The year he turned 21, he won the gold prize in the Seoul Cultural Publishers’ rookie comics contest with the short comic Solip and debuted. In 2002, he won the grand prize in the story comics category at the Dong-A·LG International Comics Festival for the short comic Cola Man.
The breakthrough yearThe year he turned 26, he made his name known in the Korean comics world with his first collection of short comics, A Sad Homage to Dooly the Dinosaur. That year he won several awards, including the new artist award at the Readers’ Comics Grand Prize.
In 2005, he collected the comic serialized in the Kyunghyang Shinmun into Wetland Ecology Report. In 2006, he began serializing Native of the Republic of Korea in the weekly Hankyoreh 21.
In 2008, he published Native of the Republic of Korea as a book and won the excellence prize at the Korea Manhwa Awards. In 2009, he published 100°C, about the June 1987 democracy movement.
In 2011, he won the Bucheon Manhwa Awards grand prize for Too Vague to Cry Over and published the fable collection Stories That No Longer Exist. In 2012, he held the special exhibition Ecology Report Exhibition at the Bucheon International Comics Festival.
In December 2013, he began serializing Songgot on Naver Webtoon. In 2014, he won Today’s Our Comics Award for it. In 2015, Songgot was made into the JTBC drama Songgot: The Piercer.
In 2017, he finished the serialization of Songgot. In 2018, he won the Bucheon Manhwa Awards grand prize again for Songgot. In 2019, he began serializing Hellbound, the webtoon he made with director Yeon Sang-ho.
In 2020, he published Hellbound as books. In 2021, the Netflix series Hellbound was released and ranked No. 1 worldwide within a day. In 2023, Songgot was nominated in the competition at the Angoulême International Comics Festival and Hellbound was nominated for an Eisner Award. In 2024, Hellbound season 2 was released. In 2025, Revelations, which he co-wrote with Yeon Sang-ho, was released as a Netflix film. In 2026, he released the webtoon Crocodile, made with the artist MEEN.
Choi Gyu-seok (born Oct 10, 1977) debuted in 1998, the year he turned 21, by winning the gold prize with the short comic Solip in the Seoul Cultural Publishers’ rookie comics contest, and became known in 2003, the year he turned 26, with his first collection of short comics, A Sad Homage to Dooly the Dinosaur. On Nov 19, 2021, the year he turned 44, the Netflix series based on Hellbound, the webtoon he made with director Yeon Sang-ho, was released and ranked No. 1 worldwide.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.
He debuted by winning the gold prize with the short comic Solip (Pine Needles). It was a debut earlier than most of his peers, but he then enlisted in the military.
Source 01 · OhmyNews (Korean) · Interview with Choi Gyu-seok · opens in a new tabSource 02 · Hankyoreh 21 (Korean) · A native of the Republic of Korea, Choi Gyu-seok’s challenge · opens in a new tabHe won the grand prize in the story comics category at the Dong-A·LG International Comics Festival for the short comic Cola Man, which he published after his discharge.
Source 01 · OhmyNews (Korean) · Interview with Choi Gyu-seok · opens in a new tabSource 02 · Hankyoreh 21 (Korean) · A native of the Republic of Korea, Choi Gyu-seok’s challenge · opens in a new tabWith his first collection of short comics, which depicts the life of Dooly as a middle-aged man, he made his name known in the Korean comics world. OhmyNews writes that this work put him among well-known artists, and Kyunghyang Shinmun writes that he swept every award that year.
He won the new artist award at the Readers’ Comics Grand Prize.
Source 05 · Saejeonbuk Shinmun (Korean) · Invited by the Wanju County library · opens in a new tabHe collected the comic he had serialized in the Kyunghyang Shinmun into a book. It tells of college students living in poverty and is based on the author’s own experiences.
Source 03 · Kyunghyang Shinmun (Korean) · Wetland Ecology Report published as a book · opens in a new tabSource 04 · Mediaus (Korean) · Review of Wetland Ecology Report · opens in a new tabHe began a weekly two-page serial of a long comic about a poor Gyeongsang family with two sons and four daughters.
Source 02 · Hankyoreh 21 (Korean) · A native of the Republic of Korea, Choi Gyu-seok’s challenge · opens in a new tabHe won the excellence prize at the Korea Manhwa Awards.
Source 05 · Saejeonbuk Shinmun (Korean) · Invited by the Wanju County library · opens in a new tabIt is an autobiographical comic drawn after he interviewed his own family. Kukmin Ilbo describes him as an artist who rose to the forefront of Korean comics with A Sad Homage to Dooly the Dinosaur and Wetland Ecology Report.
