To support the development of diverse Taiwanese comics, a total of 59 projects were selected out of 220 submissions, including 40 projects for individuals and 19 for groups, as part of the new version of the "Comics Fund Project (漫畫輔導金)," which ran from Oct. 3 to Nov. 2 last year, according to the announcement issued by the Ministry of Culture on Jan. 12.
Grants were awarded in amounts up to NT$30,501,800. The selected projects cover a wide range of themes, including people documentary, suspense and reasoning, natural ecology, fantasy adventure, science popularization for children, arts, Taiwan’s history and culture, and cross-border adaptation of classic literature and theater shows, among others. This not only encourages young talents in comics, but also continues to support medium and long-form works.
From 2018 to 2022, the "Comics Fund Project," organized by MOC, has facilitated nearly 600 comic books and magazines to be published. Through the program, several works have won awards from home and abroad. "The Justice (正義)" by Lai Kai (賴凱) and "Cat Swordsman (貓劍客)" by Yeh Yu-tung (葉羽桐), for example, both earned bronze awards at the 16th Japan International Manga Awards in 2022. There are works that have been made into films and TV series, including the movie version of "YAN (閻鐵花)," which is scheduled to be released this year, and "The Underdogs (宅男打籃球)," which was turned into a TV show last year.
Additionally, many works have been adapted into stage plays, such as Wei Chong-cheng (韋宗成)'s "The Apocalypse Of Darkness Warfare (冥戰錄)" and Hsieh Tung-lin (謝東霖)'s "I Work for a Scam Company (我在詐騙公司上班)." Meanwhile, foreign rights to some books, such as "Son of Formosa (來自清水的孩子)" by Yu Pei-yun (游珮芸) and Chou Chien-hsin (周見信), have been sold to publishers in six countries.
MOC stated that the Ministry will continue to support Taiwanese comic artists and industrial practitioners to promote the content production and collaborate with the Taiwan Creative Content Agency to expand domestic and international markets for Taiwanese comic books. It is hoped that by strengthening cross-sector collaboration, the ecosystem of Taiwan's comics industry will gradually be formed.
