South Korea’s Webtoons Seek K-Wave Success

variety.com:

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefInternational TV audiences may have fallen in love with Korean series “All of Us Are Dead,” “Itaewon Class” and “Dr.

Brain” without ever being aware that each originated as a webtoon, or online comic.A clutch of Korean companies is now getting ready to make sure webtoons are the next big thing in the global K-culture takeover.Webtoons launched in the early years of the new century when Yahoo and Korean internet portal Daum started publishing news and web-only cartoons.

It was a free-of-charge means of generating traffic and retaining readers that functioned much the same as printed newspapers carrying daily comic strips.Kang Full is widely credited as having created the first webtoon, “Love Story,” in 2003.

With seven subsequent webtoon-to-screen adaptations, he still going strong and is responsible for the IP behind Disney+’s upcoming series “Moving.” Webtoons, which are mostly digital originals, made an evolutionary leap with the advent of smartphones and vertical-scrolling.