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With the growing popularity of Godzilla and kaijū media, scholarship on these topics is also increasing. While science themes (i.e., nuclearism, genetics, and environmentalism) are regular aspects of these publications, a research gap on the scientists themselves exists. Therefore, this article focuses on the five Serizawas (Daisuke, Eiji, Ishirō, Ren, and Shigeru) of Godzilla media (namely films, novelizations, and a webtoon) to examine their significance. Haynes' six scientist stereotypes and Frayling's considerations of how scientists are disconnected from laypeople provide frameworks for the analysis. Yet the complexities of the Serizawas ultimately suggest that interpreting them through a lens of sacrifice (of their families, loves, creations, and lives) provides a more solid thread by which to understand these men and their utilization of what can be deemed 'Godzilla science'—a method to (re)assert the natural order of the world on (and in) which humans and kaijū must learn to live. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Webtoons optimize interactivity and participation of media users in the world of digital media by consolidating a unique digital culture. This article examines the role of users in interactive media by exploring the case of webtoons in the context of a changing global political economy and cultural dominance. Korean platform monopolies have established a new business model for webtoons and developed it as a center of Korean creative power. While webtoons have increasingly expanded and attracted the global market and the global audience, some persistent social issues remain, including the precarious labor structure, monopolistic power in the industry, and ideological dominance in content. Although webtoon viewers are often recognized as cultural intermediaries and powerful agents for their contributions to interactive creativity, their role has fluctuated according to changing political-economic structures and industrial strategies. In the course of expanding to the global market and to new business areas such as intellectual property (IP), webtoons have evolved in new fashions while disclosing the ambivalent nature of participatory media and digital interactivity. This article elucidates the double faces of interactive creativity focusing on viewers' participation in webtoon production in the context of changing webtoon industry and growing partnership with global media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One innovative learned media development that could improve student learned outcomes was digital comics. Digital comics was an innovation from printed comics that accessed used the Internet network and are more efficient. This research aimed to develop and tested the feasibility of Webtoon-based digital comic media for applying Pancasila valued. Aparted from that, to found out the effectiveness of media in improved the learned outcomes of class V students during the learning process. This researched used research and development with the waterfall model according to Somerville, which had five stages. The use of the waterfall model in this research is limited to 4 stages: 1) requirements analysis; 2) design; 3) implementation; and 4) testing. The sample in this studied was 6 class V students in small class trial subjects and 23 class V students in significant class trial subjects. Data collection techniques used interviews, validation sheets, and tests. The instruments used were interview sheets, needed questionnaires, validation sheets, response questionnaires, and pretest post-test questioned (20 cognitive questions). The validation results of material and media experts showed that the media is "Very suitable" for the learning process. Teachers and students stated that the media was "Efficient" to use in the learning process. A significant difference existed between student learning outcomes before and after using Webtoon-based digital comic media (T (22) = 9.20, p < 0.05. These findings could have used to expand media distribution to a broader scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One innovative learned media development that could improve student learned outcomes was digital comics. Digital comics was an innovation from printed comics that accessed used the Internet network and are more efficient. This research aimed to develop and tested the feasibility of Webtoon-based digital comic media for applying Pancasila valued. Aparted from that, to found out the effectiveness of media in improved the learned outcomes of class V students during the learning process. This researched used research and development with the waterfall model according to Somerville, which had five stages. The use of the waterfall model in this research is limited to 4 stages: 1) requirements analysis; 2) design; 3) implementation; and 4) testing. The sample in this studied was 6 class V students in small class trial subjects and 23 class V students in significant class trial subjects. Data collection techniques used interviews, validation sheets, and tests. The instruments used were interview sheets, needed questionnaires, validation sheets, response questionnaires, and pretest post-test questioned (20 cognitive questions). The validation results of material and media experts showed that the media is "Very suitable" for the learning process. Teachers and students stated that the media was "Efficient" to use in the learning process. A significant difference existed between student learning outcomes before and after using Webtoon-based digital comic media (T (22) = 9.20, p < 0.05. These findings could have used to expand media distribution to a broader scale.

