A screen capture from "Hong Kong Spring," an online comics exhibition held to show solidarity with democracy activists in Hong Kong Screen Capture from Hong Kong Spring



By Park Ji-won



A group of comics artists and illustrators gathered to show solidarity with pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, holding an online exhibition through June 25.



The artists, including Ko Il-kwon who publishes a webtoon on Naver, began releasing 17 original short comics online for free from April 3 to June 25. The artworks were themed on democracy movements held largely in the 1980s in Korea and currently underway in Hong Kong. To date, the works are written in Korean, but their English versions will start coming out today.



They started raising funds through crowdsourcing in February and raised about 5 million won from 148 participants so that they could get paid for their work and operate the website. The pieces will be published as a book in May and given to their donors.



The move came amid a months-long fierce confrontation between activists and the government in Hong Kong over an extradition law and democracy that began last June. There have been many campaigns among civic activists in Korea to support the democracy protests in Hong Kong so far.





Lee Jae-min, a comics critic