[INTERVIEW] Comic artist Won Soo-yeon talks about reprint of 'Full House' manhwa

Comic artist Won Soo-yeon poses during an interview in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Rockin' Korea

By Park Ji-won

Webtoons are now the most popular way to read comic books in Korea. But back in the 1990s and the early 2000s, there were only printed comics, called "manhwa" in Korean, targeting female teens and women in their 20s, largely focused on romance. That genre of comics was called "sunjeong manhwa." "Sunjeong" means "pure love" in Korean. Other comics about war, sports and action targeted male teenagers and men in their 20s. There were many weekly magazines and artists publishing romance comics at that time, and the genre became so popular that those days are referred to as the "golden age of sunjeong manhwa."

During those days, comics started being turned into movies and TV dramas. The comic series, "We Saw the Bird Lost in the Middle of the Road" (1986, rough translation), written and illustrated by Hwang Mi-na, was first adapted into a TV drama series in 1999. But it was the comic series, "Full House" (1993-1999), written and illustrated by Won Soo-yeon, that resulted in the drama adaptation becoming a megahit of the same name in 2004, achieving a peak viewership rating of 40.2 percent and being broadcast in many other Asian countries. "Full House" is a romantic comedy series revolving around female lead Ellie Gee and male lead Ryder Bayer Lions, who end up living in the same house.

Along with the reprint edition of "Full House," which was published to mark the 25th anniversary of the first edition, Won has returned to comic writing after a five-year hiatus, with the upcoming webtoon series, "My Mister," an adaptation of the tvN drama series, "My Mister," which will be released in August.

Won is also the former chairperson of the Webtoon Association and is credited with introducing a diverse range of characters in her works, such as "Let Die" (1995-2004), a gay love story. The Korea Times asked her about her reprint edition, the industry's transition from manhwa to webtoons and her upcoming works.

A new illustration of the manhwa series, "Full House," which was republished in April, around 25 years after the original comic was released. / Courtesy of Rockin' Korea

"I am happy to publish the reprint of 'Full House,' now that webtoons have become more popular than comic books. I added a new illustration on the cover and the quality of paper improved compared to the previous publication," Won told The Korea Times during an interview in Seoul, Thursday.

The publication came amid the popularity of reprint editions. There are no official statistics about "Full House," but the series has always ranked in the top 10 in comic magazines, which is one of the reasons why the publication company picked her work to be reprinted, according to a representative from the online shopping platform, Interpark. Won said that she felt nostalgic about the exchanges she had with readers, because she received a lot of fan letters.

"I had a lot of happy days in the past. Working as a comic artist is the same every day. I wake up, work, go to bed and repeat it every day. Authors nowadays can see readers' comments online, but I used to receive a lot of handwritten letters from fans, and I wasn't able to read all of them, because there were too many. Also, it was during the renaissance of sunjeong manhwa, and there are so many good and unique works that I also admired."

She recalled that the portrayal of women has changed a lot over the years, with a diverse range of characters in society becoming important in terms of content creation.

"When I first depicted the female lead, 'Ellie,' in 'Full House' as an independent and self-assured woman, people criticized her for being too picky and outspoken, which reflected the reality of those days. I came up with that character because I didn't like the ideas commonly found in the comics at that time suggesting that women should be submissive. But nowadays, there are many gender-related discussions, and often I think that all female characters are too self-assured and have Wonder Woman-like personalities. So I would like to depict a woman who has both good characteristics as a woman and can be accepted by many beyond her specific gender. I think it is necessary, when making content, to have diverse (female) characters."

In terms of diversity, she was one of the few comic book writers who realized the importance of the issue. When asked about "Let Die," one of the few comics that deals with homosexuality, Won said, "I was hesitant about raising questions in society about social issues, because I didn't want to pressure my readers. But I came to think that I wanted readers to understand diverse issues in society and make (minorities) visible in my works so that younger readers can be liberated through my works. I wanted to eliminate prejudices against sexual minorities and say that sexual orientation is something we are born with."

Her works are in line with her attitude to secure more rights for copyright owners in the industry. To this end, she has been critical about the current webtoon publication system being dependent on large internet portals for distribution, which could result in the excessive commercialization of comics and make many writers suffer. Won hopes she can make some changes in the system.

"People read webtoons very fast … Webtoons have become too commercialized. At portals such as Naver, authors end up supporting the webtoon system by being forced to work too hard, because they have to publish episodes every week without thinking about their identities as an author. I hope that the system can become more decentralized."

The commercialization of webtoons is one of the reasons she has been trying to help improve working conditions for artists. She was the first comic book writer to introduce a system of payment per episode with her "Full House 2" comic in the early 2000s, and she has tried her best to work towards securing benefits for authors since signing the contract for the dramatization of "Full House."

In August, she is scheduled to release the webtoon series, "My Mister," an adaptation of the popular drama, and the first such case in the industry of a webtoon remaking a drama, hoping that the effort can pave the way for authors to break down boundaries between artistic forms.

"It may be the first time for a webtoonist to webtoonize a drama. So far, publishing a webtoon from a drama has been aimed at promoting the original drama. I wanted to open the doors for webtoon artists so that authors can be less dependent on large portals."

Comic artist Won Soo-yeon during an interview in Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Rockin' Korea