Abstrak: Diperolehnya data mengenai banyaknya siswa SMA yang belum cukup mengetahui tentang literasi keuangan, sehingga muncullah inovasi untuk menggabungkan materi edukasi ke dalam media digital. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk merancang komik edukasi sebagai media pembelajaran bagi siswa SMA. Penelitian yang dilakukan saat ini menggunakan metode penelitian deskriptif kualitatif. Data penelitian terbagi menjadi dua jenis yaitu data primer dan data sekunder. Data sekunder merupakan data yang diperoleh secara tidak langsung oleh pengumpul data. Data primer dalam perancangan ini berupa survei berupa kuesioner kepada target audiens tentang komik mana yang populer dan menarik untuk dibaca. Kuesioner yang telah dibuat disebarkan melalui media sosial dengan menggunakan Google Form. Teknik analisis data yang digunakan dalam penelitian adalah analisis SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) dan USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Hasil penelitian berupa perancangan komik edukasi berjudul “Cerita Artha”. Abstract: The research background is data obtained regarding the number of high school students who do not know enough about financial literacy, so innovations emerge to combine educational material into digital media. This research aims to design educational comics as a learning medium for high school students. The current research is using descriptive qualitative research methods. Research data is divided into two types, namely primary data and secondary data. Secondary data is data obtained indirectly by data collectors. The primary data in this design is a survey in the form of a questionnaire to the target audience about which comics are popular and interesting to read. The questionnaire that has been created is distributed via social media using Google Form. The data analysis technique used in the research is SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) analysis and USP (Unique Selling Proposition). The results of the research is the design of an educational comic called "Cerita Artha".

Reading is an important element of independent work on the language, but offering students additional reading to improve their linguistic and cultural competences is an extremely difficult task, due to the evolving tastes of young people and the variability of the media they use. Given the popularity of manga and digital comics in France, Romance philology students were asked to read a series selected from the webtoons.com/fr platform in French. A survey was then carried out to find out their views on how this tool could be used in French language learning. The results of the survey clearly indicate that the webtoons.com/fr platform can be used as an effective tool for learning French. According to the respondents, reading the selected series allowed them, above all, to develop lexical resources and was also an enjoyable pastime that increased motivation to learn the language. Students also paid attention to the combination of word and image, appreciating both the aesthetic and practical side of reading digital comics. Finally, the practicality of using the platform, its ease of use and accessibility was emphasised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Linguistika: Buletin Ilmiah Program Magister Linguistik Universitas Udayana is the property of Program Studi Magister Linguistik Program Pascasarjana Universitas Udayana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There are many language skills that must be mastered in learning English, consequently the proper media is required to accommodate this need. Webtoon is the solution for these problems, which is a very popular digital comic application with more than 100 million downloads and provides a wide variety of genres which can help to learn English skills. The previous research examined the use of webtoon as a learning media to mastering vocabulary, improve students reading skills, speaking skills and writing skills. However, no research has been conducted on the use of webtoon for all English language skills. Therefore, this study aims to investigate of using webtoon applications for students’ English skills. This study employed qualitative approach, and the design used in this study was systematic literature review. The method of collecting data in this research is by using 25 research articles that were collected from Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Microsoft Academic, ScienceDirect, and the Perpustakaan Nasional. From twenty five articles that researchers have been investigated it was found that webtoon media has a big impact on students’ English skills. The illustration images available on the webtoon also help in understanding the story and difficult words for the readers and also do not make the students bored. Therefore, this article is structured to investigate how the use of webtoon for students could increase their English skills.

Webtoony są rodzajem komiksów cyfrowych, których tworzenie zapoczątkowano we wczesnych latach dwutysięcznych na terenie Korei Południowej. Termin określający dzieła tego typu powstał z połączenia dwóch słów „web” oraz „cartoon”. Publikacje w tymże formacie posiadają wertykalny układ treści, który ma ułatwiać ich czytanie na urządzeniach mobilnych. Ponadto zawierają one kolorowe grafiki i nieskomplikowaną warstwę tekstową. Rozdziały poszczególnych tytułów udostępniane są seryjnie – na ogół raz w tygodniu. Niniejszy artykuł ma na celu ukazanie problematyki webtoonów oraz ich branży w Korei Południowej. Zamieszczone w pracy informacje pozwalają stwierdzić, iż omawiany rynek jest jednym z centralnych sektorów lokalnej produkcji kulturowej.

