And another new business venture for SDCC Week: LINE Webtoon is a digital comics service, powered by NAVER, Korea’s biggest search engine. They have a pretty huge library of Korean content, and have been in the us for about a year—but now they are adding original English language materials, starting with a digital relaunch of CYBERFORCE by Marc Silvestri and Matt Hawkins, and a new comic written by YouTube fashion and beauty maven Michelle Phan. The Enchantress is a 26-chapter story “delving into a near-future world of oppression, where elemental magic and ancient alchemy in the hands of one hero may save humanity. ” Random quotes from PR:
“When LINE Webtoon launched in the U.S. in 2014, we always had a vision of adding premium content by the best comic minds in the industry to our platform; Adding Marc Silvestri to our stable of already impressive creators is a key part of this strategy,” said JunKoo Kim, Founder and Head of LINE Webtoon. “We’re thrilled to be able to offer Cyber Force exclusively on the Webtoon platform for free to all our readers and we can’t wait to have our fans experience the comic in this new format for the first time – something only LINE Webtoon can provide.”
“LINE Webtoon is at the forefront of digital comics technology, as well as an innovator in how comics are experienced by readers and in developing the future of digital platforms for creators,” said Marc Silvestri. “We’ve already been deeply involved in developing the next Cyber Force storyline for the app, and the results are going to truly blow our fans away.”
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“Most people think of me as a makeup guru, but might be surprised to know I’m also a trained artist and a huge comic book fan,” says Phan. “The Enchantress is my passion project that has been brewing since I was 11 and I’m so excited to finally pursue this dream of mine. As a digital native, it made perfect sense for me to choose a digital platform for this project, and LINE Webtoon was unquestionably the right place for me to create my own story that I could share with comic readers everywhere.”
“With our female readers accounting for about half of our audience both in Korea and the U.S., along with Michelle’s dedicated fan base, LINE Webtoon is very excited about this partnership and the content our readers will get to experience,” said JunKoo Kim, Founder and Head of LINE Webtoon. “With Michelle’s unparalleled creativity and deep-rooted passion for comics, her work will be an exceptional addition to LINE Webtoon.”
Comics can be viewed at http://www.webtoons.com. To download the official LINE Webtoon app, visit the Apple App Store and Google Play.
