• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.33
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• pp.469-502
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• 2013

Webtoons are popularly consumed in Korea. Especially the 'Dailytoons', which are composed of short episodes, are the most popular form of webtoons. This study focuses on the specific narrative structure of the dailytoons, and also tries to figure out what makes webtoons so popular. This study tried to analyze the special features of figures, events, and backgrounds of webtoons. Particularly in webtoons, Korean metropolitan is employed as a background and the daily life of the lower middle class in this big city is importantly used in the story. Each cut of a webtoon consists of simple words and images, and it shows the life of modern people and the way they recognize the reality. The important thing is that the image and the narrative of one cut often appears contradictively. 'Irony' occurs in the process of combination of the words and images. And the life of the lower middle class is depicted 'fun-and-sadly' through irony. For example, the main characters of webtoons are portrayed as persecuted victims because of their lack of information or ignorance. At this point, they are described ridiculously by a play on words. In addition, webtoons often presents twist plots using the scroll bars and margins of 'web' interface. Also it uses parody to show reality in satire. With irony, webtoons represent the daily life of the public, which is cynical as well as humorous. This study tried to suggest that webtoons should attribute its success to 'irony' in its narrative.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.48
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• pp.217-247
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• 2017

A brand webtoon is the webtoon to be planned for advertising. It can be appealed like a webtoon, so recently it becomes popular as one of brand storytelling contents. This study looked at the fact that the webcomic artists have released webtoons having apparent style as a series for many years in the online portal site have published multiple brand webtoons. And it analyzed the expression, narrative structure, and character being shared between their webtoon and brand webtoons. Through this analysis, we can look a spin-off phenomenon between their webtoon and brand webtoons. The spin-off phenomenon means a making the other stories basis on character or situation of drama, movie, novel and etc that have already published, like a supplementary story. And we can recognize a spin-off phenomenon in these cases that have the same story style what make an emotion like the genre, concept, world concept, expression style, narrative structure or use the same characters. For this study, It analyzed Kwak baek soo's and 5 brand webtoons including on Naver, Kim yang soo's and 3 brand webtoons on Naver, Kim Jin's and 2 brand webtoons on Naver, and Petermon's and 1 brand webtoon on Daum. And It analyzed how the readers have accepted it through making a comparison between number of recommendations and reply of brand webtoon and the original webtoon in the same esason. This research will be helpful for study about brand webtoon storytelling and also webtoon storytelling through analyzing how the expression and narrative structure of webtoon are adapted to brand webtoon and get likability.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.303-345
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• 2019

This article analyzes the multi-layered communication in the Webtoon Princess Pari, released on the Daum portal site, created (written and illustrated) by Kim Naim, through analyzing the narrative structure and comments with the qualitative / quantitative methodology. The webtoon Princess Pari is structured in an omnibus style in which unit narratives are intermittently articulated, multi-lined, and interconnected. As integrated narratives which link with unitary narratives, Pari's growth story as a shaman and a romance narrative are structured. The classical original story of the shaman was used as a prehistory corresponding to the prequel of the webtoon through a preview, and the writer restructured the narrative to overcome the contradictions of the gender asymmetry and the patriarchal ideology of the original text. The viewer then creates a conversational space by giving critical and reflective comments. According to a statistical analysis conducted through sampling, the types of comments can be classified as follows: Appreciation and criticism of the contents ≫ Emotional response ≫ Intuitive overall review ≫ Knowledge and reflection ≫ Comments on comments. In the process of creation and acceptance of the Webtoon, a multi-layered dialogue between classical and modern, content and audience, acceptance and creation has been at play. In the creation dimension, the writer used a device to fill the gap of mythical symbols of the contents. At the level of the audience, they formed a culture of sharing information, knowledge, and reflection about tradition/folk/culture through comments. This corresponds to classical and modern dialogue through the webtoon. The viewers form a sympathetic bond, attempt hermeneutical coordination, supplement the information, and search for a balanced angle through controversial conversation. In addition, by commenting on attitudes, views, and perspective, the commentators showed a behavioral pattern corresponding to meta-criticism in literature. The viewers' comments acted as feedback on the creation of the webtoons, so that the creation and acceptance itself influenced the production of the content of the webtoon. The webtoon Princess Pari, which was based on Korean classical narrative, has been reorganized onto 'moving and dynamic' content, which leads to sense, thinking, criticism and reflection through the formation of various dialogues.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.47
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• pp.193-215
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• 2017