This study focuses on harnessing deep-learning-based text-to-image transformation techniques to help webtoon creators' creative outputs. We converted publicly available datasets (e.g., MSCOCO) into a multimodal webtoon dataset using CartoonGAN. First, the dataset was leveraged for training contrastive language image pre-training (CLIP), a model composed of multi-lingual BERT and a Vision Transformer that learnt to associate text with images. Second, a pre-trained diffusion model was employed to generate webtoons through text and text-similar image input. The webtoon dataset comprised treatments (i.e., textual descriptions) paired with their corresponding webtoon illustrations. CLIP (operating through contrastive learning) extracted features from different data modalities and aligned similar data more closely within the same feature space while pushing dissimilar data apart. This model learnt the relationships between various modalities in multimodal data. To generate webtoons using the diffusion model, the process involved providing the CLIP features of the desired webtoon's text with those of the most text-similar image to a pre-trained diffusion model. Experiments were conducted using both single- and continuous-text inputs to generate webtoons. In the experiments, both single-text and continuous-text inputs were used to generate webtoons, and the results showed an inception score of 7.14 when using continuous-text inputs. The text-to-image technology developed here could streamline the webtoon creation process for artists by enabling the efficient generation of webtoons based on the provided text. However, the current inability to generate webtoons from multiple sentences or images while maintaining a consistent artistic style was noted. Therefore, further research is imperative to develop a text-to-image model capable of handling multi-sentence and -lingual input while ensuring coherence in the artistic style across the generated webtoon images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Text-to-image technology enables computers to create images from text by simulating the human process of forming mental images. GAN-based text-to-image technology involves extracting features from input text; subsequently, they are combined with noise and used as input to a GAN, which generates images similar to the original images via competition between the generator and discriminator. Although images have been extensively generated from English text, text-to-image technology based on multilingualism, such as Korean, is in its developmental stage. Webtoons are digital comic formats for viewing comics online. The webtoon creation process involves story planning, content/sketching, coloring, and background drawing, all of which require human intervention, thus being time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, this study proposes a multilingual text-to-image model capable of generating webtoon images when presented with multilingual input text. The proposed model employs multilingual BERT to extract feature vectors for multiple languages and trains a DCGAN in conjunction with the images. The experimental results demonstrate that the model can generate images similar to the original images when presented with multilingual input text after training. The evaluation metrics further support these findings, as the generated images achieved an Inception score of 4.99 and an FID score of 22.21. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Samarinda is the capital of East Kalimantan that is currently growing rapidly. However, the city of Samarinda still has a complex flood problem. This flood phenomenon occurs not only when it is the rainy season but also when it rains for 1-2 hours. This condition interferes with the activities of the community and the government in Samarinda in carrying out daily activities because it can immerse settlements and housing, damage public facilities, and cause casualties. Despite the frequent occurrence and inconvenience of the community, Samarinda's level of public awareness in preventing floods is still minimal. This can be seen from the large number of communities that still often throw garbage carelessly into rivers, especially residents living near rivers. The garbage thrown into the river hinders the flow of water to the point where it can create a high puddle. It is seen that there are many communities, especially young people who are open-minded about environmental issues. Therefore, it is necessary to design a flood prevention educational medium in Samarinda city that can start from oneself or a simple thing with the main target is Samarinda people itself, especially the youth with qualitative methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La plataforma SVOD Netflix acercó a la audiencia española a un abundante catálogo de títulos surcoreanos. Esta producción audiovisual de Hallyuwood forma parte de un fenómeno más amplio, la nueva ola surcoreana o hallyu, integrado también por el desarrollo particular de la industria del cómic en Corea del sur en webtoons que cuenta con sus propias plataformas de distribución transnacional de contenidos. Este artículo aborda el estudio de caso de la serie televisiva Itaewon Class (JTBC, Netflix, 2020) dirigida por Kim Sung Yoon a partir del webtoon homónimo distribuido por Tapas Media con la colaboración de su webtoonist, Kwan-Jin. El artículo contextualiza la evolución de la tira cómica al webtoon y su empleo como fuente de transmedia storytelling en la literatura existente. Ese contexto precede un análisis de contenido, intertexto y de los personajes transmedia principales según el modelo propuesto para identificar los cambios en sus identidades existenciales y ficcionales consecuencia de su transformación táctica de OSMU a transmedia storytelling.

This paper focuses on a South-Korean drama entitled W – Two Worlds (MBC, 2016), and aims to analyze its complex and innovative narrative system, in order to expose how it investigates the way fiction works in recently emerged forms of mass-media culture. Although the series emphasizes the fact that manhwa, webtoon and drama are strongly connected in today’s South Korean cultural landscape, it is not through adaptation, but through internal representation that this connection is being revealed and questioned: the plot is based on the possibility for characters to cross the border between two constantly interacting worlds, one level of fiction being embedded in the other one. The first section of this paper addresses the narrative structure of this twofold world, staging a webtoon (i.e. online published comics) hero trying to escape his status of fictional character by conquering the author’s right to shape his destiny. This struggle between creator and creature is being addressed in the second section on a metafictional level, by combining the analysis of key scenes of the drama and the reading of quotes by its celebrated screenwriter. Lastly, the third section points out how the narrative depicts the very act of fiction-making, and how it puts the viewer of the drama at the core of the fictional system. By studying the aesthetics of W from an intermedial perspective, we would like to highlight how this drama investigates contemporary ways of creating, viewing and sharing media fiction.

