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| Webtoon contents developer YLAB is turning an action webtoon series, "Burning Hell," co-created by the company's founder Youn In-wan and webtoon artist Yang Kyoung-il, into a movie scheduled to hit theaters next year. / Courtesy of YLAB |
Korean ‘webtoons' turn to technology, genre-based storiesBy Ko Dong-hwan
"Webtoons" or online cartoons in Korea are becoming more popular than ever with the significant improvements in technology and content.
Webtoons started in 2005 as a collage of drawings that netizens could enjoy as light-heartedly as enjoying a snack and was thus referred to as "snack culture pop media." The second generation of works that was introduced in 2011 has improved upon their predecessors tech-wise and consequently gaining more fans.
And the medium continues to change. Recently, webtoon artists have begun writing complex plots, turning the once lightweight cartoon strips that readers could mindlessly scroll down on into visual stories that could be transformed into movie blockbusters. This is a movement toward the genre-based Korean cartoons of the 1980 and the 1990s.
High-tech webtoons
In July 2011, webtoon artist Horang stirred the public's interest with the short horror webtoon "Ok-su Station Ghost." Released on the nation's leading online portal Naver, the webtoon included 3D-like effects that received a lot of attention, including in a scene in which the large hand of a ghost jumped right out of the screen as if to grab the viewers. The next month, the artist released another short horror webtoon, "Bongcheon-dong Ghost," that featured even more advanced effects, including in a scene in which the horrific bloody face of a ghost seemed to fly towards the viewers as it made a creepy, riveting sound.
A type of webtoons known as "smarttoons" focus on the horror genre because the specials effects that breathe life into otherwise static drawings, such as by giving them movement and sound, or, such as for smartphone users, vibration, work well in scaring viewers.
"I was once scrolling down a webtoon with my smartphone. One scene included a vibrating phone, and at that moment, my phone vibrated too. It was really cool," said Jang Bo-ram, general manager of webtoon producer YLAB. "The development of such technological features always excites webtoon artists. It gives them more room to experiment with their materials."
Another type of webtoons known as "voicetoons" uses voice actors for the characters' dialogue and plays background music. A video voicetoon version of Naver webtoon "Cheese in the Trap" by Soonkki was released in 2012, and one for CJ E&M's "Anti-Anti-Angel" by Chara was released this year.
"But these features don't always impress the viewers," said webtoon artist Han Dong-woo, who debuted in 2012 with "My Nights Shine Brighter than Your Days." "Except in a few webtoons that were made into a series, the features work best with short horror stories. Artists must be careful when opting to go high tech."
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| An image from Daum's political thriller webtoon series "My Nights Shine Brighter than Your Days" by Han Dong-woo. / Courtesy of YLAB |
Back to the genre-based cartoons
The heyday of the Korean cartoon market was the 1980 to the 1990s, when countless cartoon series, mostly created by Japanese and Korean artists, were published in paperback. In the absence of the Internet and smartphones, readers from diverse age groups, from young students to working adults, flipped through pages and pages of genre-based cartoons, like those by Lee Hyun-se, who created the legendary cartoon character Oh Hyae-sung for the baseball cartoon "A Daunting Team" (1982), as well as the hit basketball cartoon series "Slam Dunk" (1990-1996) by Takehiko Inoue.
After more than a decade, Korean webtoons have begun to slowly but surely move toward genre-based stories, according to Han. Artists want their works to be commercial successes, and for that to happen, their works must be adaptable for the TV or movie screen. One way to achieve this is by making their works genre-based, with strong plots and quality contents.
"Into the mid-2000s, the webtoon artist with the pen name Lee Mal-nyeon introduced a new type of content called "byeong-mat" (Korean for "a taste of mind-numbing stupidity"), a short comedy webtoon that people could easily read through. This type of webtoon became very popular," Han said. "But byeong-mat is starting to fade as more artists are turning to genre-based webtoons."
