Digital convergence of Korea’s webtoons: transmedia storytelling

Abstract

The webtoon has been one of the major cultural forms representing Korean youth culture due to its convergence of digital technologies, such as the Internet and smartphones, and popular culture – manhwa (comic strips in Korean). While Korea is not the only country to enjoy webcomics, it is the first country in creating a new form of manhwa format by utilizing major characteristics of digital technologies. By employing media convergence supported by transmedia storytelling as a major theoretical framework, this study analyzes the crucial elements characterizing the emergence of the webtoon market. It examines the ways in which webtoons have managed to become one of the Korea’s signature forms of youth culture. Second, it investigates whether webtoons act as one of the major sources for transmedia storytelling. Finally, it maps out whether webtoons utilizing transmedia storytelling take a major role as the primary cultural product of the Korean wave in the global cultural market in the 2010s. This study historicizes the evolution of Korean webtoons according to the surrounding new media ecology, driving the change, and continuity of the manhwa industry over the past 15 years.

Keywords:

• webtoon
• transmedia
• digital convergence
• youth culture

Notes

1. Before the introduction of webtoons, cartoonists created their artwork first for the print version. Although they may have drawn their comics with the help of a monitor and tablets, they did not publish artwork online before they handed it over to the publishers. The structure has been quite different in the contemporary Korean manhwa sector. Korean cartoonists have developed their unique webtoons with the help of digital technologies and become used to enjoying digital content in large volumes.

2. Snow Cat is the pen name of Kwon Yoon-joo. She is considered one of the earliest web cartoonists of Korea and regarded as a first generation webcomic artist. Her comics were similar to blog posts that were illustrated with comics. Snow cat’s most well-known work is also named Snow cat, an illustrated diary about her cat (K-Studio, 2013).

3. Due to the increasing popularity of webtoonists, many amateur cartoonists try to be professional webtoonists; however, it is extremely difficult. In the case of Naver, about 0.03% (40 people) of webtoonists reach their dream of becoming a professional webtoonist, among 120,000 amateurs (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, 2014b).

4. According to Naver (2014), as of June 2014, about 65% of webtoon customers enjoyed these cultural products on mobile technologies, while 35% of them enjoyed them via PC.

5. As a classic murder mystery, Moss tells one man’s journey into the heart of darkness in a small town deep in the backwoods of Korea’s countryside to uncover the truth behind his father’s death. It was published online from 2008 to 2009 and eventually turned into a movie in 2010.

6. One source multi-use takes a production media (movie, TV show, or other), then spreads it out over as many different types of media as possible, such as games, cartoons, or toys to maximize the profit from the original media source (KOCCA, 2013).

7. Following the success of webtoons in the domestic market, Korean publishers are trying to go global by providing multi-language translations and cooperating with global comic book companies. As of 2013, the global comic book market was worth an estimated $8.8 billion, while the digital comic book market was worth an estimated $1 billion. The biggest comic book market in the world is in Japan, worth an estimated $3 billion in 2012, followed by the US at an estimated $600 million (Kang, 2014).

8. The Korea Manhwa Contents Agency (KOMACON), which supports and promotes Korean comics and animation, selected six of Korea’s emerging comic artists via a national competition, and sent them to Los Angeles to work alongside American editors and creative teams, allowing for better communication and accountability. KOMACON committed to financially supporting appropriate collaborations between K-Studio and American companies, studios, or creators. K-Studio is a major KOMACON initiative to expand the global comics and entertainment industries (K-Studio, 2013).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dal Yong Jin

Dal Yong Jin completed his Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA, in 2004. His major research and teaching interests are on social media and convergence, mobile technologies and game studies, globalization and media, transnational cultural studies, and the political economy of media and culture. He is the author of several books, such as New Korean Wave: Transnational Cultural Power in the Age of Social Media (University of Illinois Press, 2016), Digital Platforms, Imperialism and Political Culture (Routledge, 2015), De-convergence of Global Media Industries (Routledge, 2013), Korea’s Online Gaming Empire (MIT Press, 2010), and Hands On/Hands Off: The Korean State and the Market Liberalization of the Communication Industry (Hampton Press, 2011). He has also edited two books, including Global Media Convergence and Cultural Transformation: Emerging Social Patterns and Characteristics (IGI Global, 2011) and The Political Economies of Media: The Transformation of the Global Media Industries (Bloomsbury, 2011).