Copyright of Acta Universitatis Lodziensis: Folia Librorum is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This research is motivated by a situation where students' reading interest is low, so there is a need for media that can make students interested in reading and learning. Webtoon is an online comic application that is quite in demand by readers of various ages, Webtoons can also be used as learning media to increase motivation and reading comprehension. The aim of this research wants to discuss about how to use Webtoon as a medium for learning reading comprehension and whether Webtoon is in accordance with the computer-Assisted Language Learning Criteria (CALL). This study uses qualitative methods, data collected by interview techniques. The respondents in this study were 6 students from 6 TBI B who use the Webtoon application as a medium for learning reading comprehension. This research was analyzed using Chapelle theory, which has six criteria where indicate that an application can be learning media. The results of this study show that using Webtoon as a medium for learning reading comprehension is in accordance with the criteria for Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), namely language learning potential, learner fit, meaning focus, authenticity, positive impact and practically. The majority of respondents gave positive comments on every aspect put forward by Chapelle. Therefore, Webtoons can be used as an interesting medium for learning reading comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Text-to-image technology enables computers to create images from text by simulating the human process of forming mental images. GAN-based text-to-image technology involves extracting features from input text; subsequently, they are combined with noise and used as input to a GAN, which generates images similar to the original images via competition between the generator and discriminator. Although images have been extensively generated from English text, text-to-image technology based on multilingualism, such as Korean, is in its developmental stage. Webtoons are digital comic formats for viewing comics online. The webtoon creation process involves story planning, content/sketching, coloring, and background drawing, all of which require human intervention, thus being time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, this study proposes a multilingual text-to-image model capable of generating webtoon images when presented with multilingual input text. The proposed model employs multilingual BERT to extract feature vectors for multiple languages and trains a DCGAN in conjunction with the images. The experimental results demonstrate that the model can generate images similar to the original images when presented with multilingual input text after training. The evaluation metrics further support these findings, as the generated images achieved an Inception score of 4.99 and an FID score of 22.21.

The term webtoon comes from the composition of web and cartoon and it starts to be used in 2000. Based in some way on the popularity of paper comics in South Korea, Daum website launched a webtoon service in 2003 for the first time. This work analyses the peculiarities of the Korean webtoon, specifically its verticality, adapted especially to mobile phones, and its transmediality, which facilitates the adaptation of these comics to other formats such as movies, TV series, novels, games, animation, etcétera. A list of the numerous webtoon adaptations to various media is collected, as well as the more detailed explanation of one of the paradigmatic webtoon in Korea: Misaeng. Webtoon's brief history in the domestic market and its vigorous expansion to the global market since 2013 (encircled within the popular Korean wave Hallyu) are explained. The strategies of the major webtoon companies (Naver, Daum, Kakao, and Lezhin) are briefly shown. The near constant growth in all parameters studied shows the vitality of the webtoon industry already in the global market, also with numerous works available in Spanish language. By approaching webtoon's authors and readers we aim to get a little closer to the phenomenon of webtoon and its success, especially among young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper maps the Indonesian-English translation strategies within a comic published in Webtoon, arguably the most popular global digital comic service platform in this generation. The data was taken from Webtoon. The data is an Indonesian Webtoon entitled “My Pre-Wedding” created by Annisa Nisfihani and its translation into English by Pujangga Team. This study’s design is qualitative, primarily describing the data by way of document review. Researchers catagorised the data into six translation strategies as stated by Baker Mona (1992). The researchers accumulated 261 data of translation strategies. Based on the analysis undertaken, the translation strategies used are mainly general word (17 findings = 6.5%), cultural substitution (47 findings = 18%), loan word (16 findings = 6.1%), paraphrase using a related word (53 findings = 20.3%), paraphrase using unrelated words (63 findings = 24.1%), and omission (65 findings = 24.9%). The results not only contribute to the research on language translation strategies, but also give insight on how they apply within the new generation’s smartphone cyberculture.