Source 23 · Kukmin Ilbo (Korean) · Review of Native of the Republic of Korea · opens in a new tabIt is a work about the course of the June 1987 democracy movement.
Source 22 · Seoul Shinmun (Korean) · 100°C published by Changbi · opens in a new tabHe won the Bucheon Manhwa Awards grand prize for Ulgien Jom Aemaehan (Too Vague to Cry Over; Sakyejul Publishing), about attending an art academy to prepare for college entrance exams.
Source 06 · Seoul Shinmun (Korean) · Too Vague to Cry Over wins the Bucheon Manhwa Grand Prize · opens in a new tabIt is a collection of 20 fables with illustrations drawn by the author himself.
Source 07 · Kyunghyang Shinmun (Korean) · Stories That No Longer Exist · opens in a new tabIt was a special exhibition held for him as the previous year’s grand prize winner. He also drew the BICOF 2012 poster.
Source 08 · Newsis (Korean) · Bucheon International Comics Festival BICOF 2012 · opens in a new tabIt depicts the solidarity and struggle of employees who are treated unfairly at a foreign-owned big-box store.
Source 09 · Maeil Business Newspaper (Korean) · Popular webtoons on Naver · opens in a new tabHe won the award that year along with works by Kim Bo-tong, Sunkki and others.
Source 10 · Gyeonggi Shinmun (Korean) · Manhwa Day ceremony · opens in a new tabIt is a special-project drama based on the webtoon of the same name, first aired at 9:40 p.m. Ahn Nae-sang and others appeared in it.
Source 11 · Sports Chosun (Korean) · Songgot draws attention before its broadcast · opens in a new tabHe finished the serial that had run since December 2013.
Source 12 · Hankook Economic Daily (Korean) · 2018 Bucheon Manhwa Awards announced · opens in a new tabThe work, which depicts Lee Soo-in and Goo Go-sin forming a labor union, was chosen as the best comic of the year.
Source 12 · Hankook Economic Daily (Korean) · 2018 Bucheon Manhwa Awards announced · opens in a new tabDirector Yeon Sang-ho wrote the script and Choi Gyu-seok drew it. It deals with the supernatural phenomenon of grim reapers suddenly appearing in society.
Source 13 · Dong-A Ilbo (Korean) · Yeon Sang-ho returns with the webtoon Hellbound · opens in a new tabSource 14 · Joynews24 (Korean) · Hellbound 2 cast announced · opens in a new tabHe collected the webtoon installments into books.
Source 17 · SWTV (Korean) · Hellbound nominated for an Eisner Award · opens in a new tabThe series is based on the webtoon Hellbound, which he made with Yeon Sang-ho. It ranked No. 1 on Netflix worldwide within 24 hours of its release.
Source 15 · Maeil Business Newspaper (Korean) · Hellbound No. 1 worldwide · opens in a new tabSource 14 · Joynews24 (Korean) · Hellbound 2 cast announced · opens in a new tabIt was one of the 46 comics published in French in the official competition of the 50th Angoulême International Comics Festival, but it did not win.
Source 16 · Kukmin Ilbo (Korean) · Songgot misses an Angoulême award · opens in a new tabIt was nominated in the Asia category of the Eisner Awards, held every July at San Diego Comic-Con in the United States.
Source 17 · SWTV (Korean) · Hellbound nominated for an Eisner Award · opens in a new tabAll six episodes were released at once.
Source 18 · MTN (Korean) · Hellbound season 2 · opens in a new tabHe co-wrote the script with Yeon Sang-ho, and it is based on the comic of the same name that the two made together. Ryu Jun-yeol and Shin Hyun-been appeared in it.
Source 19 · OSEN (Korean) · Revelations first released · opens in a new tabSource 20 · Break News (Korean) · Netflix 2025 lineup · opens in a new tabIt is a noir work made for the first time with the artist MEEN, of the Dokgo series, and was released on Kakao Page.
Source 21 · Yonhap News Agency (Korean) · Webtoon Crocodile released · opens in a new tabEND OF SELECTED RECORDSSelected records, 1998–2026 · not a complete list of work. “Key moment” is an editorial label, not a measure of success.
What did they do, and at what age?
AgeTrail lines up the key moments of a life by age.
Debut and breakthrough are marked separately, and every record has a source.
Books · South Korea
Oct 10, 1977 —
Ages are counted from the birth year 1977: the year of the event minus 1977, birthdays aside. “Key moment” labels and the connecting story are AgeTrail's editorial reading.
Fact-checked: 2026.09.29 · An independent archive, not affiliated with the person or their agency.