SamBakZa

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SamBakZa (Korean: 삼박자) is the name of a group of Korean artists that run the website sambakza.net. SamBakZa is the Korean word for "three counts." The group was named so because it consists of three people, known as Amalloc (아말록), SongSongHwa (송송화), and Sogong (소공).

Amalloc is the webmaster and perhaps the most famous of the three, for he is the only one who speaks understandable English, and also speaks Japanese. He is also responsible for the most popular part of the site, the Flash animation section. SongSongHwa and Sogong are both female, and have posted numerous drawings and comic strips on the site. SongSongHwa is responsible for many comics, and has created a group of cartoons about a few of her plant-like characters. Sogong has more art that one would call serious, and also dabbles in Flash. Most visitors of their site appear to belong to English-speaking countries, but as one can see at the forums, there are also a number of Japanese, and of course, Korean, visitors.

The massive appeal to English, Korean, and Japanese speakers alike is probably owed to the same thing as Amalloc's fame. Amalloc's popular Flash cartoons have almost no words in them besides the background music, so the basic plot and chain of events can be understood by people from all around the world. But even so, it is said by Korean viewers that the animations are more enjoyable if you can understand the song lyrics.

SamBakZa's popularity with the Western world was most likely sparked by the creation of "There she is!!", a Flash animation by Amalloc made in 2004. It rose to high acclaim shortly after its publication for the quality of animation and the accompanying story. There She is!! won both the Professional Award and the Cyber Jury Award at the Anima Mundi Web Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2004.[1] It had a precursor, "Hot Fish", which is currently withdrawn due to an issue with copyright. Its sequel, "Cake Dance" was published in March, 2005 to equally high acclaim, and won that year's Ursa Major Award for "Best Anthropomorphic Dramatic Series". A third animation in the series was expected to come out in August, 2006, but was delayed. According to SamBakZa's website, they now have funding for the rest of the series. The GDCA (Gyeonggi Digital Contents Agency: 경기디지털콘텐츠진흥원) in a project called "New Media Contents Production Project 2007 (2007년도 뉴미디어 콘텐츠 제작사업)" has chosen this project for funding. This means many good things, but also some bad. The good are that they will be able to finish the rest of the three by 2008 in a proper production environment. They will have other staffs aiding them as well so faster production is ensured. The bad news is that the rest of the series will be the property of the GDCA, so all copyrights and distribution decisions will be theirs. However, there are talks between SamBakZa and the GDCA to get free release on the internet, and the GDCA seems to be taking it in a positive manner, so it may turn out well.