The 2013 movie “Secretly, Greatly” is based on an idea that a highly trained North Korean spy infiltrates South Korea’s slum as a village fool.

The movie gets more exciting as two more North Korean spies, one impersonating an aspiring rock star and the other a high school student, join the main character. Although they were sent to the South to gather intelligence for the North Korean regime, they were not given specific missions until one day their supervisor orders all of them to kill themselves. The three young spies refuse to follow that order and face the assassins sent from the North. This action adventure film starring three of the hottest young stars was a big success in theaters, gathering seven million moviegoers. Besides the fun plot and the bankable stars, the movie had another key to success – a hugely popular webtoon of the same name that the movie was based on.

The online cartoon “Secretly, Greatly” has been running on a Korean internet portal site for four years now. It’s drawn by a cartoonist who goes by the cyber nickname Hoon, and the current version is the sequel to the original story. Not surprisingly, “Secretly, Greatly” is not the only webtoon turned into a major motion picture.

More than ten online cartoons, including “Fist of Legend,” “26 Years,” “Hello, Schoolgirl,” and “Moss,” were turned into popular films. It’s evident that webtoons exert quite an influence on Korean cultural contents. Here’s Professor Lee Jong-gyu of Chungkang청강 College of Cultural Industries to explain more.



Webtoons are at the frontlines of the Korean cultural contents industry. This means that Koreans love webtoons and can mostly relate to the subject matters described in them. This is why the online comics were turned into films and musical productions. When a webtoon tries out new ideas in its format or plot and when it has demonstrated that it is something people can relate to, it is converted into other cultural contents. It’s not surprising, therefore, that movie or TV drama producers are very interested in webtoons.

The term “webtoon” combines the words “web” and “cartoon.” It’s a genre born spontaneously in the late 1990s when cartoonists started posting their comic strips online. It’s a culture generated and promoted by Korea’s rapid IT expansion. The history of webtoons has now spanned more than ten years and the wide spread of smartphones has spurred on the number of webtoon fans. A survey by KT research affiliate DigiEco found that one out of five smartphone users read digital comics.

(Woman 1) My favorite webtoon is “Noblesse,” because I like action adventure comics. I also like the fact that all the characters in Noblesse are good-looking.
(Woman 2) I only read one webtoon and it’s called “The Dieter.” It’s a story about a fat girl who goes on a diet. I can really relate to the girl and I’ve gained a lot of information about dieting. It was fun reading about all the phenomena associated with losing weight.
(Man 1) I like “The Helper” which is about what a man, who dies in an accident, experiences in the netherworld.
(Woman 3) I have many favorites, one of which is “Penguin Loves Mev.” It’s about everyday happenings involving an ordinary Korean woman married to an ordinary Englishman named Mev. It’s fun reading about the cultural differences these two people experience. It makes me look back on my life as well. I get that fuzzy, warm feeling after I read this comic.

It seems almost every Korean has his or her favorite webtoon. Why are Koreans so into webtoons? Here’s Professor Lee Jong-gyu of Chungkang College of Cultural industries for more.

Webtoons are produced and consumed quickly. Digital cartoonists quickly incorporate reader feedback into their comics and readers can find out the latest cultural trends and social issues from the webtoons. The biggest appeal of webtoons is that it is possible to relate easily to their subject matter and communicate promptly with their creators and other readers.

The expansion of the internet may have crippled the publishing industry, but webtoons have created a new cultural genre with their speedy communication and empathy-inducing content. It was like a breath of fresh air in cyberspace, which used to be filled only with hard information. Professor Lee Jong-gyu tells us more.

Internet penetration may have facilitated the spread of information, but it ended up undermining other contents, such as music, films, and games. In fact, comic books also suffered a lot in the early years of the internet. But the new contents generated within the new digital environment succeeded in attracting new fans. This is quite special and meaningful, because webtoons started spontaneously on the internet.

The growing number of fans indicates how quickly webtoons have established their presence on the internet. The digital cartoon market grew at an average annual rate of 19% and webtoons have ventured into such traditional cultural domains as advertising, games, messenger icons, movies, dramas, musicals, and even books.

The status of webtoons in Korea has been elevated significantly. The portal site that runs a digital cartoon series with the most number of readers reports that 17 million people visit the site every month to read that comic strip. Riding the popularity of webtoons, the number of digital cartoonists also grew. Between 600 and 800 webtoons are posted every week, which indicates that online cartoons are growing into a huge industry.

Since May 27, the National Library of Korea has been hosting a webtoon exhibit titled All Webtoons. Touted as the next Hallyu icon, these digital comics are drawing attention from the public as well as cultural leaders. Here’s Mr. Choi Hong-chan in charge of digital information research at the National Library of Korea.

This exhibit is divided into six sections. The Library selected 100 major webtoons which ran on major portal sites over the past ten years. Those 100 works are chronologically organized for easy understanding. Also, the webtoons that were adapted into movies, dramas, or books were also spotlighted. Until now webtoons have not been systematically studied or organized, so our exhibit is going to set new standards for Korean webtoons.

