We explain why French publishers are betting on Webtoon, this comic book phenomenon from South Korea<

Delcourt, comic book publisher since 1986, launches on January 25, 2021 Verytoon, a digital platform and its application, dedicated to "webtoons". This phenomenon, invented in Korea, and which has become very popular in this country, is beginning to make France "wriggle". What is a webtoon? How is it made? Who reads it? Why do publishers embark on this adventure? Guy Delcourt, founder and president of the Delcourt group, Cédric Robert, digital director at Dupuis, and Antoine Piers, creator of webtoons, shed some light on this 100% digital comic book format.

What is a webtoon, where does it come from?

The "webtoon" (combination of the words "web" and "cartoon") is a comic book format intended for the screen, today mainly read on smartphones and tablets. Stories are broken down into seasons, which in turn are broken down into episodes, each designed to be read in minutes. The stories are read vertically, the reader scrolling up and down to scroll through the pages and boxes of his "series".

This format was born in South Korea and has grown to such an extent in this country that production has now caught up with the paper edition. South Korea's webtoon industry recorded revenue of 640 billion won ($577 million) in 2019, jumping 37.3 percent from the previous year, according to a report by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) at the end of 2020.

Where can we read webtoons in France?

Some platforms and applications offer webtoons in French. Delitoon, launched in 2011 (the application in 2016) by Didier Borg, former editor at Casterman, is the pioneer. It offers several hundred titles and now has 400,000 subscribers and 600,000 monthly visitors. Most of the catalog is supplied by Korean, Chinese and Japanese series, translated into French, apart from a few French creations such as the successful series Lastman, which then gave rise to a paper publication by Casterman, and an anime adaptation on Netflix.

Webtoon Line is the French version of the platform of the South Korean web giant Naver, has been available since 2019 and already has more than one million readers. It offers dozens of series, mainly Korean.

The Webtoon Factory launched by Éditions Dupuis in 2017 (its application was launched in 2019 in Angoulême), exclusively offers original French series, created especially for its platform, which has around thirty series in its catalog. 42 others are currently in development, and around twenty of them will be available by the end of 2021. "We want to beef up the romance offer and develop Asian creations", specifies Cédric Robert.

The Allskreen application mainly offers series adapted from paper comics, while Verytoon, the youngest, available from January 25, announces an essentially Korean catalog for the moment. Series "unearthed by our teams in the best of Korean production", specifies Guy Delcourt. “We are going to start with around twenty series, and then it will ramp up over the weeks, with a target of 70 series available by the end of 2021, so that there are new products every week” specifies the boss of the group. Delcourt.

Why are French publishers embarking on the adventure?

"I had been on the lookout for the real meeting of comics and digital for years. Comics can be read for quite some time on screen, but it was a simple transfer from the paper version to the screens, and it reads very badly on small screens except at the cost of unsavory butchery. To sum up, it was DIY" explains Guy Delcourt, who confides that he was definitely convinced after a trip to Seoul in 2018.

"We have here something that for the first time is integral. And the very simple trick of vertical reading, which I have called the 'scrolling strip', is devilishly effective. We scroll, and it works very well. I I said to myself that we had something very strong, very coherent there", confides Guy Delcourt, for whom "it was important not to miss this meeting".

At Dupuis, the idea of ​​embarking on this format was born in 2016. "Dupuis has always been a pioneer in editorial matters, and has tested a lot of things in the field of publishing, and we said to ourselves today , what could be really innovative on the market?", says Cédric Robert, digital manager at Dupuis. “A member of my team saw what was happening in Asia and we thought that webtoons responded perfectly to that, and then with the emergence of smartphones, the consumption times on these media which are getting longer, we are It is said, this is the format that could bring about an evolution in the world of comics" adds Cédric Robert.