This study has researched that tempo is an element influencing the fun of narrative webtoon. In spite of many elements that could create fun in narrative webtoon, the theory this study pays attention to is the accumulation and solution of tension. Lee Hyun-bee said in his book that the accumulation and solution of tension would be the element creating fun. Tensions of a story create the immersion by bringing readers into the story. However, if such tensions are maintained throughout the whole story, readers get insensitive to tensions, so that the accumulation and solution of tension should be used in turn to maintain the immersion. One of the directions creating the accumulation and solution of tension in narrative webtoon is the direction of tempo. When creating a narrative webtoon with the full-length structure, it is not easy to describe the whole incident from beginning to the end of it in order of time. Therefore, it is inevitable to have differences between story time and narrative time, and the difference of this time is called 'tempo'. This tempo creates fun when readers are immersed in the work, by adjusting breaths of the story in the direction of narrative webtoon. Such a role of tempo direction is based on the relation between the occurrence of tempo direction and information of the story. The information actually leading the story creates the accumulation and relief of tension which is the essential element of fun formation while tempo also maximizes the effects of accumulation and relief of tension. Tempo direction in narrative webtoons uses panels and gaps between them. The scene direction using panels and gaps between them considers tempo and dynamics because of the temporality of panels and gaps between them. This paper analyzes the use of tempo direction for narrative webtoon through the analysis on the 1st episode of . The significance of this study is to reveal that tempo direction is one of the factors creating fun in narrative webtoons, and also to suggest the theoretical grounds for researches on direction creating fun in the future.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.205-206
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• 2019

웹툰은 한국의 서브컬쳐 산업 가운데에서 단연 주목받는 분야이다. 웹툰 산업의 다양화 속에서 전통적 세계관을 지닌 작품이 작품들이 등장하고 흥행을 하는 것은 주목할 만한 사례이다. 특히 <신과함께>, <쌍갑포차> 등의 작품은 대중성과 작품성을 모두 획득했다고 평가할 수 있다. 이들 작품은 무속의 세계를 작품으로 재현하였다는 점에서 이목을 끈다. 무속적 세계라는 것이 미신으로 치부될 것이 아니라 인간 본위의 삶을 영위하도록 하는데 기여하는 것이라는 인식을 보여준다. 이러한 세계인식이 웹툰이라는 매체를 통해서 재현될 때 작품에 공감하는 것은 우리가 살아가는 세계가 더 나아지기를 희구하기 때문이다. 이를 통해서 전통이 지닌 보편적 가치를 확인할 수 있다.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.99-112
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• 2021

This paper aims to explore the glocal storytelling strategy of hero's journey content. Many digital games use hero's journey as a framework. However, it is also true that game storytelling is so common that it is soon recognized as a hero's journey. Therefore, this paper paid attention to the new hero's journey application method of the webtoon . The story created an atypical and Korean character on a typical hero's journey plot. It implements an alternative glocal storytelling aiming at harmony between the region and the world by presenting a regional character on a global universal plot.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.143-180
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• 2019

