Park Han-sol reports on Korea's financial regulators, along with fintech and insurance. She previously wrote about the art world, from biennales and exhibitions to fairs and auctions, with a focus on Seoul and the figures shaping the scene. Before joining The Korea Times, she spent a year at ABC News' Seoul bureau, contributing to coverage of major Asia-Pacific events.
Webtoon becomes platform for reviving classic cartoons
Six classic comic series from the 1970s and 1980s revived as webtoons / Courtesy of the Korea Cartoonist Association
By Park Han-sol
By Park Han-sol
Before webtoons introduced the world of comics in a digital format on computer and later smartphone screens in Korea, children used to consume print comic books obsessively.
A number of these classic, now out-of-print titles that once hit the bookshelves to become bestsellers as early as in the 1970s, have had new life breathed into them in recent months, making a triumphant return as webcomics.
The Korea Cartoonist Association announced last week that six iconic titles bringing back memories for those who were avid young readers of comic magazines during the 1970s and 1980s have been reborn as webtoons on a platform called Bufftoon, available until April 29.
“Kkeobeongi,” “Malja's March,” “Kkoljji and Hansim's Trip Around the World,” “Ohseong and Haneum,” “Bbeondegi Baseball Team” and “Boy Luca from UFO” pioneered an underappreciated genre of comics featuring protagonists' everyday lives in simple illustrations and witty dialogues. They became synonymous with the golden age of children's comics in 1970s Korea.
“I'm full of emotion to see that these characters from 40 years ago can meet audiences of the current generation in their original shape and form,” Lee Jung-moon, the cartoonist of “Boy Luca from UFO,” said in a statement.
The association added, “This will be a chance for those in their 40s and 50s to recall cherished memories from their childhoods and for those in their 20s and 30s to enjoy new cultural content that they haven't previously experienced.”
The horror comic series, ″Tell Me a Creepy Story!″ was reborn as a webtoon in August of last year. Courtesy of Naver Webtoon
Another comic series that has been revived as a webtoon is “Tell Me a Creepy Story!”
The series, which was first published in 2002, consisted of 16 books filled with short scary tales and urban legends. Although they were books of the horror genre, the plots and illustrations of each episode were not graphic nor explicit, as they were intended mainly for children.
Twelve of these books were illustrated by cartoonist Lee Dong-kyu and instantly became the talk of the town in the early 2000s, especially among elementary and middle school students who grew up reading and discussing the stories with their peers.
The series popularized stories like “The Red Mask,” inspired by a Japanese urban legend about a “slit-mouthed woman,” who covers her face with a red mask and asks everyone she comes across if she is beautiful.
In August of last year, “Tell Me a Creepy Story!” was reborn as a Naver Webtoon after getting a positive response from fans, many of whom are now young adults.
Because the original books have been out of print, the web series became viral right away, topping the platform's list of trending webtoons during the week of its initial release.
The featured episodes are those that were proven to be the most popular in the original comic books, with just a few minor adjustments to the characters and setting made by Lee himself. Part of the fun for readers is to identify the small visual and narrative changes made in the new version.
“It's amazing to be able to present print cartoons published two decades ago in a webtoon format, especially for audience members who were born in the 1990s and grew up reading them,” Lee said in a statement.