Another reason to embark on the adventure at Dupuis: to sell the heroes of its catalog internationally. "Unlike manga, which is exported quite easily, in Franco-Belgian comics, apart from Asterix, Tintin, and a few rare exceptions, we always have this barrier, and webtoon opens up these fields", explains Cédric Robert. "Suddenly the initial project was to readjust our series, our heroes in webtoon, and then finally we changed gear quite quickly considering that we had to create new heroes, with new authors who are full of talent, who have desire and to whom we can give a chance much more quickly with this format on the professional market".

Who reads webtoons?

Webtoons are read mainly by those who are called "digital natives", i.e. those who were born in the digital age. "You should know that these readers abandon comics in adolescence" observes Cédric Robert, specifying that young readers often turn at this age to manga, videos, anime, or TV shows. "And the problem is that when they return to comics, around their twenties, we only get a third of the readers", he regrets.

“Today, teenagers consume or produce about fifteen different formats on their smartphone per day”, so we understand that webtoon is a format made for them. "The webtoon format speaks to them, so that age group, 15-27, is our target for the Web Factory."

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At Delcourt, the webtoon is considered "a rare development opportunity and a real paradigm shift". By launching Verytoon, the group is aiming for a readership “around their twenties”, which will be added to that of the classic edition and will allow “to introduce a young audience to the 9th Art”.

How it works ? How much does it cost ?

Some platforms like the Korean giant Webtoon Line offer their entire catalog for free access. "They can afford it! You should know that when the Korean web giant Naver launched into webtoon, it was a way to offer content to people who used its communication services, so for them the economy is not the same", explains the digital director of Dupuis, who has offered his content on the Webtoon Factory since the launch of his application for free, but will switch to a paid model in February 2021.

"We will set up the system of 'coins', which consists of offering the first three issues of a series free of charge, then the reader must then pay with virtual currency to have access to the rest. But we will allow ourselves to exceptionally free", explains Cédric Robert.

It is this economic model, called "freemium", adopted by Delitoon, that Delcourt has also chosen to offer from the launch of its platform in January. Regarding the economic model, "as there are few actors, there is everything to invent", believes Cédric Robert.

"Made in Korea" or "made in France"?

All platforms offer series of all genres, from romance to thriller, through comedy, action or fantasy, and the vast majority of series published in France come from Korea. The new Verytoon platform is no exception. "We don't want to launch the third stage of the rocket before the first", explains Guy Delcourt.

“We are launching a first phase based on a model that has proven itself and which has a great field of seduction for the French public, with a craze for television series, music, Korean cinema. Today there is a seduction of Korea in France as there was a seduction of Japan a few years ago, so for us it is a good starting point", considers Guy Delcourt. "And that will allow us all the better then to start a second phase by opening it up to French comics, to creation", he assures.

At Dupuis, we chose from the start to go against most platforms, modeled on the Korean model, by choosing creation, with series created specifically for the Web Factory. "100% of our catalog is original, it's our DNA, it's our element of differentiation", proudly announces Cédric Robert. "The authors propose projects to us, and when they are selected, they are accompanied by an editorial follow-up, so that the series remains in tune with the spirit of the Webtoon Factory", underlines Cédric Robert.

A new playground for authors?

"Webtoon allows us to do stories and graphic treatments that we can't afford in comics, for economic reasons or in relation to a target. It's a new playground that offers certain freedoms that we could not afford with classic publishing", explains Cédric Robert.

"It's a new way of telling stories, with seasons, and 'chiffhangers' (open end, editor's note) at each end of the episode to make the reader want to come back the following week", notes Cédric Robert. "It's a model that is very similar to the model of television series. We even have a 'script doctor' in the team, who checks the consistency in the script, as for TV series", he confides.

Antoine Piers, author of the series Brutal Chronicles, published on the Webtoon Factory platform, confirms: "it's a particular format. At first I had to tame it, get used to it", says this past designer by the video game, which has been publishing its strips on social networks for several years.

He attacked season 2 of Chronicles brutal and says he is very happy to experiment with this new format, which gives him the opportunity to try things that he could not "fit" in the paper edition, impossible pages to print for example.

