Webtoons constructing new universes as those in Marvel series

▲ This photo, provided by YLAB, shows the universe that YLAB's works share. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

▲ This photo, provided by Kakao Entertainment, shows the poster explaining the 'Love Alarm Universe.' (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

▲ This photo, provided by Cartoonist Jo's Instagram account, shows the poster of his newest work 'Planet Man 2 (translated).' (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) – The South Korean webtoon industry is also joining the movie and music industries on the trend of planning and creating different universes – there has been a noticeable surge in the number of webtoons introducing their own universes.

While the initial version of universes used to be where the main character in one work appeared as a cameo in another, webtoons these days have now come to share universes, including the settings and characters.

The most well-known webtoon production company when comes to constructing universes is “YLAB,” according to the webtoon industry Thursday.
Early in 2015, the firm announced the production of “Superstring,” which integrated the heroes in webtoons of several of its authors into a single universe.
It was then followed by the “Blue String” universe, opened in Feb. 2021, focusing on the youth and school life, along with the romantic “Red String” universe released in Nov., focusing on the relationship of couples.

By launching sequels of their own creative universes, YLAB has now entitled itself as a professional content universe production company, rather than a mere webtoon studio or production firm.

YLAB, now at the forefront of the webtoon industry blooming with universes, has recently released a “cross-over webtoon” in which characters from different webtoons all come to meet, similar to how the Marvel characters work.

In the webtoon “The Queens,” the main character “Island” teams up with the “Terrorman” from another webtoon “Battle Realms” and the female characters of “Cave Woman.”

In an interview, one of the YLAB officials explained, “Our goal is to show that South Korea has also developed useful leadership skills and a well-qualified system that would create and maintain universes, similar to how the Marvel Studio does,” adding, “the main motivation behind constructing universes is to bring forth all the fans of different webtoons to one place, regardless of their nationalities, platforms they use, and the genre they like.”

A renowned South Korean webtoon author, Chon Kye-young, has also recently constructed her own “Love Alarm Universe” in cooperation with several other writers. The app she introduced in her book “Love Alarm,” which alerts the user whenever anyone loves him/her within a radius of 10 meters, also appears in this universe.

Character Salgu from the webtoon “Don’t Make Me Cry (translated),” Gong-myung from the webtoon “Under the Green Light (translated),” Baek Hye-gyung from the short webtoon “Be Kind to Your Neighbors (translated),” and several more characters also share this universe constructed by author Chon.

Despite the difference in writers and genres, ranging from thriller to romance, all the works mentioned above share the same universe where the “Love Alarm” rings.

Author Chon shared her thoughts in an interview: "As I have been writing for 20 years, I loved how the “Love Alarm Universe” could expand without limits”, saying, “I was confident that this Universe would be an effective catalyst for every other writer who joins in.”

One of the most renowned 1st-generation South Korean cartoonists, Jo Seok, has also been constructing the so-called “Jo Seok Universe,” where several of his works, including “Moon You,” “Planet Human (translated),” and many more, are mentioned and interconnected.

Jo has not yet specifically called it the “universe”; however, the asteroid that appears in “Moon You” serves to be the middle ground by which the extraterrestrial life from “Planet Human” enters the earth.

Such an introduction to the concept of the universe in webtoons is motivated by the limitless expansion universes can make. As already proven by the Marvel series, if there is to be a universe, there naturally comes mesmerizing characters and plots that can expand and appear in countless works.

Moreover, it has been repeatedly witnessed that readers are more likely to be attracted to the sequels if they happened to be set in the same universe.

An official from YLAB explained, “In contrast to webtoons published in the past, those set in a universe can expand boundlessly,” saying, “the background story that those webtoons share in a universe naturally piques the interest of readers, and they can more readily be produced into visualized content, which is incomparably competitive as content IP (Intellectual Properties).”

Meanwhile, there are certainly some drawbacks to webtoons sharing universes: The entry barrier for new readers is getting higher, as they have to understand the background story and plots of the previous work in order to read the sequel.

Cartoonist Jo also expressed his anxiety as he shared the news of the release of “Planet Human 2 (translated)” on his Instagram account: “I am afraid that those who have not read “Planet Human,” “Jo’s Field” or “Revelation of an Influencer (translated)” will struggle to understand the episodes that I will be uploading from now on.”

The fact that webtoons take a relatively long time to be published than other types of media can not be disregarded as well. In the case of a movie or a music video of a K-pop group, it only takes at least 3 minutes and at most 3 hours to watch the entire series; on the other hand, most webtoons have 10 or more sequels published, thus requiring more time to comprehend the universe.

A person from the webtoon industry responded, “Introducing a universe to a webtoon is undeniably a double-edged sword. However, attempts are being taken for the sake of content expansion,” adding, “it remains to be seen whether this trend will actually become an effective strategy for a webtoon’s success.”

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Ha eun Lee)

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