“Lore Olympus” and the History of Webtoon

Even if the medium isn’t the message, it certainly still matters, and when discussing Lore Olympus, the opportunity arises to discuss the complex history of the Webtoons platform that houses, distributes, and, in many ways, shapes what Lore Olympus has become. #LoreOlympus #Webtoons. 1/13

The popularization of Webtoons is considered a part of “Hallyu,” aka “The Korean Wave” which refers to the cultural moment being had by South Korean culture in the international arena, encompassing music, television, cinema, and, of course, comics. 2/13

Webtoons now occupy an enormous position in the comics landscape with 125 billion views annually, as of 2023 and landmark deals being signed with DC, Ubisoft, Dark Horse, and even Archie comics. Additionally, a wide number of films have been adapted from Webtoons. 3/13

The driving factors behind the rise of Webtoons are economics and technology, respectively. Economics, because the 1997 IMF Crisis in Korea created an environment where purchasing (or even renting) paper manga was out of reach for many patrons. 4/13

At the same time, Korea eased restrictions on manga imports from Japan, which put the manhwa industry under incredible pressure to maintain its dwindling market share. The innovation to sell comics online became the saviour of the industry at the time. 5/13

Ongoing as well was the popularization of Berners-Lee’s worldwide web, which allowed Webtoons to build its digital platform. Then, the 2010s shift from desktop to smartphone interfaces pushed the vertical layouts that define most Webtoons today. 6/13

Content, however, needs to be added to this list of factors, and Lore Olympus became the most viewed comic on the platform with 1.4 billion views on its own across the series’ 280 chapters, a staggering accomplishment. 7/13

In consequence of this, the study of Lore Olympus needs to be the study of a work that thrived in the Webtoons environment with all the various complexities associated with Webtoons’ interface, distribution system, and business model. 8/13

Smythe’s success in this arena is by no means her only success. Lore Olympus found success before Webtoons on Tumblr (in 2017) and since then in republications in book form. But it is not an exaggeration to call LO a webtoons phenomenon. 9/13

The provenance of these characters and relationships and settings and plots, all speak to the platform through which they found their greatest audience, just as the success of Webtoons speaks volumes to the nature of these same characters, relationships, etc. 10/13

LO thrives on serial storytelling – on building cliffhangers and tension and will-they-or-wont-they, while its engagement with cellphone culture (a deeply impactful aspect of the mythology’s modernization) creates metatextual effects when read on a cellphone. 11/13

The vibrant colours and exaggerated physicality of Smythe’s illustrations are, similarly, optimal for a small, high definition, backlit device, and the meandering pace of the story works wonderfully well for casual readership. 12/13

Thus, we find in Lore Olympus yet another compelling interface of art, commerce, and society, all of which points a very large (likely very vibrant) arrow straight in the direction of Korea’s overachieving webcomics platform. 13/13

If you’d like to learn more about the history of Webtoons, checkout the comic below by Jaemin Lee and Seong In-Soo, which was a huge resource for this thread. https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/a-brief-history-of-webtoons