“In webtoon, we also do a lot more staging, with bubbles that come out of the box, characters without decor, we can also allow ourselves to leave large blanks, empty spaces, repeated boxes. There is no limit on the number of pages, so if we need to put half a blank page for a gag to be more impactful, we do it", specifies Antoire Piers.

"It's a big job for the authors", recognizes Cédric Robert. "The pace is high, with one episode to be produced per week, it's intensive. At the Webtoon Factory, we don't try to follow the performance of Japanese mangakas, we prefer to launch a series when we have a certain number of episodes already ready, to deal with any eventuality. The designers have the right to get sick! It protects the designer, and it allows continuity for the reader, "he explains.

"It's true that it's a steady pace, but I manage to keep up with the pace of publication, namely producing one episode a week, without overflowing the schedules!", confides Antoine Piers. A job that has occupied him almost full-time since the beginning of the series. “And on the remuneration side, for me in any case, it is more interesting than the paper edition”, he confides.

Why does it please? Why does it work?

"There is a nice interactivity. Readers can make comments, react", explains Guy Delcourt. An interactivity that also appeals to creators. "I really like interacting with readers. I read all the comments, and I respond. It's something I was already used to doing with my publications on social networks", says Antoine Piers.

Cedric Robert confirms. The fact of being on a virtual format, directly in contact with the readers, is "very rewarding" and constitutes a plus on the production side. "Via the comments, via the likes, we can measure the popularity. This allows us to be much faster and freer in the design of our future series, and to adapt to what may appeal to our target".

"When we launched the Web Factory, we also saw an opportunity in the sense that it was feasible in terms of large-scale production, in terms of volume," explains Cédric Robert.

"On the other hand, we should not expect profitability for four, five, or even six years", considers Cédric Robert. "But we are satisfied for the moment. We already have 18,000 subscribers and 35,000 downloads on the counter, without having invested in marketing", welcomes the digital director of Dupuis, who hopes to generate income through "licensing", c i.e. by selling the rights to the series to other platforms, in France or abroad, or for print and audiovisual adaptations. "As we own our series, therefore available for an unlimited lifespan, we avoid the pitfall of illegal scans" adds Cédric Robert, who here evokes the very widespread practice in webtoon which consists of copying the screens of the series and to slip them under the cloak.

"For us, the launch of Verytoon represents a big investment. Three executives from the house are now dedicated to the project, and we have hired four young people to do the work of editorial animation of the platform", specifies Guy Delcourt.

Are webtoons doomed to end up on paper?

Webtoons are also of interest to print publishers, who are beginning to publish them. Ki-oon editions, for example, have planned the publication in March 2021 of Batard, a five-volume adaptation of the series signed by Carnby Kim and Youngchan Hwang offered on Webtoon Line.

If the paper version of the series is not on the program of the Web Factory, Delcourt on the other hand backs the launch of its platform with a new label called KBOOKS, intended to offer the paper version of a selection of series published online. Korea, barely 5% of webtoons are published on paper, it's extremely minimal, it's really a generation that is not a paper reader. We are publishers of printed books, basically, and in France we don't have the same culture. Comics have an importance in France that they don't have in Korea. It is therefore a question of also addressing readers who have a preference for printed editions" argues Guy Delcourt.

This label will primarily adapt the most popular Verytoon series, based on the Korean model, but the house does not refrain from publishing other series broadcast elsewhere. From its launch, of the six Kbooks series launched in 2021, three are adapted from Verytoon's webtoons, and three are from other platforms. The house provides two to eight volumes per series, with a Western reading style, which is that practiced in Korea.

This "dual exploitation" opens up "interests crossed with Korean publishers and studios", which find on their side an "opportunity to see their webtoons published in printed books", underlines at Delcourt.

"I'm betting on the dynamism between the two" adds Guy Delcourt. "When Pilote published Asterix at the rate of two pages per week, and then the album came out, there was an interaction between the two. The album promoted the newspaper, and the newspaper promoted the album It amuses me that we finally find this kind of model", concludes Guy Delcourt.