by the international success of Japanese manga. Although in a traditional sense, the terms manga// had a similar meaning of comical drawing in a broad way, in English the terms and generally designate the manga-inspired comic strips. Manga influenced from the medium’s beginnings during the Japanese occupation of Korea and continued to exert a powerful influence as the manga industry became a major force within Japanese culture and began to export comics abroad. were not culturally isolated, and the influx of manga into the Korean comics market had a strong effect on the art and content of many artists’ . History Korea was under Japanese occupation from 1910 to 1945 and during this time elements of Japanese language and culture were incorporated into Korean society. The term came into popular use in Korea during the 1920s, when it was applied to cartoons. By the mid 1920s, most newspapers were shut down, and political and social cartoons were abandoned, replaced by humorous illustrations and cartoons geared towards children. Political cartoon slowly reemerged following the establishment of the Republic of Korea (commonly known as South Korea) in 1948. During the early years of Japanese occupation, newspaper comics featured a great deal of social criticism. Popular artist Kim Yong-hwan started Korea’s first comic magazine, Manhwa Haengjin, in 1948, but it was quickly shut down because the authorities disapproved of the cover. During the Korean war, Manhwa was used with the aim of boosting the morale of the public.The popularity of comics rose during the 1950s and 1960s, creating diversity of styles and subject matter which led to the construction of new genres such as sunjeong (or soonjung), stories containing romance that are aimed at young women (equivalent to the Japanese genre shoujo). Also around this time another more humorous genre, myeongnyang or happy comics had become popular in order to counteract gritty ones. Manhwabang (lit. comics room), comics cafés and stores that allowed readers to pay a set rate to sit and read comics were also introduced to the public, creating a positive atmosphere around the comics. In response to the increasing publication of comics, as well as social and political changes within South Korea, the government began to enforce censorship laws and, by the mid-1960s, created a comics distribution monopoly that further censored . In the 1990s, the ban on Japanese media was lifted, which helped to influence the present-day art and