This article aims to examine the manner in which the 'Byeongmat' discourse was constructed, and the mechanism of the 'Byeongmat' discourse. I claim that the constructed discourse excludes disabled persons and women. When the 'Byeongmat' first appeared in the mainstream, it was understood as being presented only by webtoons. Furthermore 'Byeongmat' and webtoons were understood as almost synonymous. In this sense, it is no exaggeration to say that the way in which the 'Byeongmat' discourse was constructed is the way in which 'Byeongmat webtoons' were interpreted. In this article, to find out how the 'Byeongmat' discourse was constructed, I examine two things. First, the reception of media of 'Byeongmat'. 'Byeongmat' was at first understood as 'kitsch' by the media, but soon after generational meaning was added. Second, the interpretation of 'Byeongmat' in academia. In academia, the 'Byeongmat' discourse is advanced as a refined generationalism. Regardless of the 'Byeongmat webtoon' itself, 'Byeongmat webtoon' is interpreted as a text which is destructing narrative and filled with parodies. Furthermore this characteristic of the 'Byeongmat webtoon' is interpreted as a resistance culture of the younger generation. However, this interpretation serves as a mechanism which excludes the disabled and women. Currently, Korean society faces the popularization of the 'Byeongmat' code, the decline of the 'Byeongmat webtoons' and the crack of the younger generation discourse. The current situation allows the 'Byeongmat' discourse to be criticized without losing its social context while securing a distance of critcism. I expect that this article can contribute to further diversifying interpretations of 'Byeongmat' and 'Byeongmat webtoons', and accelerating the crack on the younger generation discourse.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.130-140
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• 2015

With the growth of media platforms and fierce competition in the media market, there have been focus on cross media storytelling, a remediation of content already proven successful to another type of medium. In particular, webtoons have emerged as being successful source media, and this study analyzes how the webtoon 's narrative is expanded and transformed in the remediation process into TV drama. The results showed that, the webtoon , which was targeted at a relatively more specific audience, objectively described stories of the life and hardships of an office worker through a contractual employee at a trading company navigating work life based on strategies of Baduk; while the TV drama version, which aims to appeal to a broader audience, strengthened popular narratives with topics of social issues such as 'hardships of the non-permanent employee', 'sexual discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace', 'difficulties of a working mom', and 'romance between new colleagues'. In addition, in order to create dramatic enjoyment, the drama's storytelling strategy incorporated conflicts by creating confrontational relationships among good and evil characters, and added humanism and comedic effect.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.510-520
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• 2020

This study attempts to explore the educational applicability of webtoons. Webtoons have very useful educational elements in educational environments. First, they are extremely popular among learners of the internet age and not only do webtoon images provide immersiveness and enjoyment to learners in class environments based on text but the narrativity and contextuality of webtoons can also provide abundant material in connection with the subject. Also, the interactivity of the Web 2.0, a space where webtoons are circulated, can also be utilized in educational environments. This study attempts to explore grounds for detailed approaches for the educational applicability of webtoons using theoretical and practical methods. It is hoped that through this study, assessments can be made of positive prospects regarding the educational applicability of webtoons.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.34
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• pp.293-316
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• 2014

(傳說의 故鄕) is a broadcast play as one-act play series based on Korean legends and folktales. It was first aired in 1977 from KBS and there has been borrowed from this play in a variety of genres such as books and movies as the name of this series securing its popularity and awareness of the public. In this context, this is a representative work for Korean horror genre. Recently, for example, a series webtoon <2013 Home of the Legends> is published on one of the main portal websites, NAVER from July, 2013. This webtoon is main subject of this study. The purpose of this study is to discuss how the genre characteristics of Korean horror in TV serial play transmitted and changed in series webtoon <2013 Home of the Legends>. TV serial play is a representative narrative based on Korean folktales, trying to change its narrative in the range of undestroyed folktale basic move with combining the original motifs. Serial webtoon <2013 Home of the Legends>, however, deconstructs this combination motif in folktale form and leads to new move in narrative. For Korean users accustomed to Korean folktale form as the architext, this will be expected as reversal and make catharsis. Meanwhile, the deconstruction of combination motif leads to extinction of its cause-and-effect, which consists the axis of original narrative form, with resulting powerless theme, good overcoming evil and punitive justice. The aspects of changes in <2013 Home of the Legends> represent new orientation of Korean horror.