the days used a similar approach: A lot of work was done in a bullpen/studio fashion and credit would only be give to the lead artist. Even now, with manga, an entire "staff" could be working on a series but the assistants are not always credited, though I ...


This.

Its still a common method of cranking out products (the movie industry is infamous for this) but theres not a whole lot customers can do about it. It (ideally) brings down cost and increases productivity at the expense of art and writing style/uniqueness.

As for not revealing the individual authors/artists, its simply to avoid talent poaching.

Post #599382 - Reply to (#596305) by Hespia Klarerin
user avatar
Member

11:04 am, May 16 2013
Posts: 18


Quote from Hespia Klarerin
well, i searched around korean sites, and this is what one of the person said:

http://kin.naver.com/qna/detail.nhn?d1id=3&dirId=305& docId=52059328&qb=7ZWc7Jyg656RIO2ZqeuvuOumrA==& enc=utf8&section=kin&rank=9&search_sort=0& spq=0

something like hwang mi ri is called "factory manwhaga" it's essentially a company that hires assistants and train them to draw manwha in a specific manner (that's the reason why there's no change in style) they company also hires several storyboard makers who essentially makes the story, and the trained 'drawing team' consisting of dozens of artist just draw the art based on the storyboard. The company is able to produce 3-5 volumes a month in this manner, and several artists work on a single volume/page at a time. (I'm amazed how similar the arts are)

the workers are paid salaries, like you would if u were hired by any other company, and not commission. Since there is no actual artist (hwang mi ri is like a brand, not a person) there is no such thing as interviews or profile or anything like that at all.

a lot of korean seem to really dislike this kind of manwha. It ensures that the series will be produced quickly and will not be discontinued, but it also means there will not be any change in style, and being paid in salaries means it doesn't encourage creativity or innovation all that much. It valuels quantity over qualities (also, apparently artist salaries are pretty low)


Whoa you can read that?! (Google failed to translate the page for me confused )

So cool though, because it's basically the same kind of weird and heartlessness in their (Korea's) talent industry.

________________
“You know what makes humans different from other animals? We’re the only species on earth that observes shark week. Sharks don’t even observe shark week. But we do. For the same reason, I can pick up this pencil, tell you it’s name is Steve and snap it in half and part of you dies, just a little bit on the inside. Because people can connect with anything. We can sympathize with a pencil. We can forgive a shark. People can find the good in just about anything but themselves. You are all better than you think you are.”
— Jeff Winger, Community
You must be registered to post!