Han is one of the artists who led the movement with "My Nights," a rated-R political thriller series based on the true story of hostess Jeong In-sook (1945-1970), who had an affair with the then Prime Minister Chung Il-kwon and was shot to death on a Mapo-gu street in Seoul by a still unknown murderer. Released by online portal Daum in July 2012, the series became the portal's No. 1 webtoon in February this year.
"‘My Nights' was first acclaimed by Japanese readers in 2011 when its short story version was published by Shueisha in the Japanese cartoon magazine Grand Jump," Han said. "After the series became a big hit in Japan, I introduced it to Korean netizens the next year as a more substantial genre-based series. It has been drawing the attention of netizens, who often leave comments, both good and bad, about the series."
Producers believe the webtoon's movement toward genre-based stories is the right direction, if the medium wants to continue raising its popularity.
"In the long term, it is better for producers to create genre-based webtoons than lightweight short stories because the former has better odds of getting acknowledged by netizens and being adapted into a TV series or a movie," Han said.
"Popular genre-based cartoons are always remembered and talked about even years after their publication," said Seong Mi-na, editor of YLAB. "Cartoons with high-quality contents are timeless and always acknowledged. In the end, these cartoons are what sustain webtoon producers in the long run. Online hits and popularity hopefully follow."
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| Naver's historical comedy webtoon "Joseon Kingdom Annals Talk" created by Byun Ji-min was adapted into both a web drama and a cartoon book. In August, the publication topped the bestseller chart in the history category in major bookstores. |
The Korean webtoon market ablaze
Korean webtoons are becoming more popular than ever, with many breaking online readership records or being adapted for the TV screen or for theater. "Joseon Kingdom Annals Talk" by Byun Ji-min and "Prince of Prince" written by JAEA and illustrated by SE have both been remade into web dramas. "Burning Hell" by YLAB founder Youn In-wan and webtoon artist Yang Kyoung-il is being made into a movie, which will hit theaters next year.
"I am sure that no one is unhappy about the webtoon's growing influence on Korean mass media," Jang said. "Webtoons have earned a new status as ‘raw contents' because they have become seeds for popular TV series and movies."
In the only negative aspect of the growth of the nation's webtoon market is that it has grown too fast.
"Opportunities for aspiring webtoon artists have grown fast, spearheaded by juggernaut webtoon producers like Naver, Daum, Lezhin Comics, and then followed by the surge of start-up producers," Seong said. "Many start-ups, however, have failed to sustain the aspiring artists that they hired. Some were shut down only three months into the industry due to financial difficulties, and some even hoodwinked the artists with contracts that were unfair to them.
"The Korea Cartoonist Association is now trying to prevent such an unfair environment for artists and to uphold the rights of the artists by providing a standard contract form for the artists. Major agencies are also protecting their artists."
YLAB is one of the webtoon producers in the nation that has been fostering emerging artists. The company has partnered with the Korea Creative Content Agency in May to mentor selected aspiring artists and pay for their monthly training fees. It also raised three billion won ($2.6 million) from venture capital firm Value Invest Korea in July, which would help it to support more aspiring artists. The company is opening its first webtoon academy near its office in Mapo-gu, Seoul, in December. The school will be open to everyone who is interested in becoming a webtoon artist, regardless of academic background.
"Our biggest goal is to foster some 20 artists under our roof to develop their skills and let them create high-quality webtoon contents that we can produce," Jang said.
The two biggest trends in webtoons today are content development and international expansion. The Korean government has been pushing for the introduction of local webtoons overseas, and webtoon producers are translating their works into other languages for foreign markets. As a result, many foreign buyers have shown interest in Korean webtoons, including those from YLAB.
"We have been working with Naver since 2011 in translating our works into different languages, including Japanese, Chinese, English and Thai. In early 2012, we launched an app for the online platform Naver Line in Japan to introduce our translated webtoons," Jang said. "It took 10 years for the nation's webtoon industry to be where it is now. But it's still too early to judge how our works will be received by foreign readers. It will take time for local webtoons to reach the majority of foreign markets because some countries have poor Internet facilities for people to access our webtoons."
