At the two-day symposium ``Asia in Comics 2005,'' hosted last month by the Japan Foundation Forum, in Akasaka, Tokyo, cartoonists and people in charge of Internet distribution in Japan, China and South Korea exchanged information and discussed the future of manga-comics-on the Internet.

Two forms of comics are currently available online-existing cartoons that are redistributed online and those made especially for the Internet.

Strong followings for online comics exist in China and South Korea, where speedy broadband Internet service enjoys wide use.

In South Korea in the late 1990s, amateur cartoonists attracted attention when they began posting drawings of everyday happenings on Web sites or ``portals,'' diaries in a comic-strip format.

One example is ``Pape Popo,'' a love story created by Shim Seung Hyun. First posted online, it later became a runaway hit in book form. The author is now an established cartoonist.

Shim described his creation as ``the first comic you read by scrolling down the page with your mouse, which is very different from opening a book and turning pages.''

As print magazines struggle with declining sales, serialized online comics are expanding.

At the recent symposium in Tokyo, Yu Wen, formerly an art designer of video games in China and now a cartoonist, noted: ``The pay is not that much, but you get great exposure from online publishing.

``Another boon is that there are fewer restrictions on freedom of expression, compared to print publishing.''

The Japanese cartoonist Konohana Sakuya is actually a husband-and-wife team, who made these observations: ``Print manga is one mode of self-expression. But it's wonderful to have another vehicle. We're challenging ourselves to develop a style of expression unique to online comics, something that is different from paper, television and anime videos.''

``Dangan,'' Konohana Sakuya's new creation, won excited applause at the symposium. The online comic skillfully weaves digital technology into the traditional manga format.

It seems that a vast world of new possibilities awaits online comics thanks to more freedom of expression and expanding distribution channels.

But at the moment, most of these online comics-still a jumble of the good and the bad-are offered for free.

Online comic sites that charge are emerging in South Korea and China, but the industry is still taking baby steps. To establish a system that can support budding cartoonists, much remains to be done in the areas of technology and compensation.(IHT/Asahi: March 5,2005)