The development of technology, communication and information facilitates cultural exchange in individuals and groups. One form of the phenomenon of cultural exchange is K-Pop. K-Pop has given rise to presence of idol, fans and fandom. Uses and gratification theory shows that individuals actively use the media to fulfill their goals as fans with a form of participatory fandom. In economy context, idols are used as a media consumer attraction. Idol cooperation with a media, attracted fans to participate with the media. With the presence of digital media, fans do online participatory fandom activities, such as digital comics. The features of digital comics are used by fans as a medium for participatory fandom. By making fans of BTS (ARMY BTS Indonesia) in LINE Webtoon, this research was conducted to look at patterns of fan participation with different categories in utilizing digital comic applications as fandom media. Research used constructivism paradigm through a qualitative digital ethnographic approach. Semi-structured interviews were carried out on five informants who were ARMY BTS Indonesia as readers of "Save Me" webtoon and digital observations in LINE Webtoon. The results show that there are two characteristics of fans, namely temporary fan and devoted fan. Other results show that devoted fans take advantage of the features in LINE Webtoon more optimally as a form of dedication to their idols, while temporary fans have other phenomena besides idols to do participatory fandom activities.

Cet article propose d’interroger la transition numérique de la bande dessinée franco-belge. Alors que d’autres médias ont été fortement reconfigurés par le numérique, nous montrerons que la bande dessinée semble opposer une résistance. L’étude historique des supports de publication permettra, dans un premier temps, d’éclairer les processus de reconfiguration liés à la multiplicité des supports de publication analogiques et numériques. Cette partie historique soulignera l’importance symbolique du rattachement de la bande dessinée au support du livre et les obstacles qui s’opposent à son transfert vers les écrans. Une seconde partie, fondée sur une analyse des représentations des acteurs, montrera comment les technologies numériques ont transformé le marché, les pratiques et l’identité professionnelle des auteurs et des autrices. Nous verrons à quel point le livre demeure une source de revenus difficilement remplaçable et une référence symbolique majeure pour un média dont le patrimoine ne se laisse pas facilement transférer sur des interfaces numériques. En l’absence de véritables alternatives économiques et du fait d’une émancipation médiatique des auteurs contemporains les plus créatifs, les déclinaisons numériques de la bande dessinée ne parviennent, ainsi, pas à transformer en profondeur le champ de production.

Webtoon, a portmanteau of web and cartoon, denotes a cartoon that has been published on a website. Recently, webtoons have become popular in the global Internet market. Unfortunately, the copyright infringement has emerged as a new challenge resulting in illegal profit gains. Moreover, it is difficult to apply watermarking to published webtoons, because they need to be watermarked prior to publication. In order to deal with a large number of published webtoons, it is necessary to identify each webtoon using fingerprints extracted from its webtoon image. In this paper, we propose an identification framework to detect copyright infringement due to the illegal copying and sharing of webtoons. The proposed identification framework consists of the following main stages: fingerprint generation, indexing, and fingerprint matching. In the fingerprint generation stage, the translation invariant and temporally localized fingerprints are created for distortion-robust identification. An inverted indexing of the database is implemented, using the visual word clustering method and the MapReduce framework, to store the fingerprints efficiently and to minimize the searching time. In addition, we propose a two-step matching process for faster implementation. Moreover, we measured the identification accuracy and the matching time of a large-scale database in the presence of various distortions. Through rigorous simulations, we achieved an identification accuracy of 97.5% within 10 s for each webtoon.

