* This could be hidden soon to do better edit, without any notification.
* This article is based on interview of mirugi, Korean manhwa columnist.
Speaker : mirugi (Jeong-U Seon) - Homepage / Twitter
Editor : mrkwang (iSeeToon) - Twitter
Choice of picture & Caption : mrkwang (iSeeToon)
Outline of Manhwa <7> 3. Division of Korean Manhwa by Media type (5) Webtoon(Korean Web Comic)
(5) Webtoon(Korean Web Comic)
Editor's Note : Before mirugi's talk starts, mrkwang will add some more about Webtoon.
First of all, Webtoon is Korean Web Comic. I heard that 'Webtoon means Web Cartoon = Animated Cartoon for Web in US', even wikipedia says so. Not sure why we Korean started calling it as Webtoon, however that means Korean Web Comic over here. You could read more about Webtoon(Korean Web Comic) in Manhwa Bookshelf by Hana Lee.
Webtoon is different from Web Comic. Both of them are released through internet web, but had different environment - evolution. At now, they are very extremely different.
First of all, Webtoons are usually gathered to Korean portal sites as Naver / Daum. Of course, some individual Webtoons are drawn by personal & released through their own blog - BBS(as DC Inside). However most Webtoon blogs are serviced in portal sites1, those BBS are usually big ones.
So many webtoons are released through Naver daily, even in Sunday.
In fact, these are NOT full list. More are below, as we can see after scroll more.
Other portals also serve such a many Webtoons, to gain many visitors.
Korean internet is full of Webtoons, really.
Naver does not host only commercial webtoons, but also BBS for wannabes. It's called as 'Do-Jeon Man-Hwa-Ga'(Challenge for the pro Manhwa author). People drew some & release there, gather audiences to leave feedback, debut in the portal sites.
While he released it at his blog, he also featured for 'Do-Jeon Man-Hwa-Ga'.
At now, this is released through Naver as 19+ rated(only for adults).
However before it's released through Naver, all contracts were done,
for Book - Mobile(iSeeToon) - Movie,
only because this is too good to be missed.
DC Inside and other BBS could be another Webtoon source. It's not easy to describe DC Inside, however we could compare it to 2ch / 4ch. Of course, they are somewhat different. Many people draw some for 'Man-Gael'(Manhwa Gallery), even few of them became pro. Some of them are 'Byung-Mat-Ryu', which could be translated as 'Stupid but Stylish'.
While his characters & drawing are rough or weird, his works are weirdly fun.
He became too famous & many people wanted,
2 different portal(Yahoo - Naver) features that series at the same time.
He publishs different episodes to each portals.
He is genius, while you can't imagine that from drawing above.
Secondly, Webtoons became scroll-based. While Web Comic doesn't need so many scrolls, Webtoon needs a lot. For example, you could compare 1st. chapter of [Magician] at naver & iSeeToon version(iPhone). We iSeeToon team believes that click-base is better for Mobile(Smart Phones - PSP style handheld console) than scroll-based, made our App as that.
You could see how it works from that Youtube Video.
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>>> mirugi's talk starts. <<<
Webtoon is Korean manhwa which is released for online, Korean Web Comic.
'Il-Sang Toon'(Essay - Diary toon) was major around early of 21th. century. After that, 'Story Manhwa' became bigger, major genre was changed. Not only change of genre was done, direction was changed as scroll-based-moving. Several experiments were done, several ways were made.
with another success 'Snowcat'.
Even if it's based on author's diary - essay, became extremely famous.
Fancy stuffs were released as above, even some mobile games were made.
However copyright of Marine Blues belonged to his earlier company.
He quitted that company, no more Marineblues webtoon is made after 2007.
Webtoon became as 'uploadable to blog service'.2, while big portal(naver - daum) served major webtoons. In the past, there's length limit of vertical line. Webtoon fame 'Kang Pool' appeared, vertical length was changed as almost unlimited.
His webtoons became too famous, adaptated into several films & even play.
Even if he's not famous abroad, one of most famous authors at now.
Around that, several scroll-based experimental appeared & lots of changes were done. At now, webtoon style is fixed & almost no experimentals are done. But some technique were re-done / re-edited / (slightly) developed, many kind of webtoons appeared.
Originally it's twisted / parody of fairy tales.
However it does different kind of experiments for every chapters weekly.
In fact, author 'Moo-Juk-Pink' wanted to experiment for Art, not just drawing Manhwa.
Even if Webtoon has big portion in Korea, almost no Webtoon were released abroad. Of course, few of them as [The Great Catsby] - [X-Diary] were released in US. But it didn't give enough impact, not well known & sold well.
>>> mirugi's talk ends. <<<
- Editor's Note : Korean portal sites services blog service very much, most Korean use their service - not using private hosting, while some use installed blog. Main reason could be 'server fee' & 'difficulties of blog installing'. If you use Naver blog, don't have to pay - install anything. In fact, if you have Naver.com mail account, you already have blog! [Back]
- Editor's Note : In the past, html type homepage was popular even in Korea. After that, many blog service appeared from portal service or install style as tattertools(textcube). So webtoon became to be 'uploadable to blog service' instead of homepage. [Back]
Posted by mrkwang
