Artists hit the big time as webtoons join Korean wave

When Bae Jin Soo quit his well-paying job at one of South Korea's biggest conglomerates to write stories, his parents were so upset they kicked him out of the house.

But 17 years later, Bae is one of the biggest names in South Korea's thriving billion-dollar webtoon industry, having taught himself to draw and penned hits that have been turned into YouTube reality shows, plus a major Netflix series.

Webtoons have seen explosive growth around the world since the format emerged 20 years ago in South Korea.

Webtoon Entertainment, the most popular hosting platform that is owned by Naver, has filed for a Nasdaq initial public offering that could reach a valuation of more than US$2.6 billion (HK$20.28 billion).

When Bae started out, his parents - like many people then - did not consider being a "comic artist" a viable way to make a living.

Even his friends were worried about his career choice as he "couldn't draw."

But he taught himself how - by taking photos of himself and surroundings and copying them with a pen - while working at a convenience store and delivering pizzas.

Readers' comments critical of his early, rudimentary drawings but praising the storyline also spurred him to work harder.

Eventually, he posted his breakout 2012 debut horror hit Friday on Naver Webtoon.

Supported by South Korea's ultra-fast internet and smartphone-crazy populace, webtoons are fast becoming the country's latest viral cultural export.

The sector's value in South Korea went from US$109 million in 2013 to US$1.33 billion by 2022, government figures show.

Webtoon has 170 million monthly active users from more than 150 countries, and says it has paid creators over US$2.8 billion from 2017 to 2023.

The "average professional creator is earning US$48,000 a year and the top 100 are earning US$1 million," according to its chief executive, Kim Jun Koo.

The genre has inspired K-dramas and film adaptations, including Misaeng (2014), Yumi's Cells (2021), Marry My Husband (2024), and The 8 Show (2024), which is based on two of Bae's webtoons.

Creating a drama series based on a popular webtoon means it is already a "work that has been validated in content and originality," said Park Soon Tae, a producer who worked on webtoon-inspired TV romance.

But even as adaptations go global, many readers remain loyal to the original format.

Reading online allows "stories to develop and evolve in real time as a user scrolls," Kim wrote in the IPO filing. "The use of white space highlights a character's isolation and loneliness. A crowded panel creates chaos. Long blank panels build suspense."

Of the around 14 original South Korean dramas launched by Netflix last year, at least seven were based on webtoons.

"One of our goals is to find smaller, potentially undiscovered stories that resonate with original [webtoon] fans and find new audiences worldwide," said Keo Lee, content director at Netflix Korea. "So we ventured into unconventional genres."

While webtoons span a variety of themes, creators have particularly addressed "the agony of loser-like younger generations," said Dal Yong Jin, author of Understanding Korean Webtoon Culture.

Bae's Money Game, one of the two webtoons he wrote that inspired The 8 Show, follows a young man who becomes debt-ridden after a failed crypto investment.

He and seven others decide to participate in a game in which they must survive 100 days in a sealed space - without even a toilet - to win a substantial prize.

What they spend in the space is deducted from the prize, with the cost of living 1,000 times higher than in the real world - a conceit Bae said he came up with while drinking with friends.

The violent, gruesome webtoon has already been made into two YouTube reality shows, one in South Korea and the other in the United States.

Bae said that despite the darkness of his works, readers should easily empathize with his characters.

"The hardest thing is to give up what you've got," he said, referring to human nature. "But having started from the absolute bottom, even the smallest of gains have always brought me joy."