The six sections of All Webtoons are: “Blooming Stories” which explains webtoon history; “Mirror of the Time” with 100 selected webtoons; “The Flowering Webtoon Culture” and “The Power of Webtoons,” which demonstrate the cultural values of digital cartoon; “Webtoon Authors’ Workspace” and “Webtoons Dreaming of the Future,” which provides an outlook for webtoons. Here’s Mr. Choi Hong-chan from the National Library of Korea again.

The first section, “Blooming Stories,” provides basic information about webtoons, such as how webtoons were born and how they progressed. Webtoons were first drawn by ordinary cartoonists in 1999, but it was four years later, in 2003, that this digital genre began to flourish. These digital cartoons were named “webtoons” when they were posted on Korea’s major online portal sites. Webtoons have participated in international book fairs in 2012 and 2013 in an attempt to separate themselves as an independent genre. I believe this exhibit is going to propel webtoons into the next level.

Korea’s first webtoon service was provided by Yahoo Korea in March 2002. It was followed one year later by Daum, one of Korea’s two flagship portal sites, where Kang Full’s강풀 “Hello, Schoolgirl” got its start. This cartoon was made into a stage play in 2005 and a movie in 2008.

When “Hello, Schoolgirl” was running on Daum, it set a new record by gaining 60 million hits. It was also named the best cartoon of the year. These achievements helped usher in the era of webtoons. Portal sites started wooing digital cartoonists to post their works on their sites and Korea’s premier portal site Naver started its own webtoon service in 2005. With online giants focusing their attention on webtoons, new cartoonists began looking toward posting webtoons to launch their careers. Here’s web cartoonist Lee Jong-beom, who publishes “Dr. Frost” on Naver.

I’ve been working as a digital cartoonist for five years now. I was trying to be a comic artist but the publishers were having financial troubles at the time. And then webtoons started to make waves and I was looking at a new opportunity. Most of my cartoons were about professionals, but there weren’t any cartoons of that nature. So I made my debut with a webtoon about psychologists.

In order to debut as a cartoonist in the existing publishing industry, the aspiring cartoonist should be able to draw well and write solid stories. Even if the aspiring comic artist has those two talents, most publishers are too small to help every new cartoonist to publish his or her works. But the webtoon world is different. Drawings need not be perfect and stories did not have to be long. Here’s Professor Lee Jong-gyu again.



Published cartoons require solid drawing ability and basic storytelling skills. So only those cartoonists who had had natural talent, and the time and energy to sharpen those skills were able to break into the field. But webtoons allowed anyone to post comic strips and communicate with readers. In the past, it was generally accepted that those who didn’t apprentice for an average of ten years under an established artist could not debut as a cartoonist. But it is possible for a webtoon artist with less than adequate artistic talent to gain lots of fans if he or she has the ability to create special and interesting stories. This is why it’s easier for new cartoonists to enter the webtoon market.

It is good news for new cartoonists to have such an accommodating venue. However, prompt reader feedback and a harsh internet environment filled with keyboard warriors can stress out novice webtoon artists. Here’s webtoon artist Lee Jong-beom again.

Popular artists cannot help but be sensitive to consumer feedback. I can’t deny that I was troubled by a wide range of reader responses. So I needed to prepare myself. I needed to know my strengths and weaknesses, and find a way to accept my shortcomings and all sorts of reader feedback. I try to accept all the ups and downs of internet culture, but it’s still hard.

Lee Jong-beom is always nervous when he is about to meet his fans. Nonetheless, he was the first cartoonist to speak at the webtoon fair at the National Library of Korea.

The webtoon exhibition features Webtoon Authors’ Workspace in order to make readers better understand the webtoon artists’ working environment, which is vastly different from those of conventional cartoonists. Here’s Mr. Choi Hong-chan of the National Library of Korea again.

This place recreated the typical working environment of webtoon artists. It features all sorts of digital devices, props, and reading material so that visitors can immerse themselves in the environment. Two artists were videotaped to show how they produced webtoons. This display may help aspiring cartoonists to create their own webtoons.

Korea’s webtoon market reached nearly 98 million dollars in 2012 and is expected to post double that amount this year and three times that in 2015. This industry is a true cash cow. Here’s Professor Lee Jong-gyu again.



A large number of people are interested in webtoons these days. I believe digital cartoons are more than just a local cultural phenomenon, but have the potential to become new hallyu contents and generate studies about their cultural value. Korean webtoons are showcased in global events and drawing much interest. It won’t be long before we’ll find Korean webtoons sold in markets worldwide.

Korean webtoons already caused sensation at last year’s Angouleme International Comics Festival and they are generating new hallyu waves at Mangafox, a world-leading cartoon sharing site. If the American cartoon industry is defined by its superhero comic books and the Japanese one by its mangas, now Korea is poised to capture the global cartoon market with its webtoons.