Getting your geek on in Seoul?

Dr. Timo

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I am in Seoul at the moment attending a conference and keep a small travel diary here. Depending on your sense of humor, you may actually find it an amusing read.
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My question to the forum is this: Has anyone here been to Seoul? If so, I would greatly appreciate any help in finding local comic book shops. The conference I am attending is situated on top of a gargantuan mall so I do have access to normal book stores and their not insubstantial manga selections. However, I really like to get to know the local indie scene where ever I go, and the book store clerks here just look blankly at you when you try to explain to them that there are other types of comics than manga, and ask where one could find them, please?

Also, any other geeky destinations that come to mind are welcome.
Thanks in advance!

Apreche

I've never been to Seoul, so most of what I have to say is based on separate knowledge.

Basically, the existence of comic book stores is something that is really only true in the US, UK, etc. where the direct market exists. In non-stupid countries, like Japan and South Korea, comics are just sold in normal bookstores along with all the other books. They don't really have special comic book stores.

That being said, Seoul definitely has some huge geeky action going on, but it is mostly in the PC gaming realm. I don't imagine it should bee too hard to find a LAN gaming place, and play some of the Korean online games that can't be had anywhere else.

Corbin

That is really cool, because I am seriously considering teaching English in Korea (most likely Seoul, my cousin is actually already over there) for a year or two! The only geeky place that I can think of, although it's not really considered that geeky in Korea itself to my knowledge, is Lotte World. It's the largest indoor amusement park and has an extremely large video game arcade.

gomidog

I actually thought about this, too! I thought that knowing Korean might be useful as an animator, and I have a lot of friends over there.

Dr. Timo

Thanks for the responses. I have already been to two very large book stores and, indeed, they have lots of manga (or manhwa for the local variety). I am, however, more interested in the kind of stuff you'd find at MoCCA for example. And for this, i.e. having someone who knows the local artists and their indie productions, comic book stores are quite useful.

I may give those PC games a try. I have already spent some time in the arcade at the mall here and it was quite excellent. Also, I haven't found the StarCraft TV channel yet.

Yeah, Lotte World looks like it is a blast. Unfortunately I only have one day after the conference and I am using that to go see something far far geekier: the DMZ, where shit happens.

Dr. Timo

So here is a tiny follow up: I did some creative googling managed to find the Center for Animation and Comics. It is located near the Myeong-dong station on line 4 (exit 3 or 1). Here is a map, in case any of you ever want to go there:

Amazingly, the librarian there had no idea of where to actually buy comics! I suspect the girls where just summertime employees from the nearby elementary school or some such. Apart from this issue, the place is certainly worth a visit.

Anyway, regarding my earlier problem, it seems that the monster book shops I had been in before just weren't big enough. In the center I found an even larger one (it had its own food court) and succeeded in procuring "A day in Iraq" dealing with Korean soldiers in Iraq. Of course I also bought one copy of the most ridiculous looking manhwa I could find.