Morgana and Oz by Miyuli is the story of a struggling witch who meets an angsty vampire, leading to either love or war. And this year, the hit WEBTOON series is getting a print adaptation! Morgana and Oz Volume One from WEBTOON Unscrolled will collect the first nineteen episodes. Scheduled for publication on August 6th, 2024, you can get your first look at the cover of right here, today at The Beat!
To mark the occasion, The Beat caught up with Miyuli over email. We asked all about the origins of Morgana and Oz, what it’s been like to see the WEBTOON series get a physical adaptation and Morgana and Oz‘s singular spellcasting language. Plus, be sure and scroll all the way to the bottom to check out the cover. And please use the comment section to let us know if you’ll be picking up the graphic novel when it arrives in August!
AVERY KAPLAN: What was the genesis of Morgana and Oz?
MIYULI: I’ve always enjoyed stories about magic and vampires, ever since I was a pre-teen, so these themes came naturally to me. The first time I drew Morgana and Oz there wasn’t much of a story yet. I was sick at the time and simply wanted to cheer myself up by drawing a cute couple of a tall witch and a shorter protective vampire. People seemed to enjoy this concept so I kept working on it and it finally became the webcomic we see today.
KAPLAN: What has it been like to see Morgana and Oz make its way to the physical page? How involved have you been with the translation from WEBTOON to graphic novel?
MIYULI: It has already been great seeing their story taking shape on the phone screen and I can’t wait to hold the printed pages in my hands in September. We have many talented people working on converting the webcomic into a readable physical format, and I’ve been helping as much as I can while also creating new chapters on WEBTOON every week. Mostly, I try to update the art a little and provide bonus material for the books. I’m really grateful for all the help I’m getting with the printed version.
KAPLAN: The characters in Morgana and Oz have such interesting names. Do any of them have any inspirations you’d be willing to share?
MIYULI: For the witches in my story I decided to give them surnames that have something to do with plants, hence Morgana’s surname being Winterberry. I liked “Morgana” for the mythological connection to Morgan le Fay, who was also an apprentice of Merlin. There is no actual connection to Merlin in my story but there is a name that is supposed to be an anagram.
The vampires usually have old-fashioned names (Adelheid) or they’re using nicknames or pseudonyms (Shiba and Dima) for various reasons. I liked the name “Oz” for my main vampire because of its connection to wizardry. “Rory” seemed like a cute nickname for a silly character who turns out to be a bit more serious and tragic.
It’s really fun to come up with names, but I often ask my audience on social media for suggestions and let them vote on my favourites (many years ago, Morgana and Oz won the poll).
KAPLAN: What was the origin of the interesting spellcasting language?
MIYULI: I associate magic with alchemy, which has a plethora of interesting symbols that are based on elements and materials. I added more loosely related symbols for these elements and the spellcasting language in Morgana and Oz was born. Since I work in a visual medium, I thought it was fun to use symbols as a language, but when I was asked how to pronounce them, I had to seriously think of how it could sound. In the end we went for Latin words played backwards.
KAPLAN: Do you have any favorite fictional (and/or real-life) cats?
MIYULI: I love cats but sadly I’m allergic to anything that has fur. I still got a cat for my parents, so she’s probably my favorite. When it comes to fictional cats, I really like Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service. Another witchy companion cat would be Salem from Sabrina the Teenage Witch. As a child I also really liked The Artistocats and Tom and Jerry.
KAPLAN: While working on Morgana and Oz, what is your creative routine like (if you have one)?
MIYULI: Before I start drawing a new season, I go through a lot of brainstorming and writing with my editor so I end up with a very rudimentary script for at least 30 chapters. Based on that, I create rough thumbnails to see how the flow of the episode is and if the dialogue works. For every episode I sketch out the thumbnails in a more cohesive manner and add backgrounds. Once the line work is done, I give it to my assistant to do the color flats. Lastly, the final step consists of shading and adding special effects and speech bubbles. That’s usually what the weekly process looks like.
KAPLAN: What comics, movies, music or any other kind of media inspired Morgana and Oz?
MIYULI: I love listening to movie and game soundtracks, and the ones with a magical touch are accompanying me while I write the scripts for Morgana and Oz. Especially music by Cecile Corbel and Yann Tierson have been an inspiration. I’m also very lucky to have music by Isabella LeVan in some of my WEBTOON episodes. She’s incredibly talented, so she knew exactly what I wanted for my story.
When it comes to movies, I obviously took inspiration from Ghibli movies like Kiki’s Delivery Service and Howl’s Moving Castle. There might have been even more inspiration that came from Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle and Chronicles of Chrestomanci books. In my teens I loved series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and musicals like Dance of the Vampires.
I’m also lucky to live in Europe, so there are a lot of older towns with a witchy atmosphere and a strong connection to old European fairy tales, which has been an inspiration as a whole.
KAPLAN: Since this is the cover reveal, is there anything about the cover you’d like to share?
MIYULI: The cover illustration was created four years ago. Back then I wanted to push my skills and patience to the limit for these two characters and their story, so I’m glad it made it as the cover for the first volume. It has been updated slightly, but I never changed it too much since I was still very proud of the original result. I don’t usually go all out for illustrations since I spend most of my time drawing silly character interactions, but I hope new and old readers will enjoy it.
KAPLAN: Is there anything else you’d like me to include?
MIYULI: I’m excited to see the story of Morgana and Oz go to print and I hope people will enjoy holding the physical copies in their hands just as much as I’ve been enjoying creating the story.
Morgana and Oz Volume One is now available for preorder, with publication scheduled for August 6th, 2024.