Background: Premature birth poses significant health challenges globally, impacting infants, families, and society. Despite recognition of its contributing factors, efforts to reduce its incidence have seen limited success. A notable gap exists in the awareness among women of childbearing age (WCA) regarding both the risks of premature birth and the preventative measures they can take. Research suggests that enhancing health beliefs and self-management efficacy in WCA could foster preventive health behaviors. Interactive webtoons offer an innovative, cost-effective avenue for delivering engaging, accessible health education aimed at preventing premature birth., Objective: This protocol describes a randomized controlled trial to assess the effectiveness and feasibility of a novel, self-guided, web-based intervention-Pregnancy Story I Didn't Know in Interactive Webtoon Series (PSIDK-iWebtoons)-designed to enhance self-management efficacy and promote behaviors preventing premature birth in WCA., Methods: Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, this study first conducts a quantitative analysis followed by a qualitative inquiry to evaluate outcomes and feasibility. Participants are randomly assigned to 2 groups: one accessing the PSIDK-iWebtoons and the other receiving Pregnancy Story I Didn't Know in Text-Based Information (PSIDK-Texts) over 3 weeks. We measure primary efficacy through the self-management self-efficacy scale for premature birth prevention (PBP), alongside secondary outcomes including perceptions of susceptibility, severity, benefits, and barriers based on the health belief model for PBP and PBP intention. Additional participant-reported outcomes are assessed at baseline, the postintervention time point, and the 4-week follow-up. The feasibility of the intervention is assessed after the end of the 3-week intervention period. Outcome analysis uses repeated measures ANOVA for quantitative data, while qualitative data are explored through content analysis of interviews with 30 participants., Results: The study received funding in June 2021 and institutional review board approval in October 2023. Both the PSIDK-iWebtoons and PSIDK-Texts interventions have been developed and pilot-tested from July to November 2023, with the main phase of quantitative data collection running from November 2023 to March 2024. Qualitative data collection commenced in February 2024 and will conclude in May 2024. Ongoing analyses include process evaluation and data interpretation., Conclusions: This trial will lay foundational insights into the nexus of interactive web-based interventions and the improvement of knowledge and practices related to PBP among WCA. By demonstrating the efficacy and feasibility of a web-based, interactive educational tool, this study will contribute essential evidence to the discourse on accessible and scientifically robust digital platforms. Positive findings will underscore the importance of such interventions in fostering preventive health behaviors, thereby supporting community-wide efforts to mitigate the risk of premature births through informed self-management practices., Trial Registration: Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) KCT0008931; https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/search/detailSearch.do?seq=25857., International Registered Report Identifier (irrid): DERR1-10.2196/58326., (©Sun-Hee Kim, Jennie C De Gagne. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (https://www.researchprotocols.org), 15.05.2024.)

In this article, I suggest that the multimedia life of the Korean graphic novel Ikki (Moss) exemplifies the prospects for Korean graphic novels both at home and abroad. I discuss author Yoon Taeho's utilization and engagement with the highly developed Internet infrastructure in the Republic of Korea, as well as the success of Ikki as a work of creative writing that resonates strongly with the trauma and abuse of power that have characterized much of contemporary Korean history. I anticipate that the multimedial opportunities enjoyed by Korean graphic novels today, combined with the translation of representative works into languages such as English, Japanese, and Chinese, will allow these works to take their place alongside better known components of the wave of Korean popular culture (Hallyu) that is increasingly driving popular cultural production worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the Asian Transmedia Storytelling in the Age of Digital Media Conference held in Vancouver, Canada, June 8-9, 2018, webtoonist Yoon Tae Ho as a keynote speaker shared several interesting and important inside stories people would not otherwise hear easily. He also provided his experience with, ideas about, and vision for transmedia storytelling during in-depth interviews with me, the organizer of the conference. I divide this article into two major sections--Yoon's keynote speech in the first part and the interview in the second part--to give readers engaging and interesting perspectives on webtoons and transmedia storytelling. I organized his talk into several major subcategories based on key dimensions. I expect that this kind of unusual documentation of this famous webtoonist will shed light on our discussions about Korean webtoons and their transmedia storytelling prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of mobile media and snack culture, the webtoon has become a leading form of popular culture in Korea. Korea is also producing a growing number of webtoonbased TV dramas. If the proliferation of the mobile phone and the migration of traditional cartoonists to the mobile platform contribute to the emergence of the webtoon as a source for creative stories, it is the industrial factors and considerations that promote the practice of webtoon-based drama production. The following industrial factors lead to webtoon-based TV drama production: the success of earlier webtoon-based dramas (e.g., Misaeng and Cheese in the Trap), the limited pool of top drama scriptwriters, the use of the webtoon as a cost-saving option (as opposed to hiring a top scriptwriter), the strategy of reducing the risk of hiring a mediocre scriptwriter, the use of the webtoon as a deal point when production companies pitch a show, and the effectiveness of promoting TV dramas on the basis of a webtoon's existing reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sociocultural reasons for the growth of webtoons as snack culture and snack culture's influence in big-screen culture have received little scholarly attention. By employing media convergence supported by transmedia storytelling as a theoretical framework alongside historical and textual analyses, this article historicizes the emergence of snack culture. It divides the evolution of snack culture--in particular, webtoon culture--to big-screen culture into three periods according to the surrounding new media ecology. Then it examines the ways in which webtoons have become a resource for transmedia storytelling. Finally, it addresses the reasons why small snack culture becomes big-screen culture with the case of Along With the Gods: The Two Worlds, which has transformed from a popular webtoon to a successful big-screen movie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]