“When I was studying abroad in Japan, I was often looked down on because Koreans were said to be bad at drawing cartoons. But now, even people in the Japanese cartoon industry, a country that used to be arrogant, come to Korea to learn the process of creating webtoons.”
Kim Jung-hyun (40), the artist who drew the cartoons ‘Brave Citizen’, ‘Fighting Self-Taught’, and ‘Killer Bad’, graduated from Korea Animation High School and went to study in Japan in 2002. He majored in manga at Kyoto Seika University in Japan and continued drawing manga in Japan until 2011 after graduating. He became the first Korean to win the ‘Jibatetsuya Award’, the most prestigious award for new manga artists hosted by Kodansha, one of Japan’s top three publishers. He says that although he honed his skills in Japan, known as the home of manga, for nearly 10 years, the label of ‘foreign worker’ never really went away.
“Then, a scene I saw by chance on the Korean subway changed my life,” said Kim, who we met at ‘The Studio Paran’ in Hapjeong-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul. “People on the subway were intently reading webtoons on their smartphones. That was the first time I decided to become a webtoon artist in Korea, not Japan.”
Japan, the world’s largest consumer of comics, has long been centered on single volumes, but the market has been changing rapidly recently as people have begun viewing comics on smartphone apps. According to mobile market research firm Data.AI, Line Manga, a Japanese affiliate of Naver Webtoon, ranked first in combined revenue for non-game applications (apps) on Apple (iOS) and Google Play in Japan in August of this year. Line Manga has released a series of Korean webtoons that have surpassed 100 million yen (approximately 900 million won) in monthly transactions, including “Entrance to School Mercenary,” “The Remarried Empress,” and “Man in Luv.” To conquer the Japanese market, big tech companies such as Amazon Fliptoon and Apple Books have also entered the market by releasing vertical digital comic content.
Kim said, “In the past, the Korean comics industry was so small that no matter how excellent the creator was, there was no market that could support the platform. On the other hand, Japan has an overwhelmingly large comics market, a wide pool of aspiring creators, and an excellent talent development system.” He continued, “Naver Webtoon has also created a stage (platform) for Korean creators to showcase their comics to the world.”
Naver Webtoon is focusing on a “cross-border” strategy so that its comic content can be successful in Korea, Japan, the United States, France, and other countries around the world. In addition to global serialization, it continues to produce large-scale works that can even do intellectual property (IP) business through visualization such as dramas. Author Kim’s webtoon “Brave Citizen” was also released as a movie of the same name starring actress Shin Hye-sun last year. “Fighting Self-Hak”, which achieved 2 billion global views, was produced as an animation in May of this year. In the third week of July, the “Fighting Self-Hak” animation ranked 5th on Netflix’s Japanese TV show top 10.
In France, the world’s second-largest comics consumer, the popularity of “Killer Bad”, which is being serialized on Naver Webtoon by Kim and Im Rina, is rising. The two also attended a fan signing event held in Paris this July. Kim said, “I was very surprised that many fans I met in Paris shed tears while expressing their emotions about the work, and many locals asked when the work would be made into a drama.”
As the popularity of Korean webtoons is confirmed in the global market, it is said that they cannot help but consider global serialization and visualization such as dramas and movies from the webtoon production stage. The structure is that webtoons are not exported after becoming popular domestically, but rather enter the global market from the production stage. ‘Killer Bad’ also targeted the global market from the webtoon production stage. Author Kim emphasized, “The reason I personally established ‘The Studio Paran’ is because I always had the global IP business in mind.”
●“Focusing on joys and sorrows that everyone can relate to”
Popular webtoons that have already been verified by the public in the market are more likely to be produced as dramas and movies. In particular, as competition among global online video services (OTTs) such as Netflix and Disney Plus intensifies, dramas based on webtoons have risen to the ranks of a kind of ‘guaranteed hit check’ in the OTT industry. Representative examples include the Netflix original series ‘Masked Girl’ and Disney Plus’ ‘Moving’. As such, writers also compose stories with global readers in mind from the webtoon production stage. ‘Killer Bad’ features a unique setting called ’12 Apostles’. The setting of ‘Jesus and the 12 Apostles’ was borrowed to make it easier for the West to understand. Writer Lim said that webtoons focus on emotional lines and stories that contain universal human ‘joys and sorrows’ that can appeal not only to Korean but also global readers.
If you include trending words or memes that are popular in Korea recently, they may get a lot of views or become a hot topic right away, but it is difficult for global readers to understand the context. Therefore, they say they refrain from including trending words and memes that are popular for a moment. Instead, they focus on incorporating universal emotions and messages that anyone can relate to, regardless of nationality, into the story. Writer Lim emphasized, “It is important to focus on Badro’s unique worldview and to provide twists and surprises in the story,” and “I always keep in mind that if I include messages that only appeal to Korean readers, it will be difficult for international readers to relate to them, and that is why I develop the story.”
Naver Webtoon was listed on the NASDAQ in the United States with the goal of becoming the “Disney of Asia.” Regarding this, Lim said, “I think it is only a matter of time before we become the Disney of Asia.” He said, “I believe that the webtoon market is growing very healthily,” and “If only Korea had a system for nurturing webtoon artists, it could develop even further.” Lim, who graduated from the Department of Cartoon and Animation at Sejong University, pointed out, “However, it is unfortunate that cartoon departments are gradually disappearing from universities.”
Reporter Jang Eun-ji [email protected]
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2024-09-16 19:58:18