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The toon boonDigital comics are on a roll in Stony Brook exhibit

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JANELLE GRIFFITHBYjanelle.griffith@newsday.com

South Korean cartoonistshave ditched the strip — asfar as comics are con-cerned.

The webtoon — a digi-tally based comic created in SouthKorea in 2003 — continues tochange the way readers engagewith traditional comic books. Thewebtoon has evolved to include3-D and flash effects, audio andmotion, creating a more interactiveexperience.

Webtoons are not paginated liketheir paper counterparts. Instead,they are presented on panels in ascrollable vertical layout, similar towebsites. While wildly popular in

China, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwanand Thailand for more than adecade, there is now a growingpush for webtoons in Westernsocieties, industry experts say.

Long Islanders can see this newwave of entertainment at theCharles B. Wang Center at StonyBrook University with the freeexhibit “Webtoon: The Evolutionof Korean Digital Comics,” openthrough May 31.

In South Korea, there are onlineplatforms just for webtoons, whichhas helped create “a thriving digi-tal comics industry,” says JinyoungJin, director of cultural programsat the Wang Center. On the techni-cal side, some webtoons are de-fined by their presentation, and“every week brings new innova-

Students stroll through a display of webtoon artwork in the Charles B. Wang Center at Stony Brook University.

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‘Webtoon: The Evolution ofKorean Digital Comics’WHEN | WHERE 9 a.m.-8 p.m. weekdays,noon-8 p.m. weekends throughMay 31 atStony Brook University’s Charles B. WangCenter, 100 Nicolls Rd.INFO 631-632-4400,stonybrook.edu/commcms/wangADMISSION FreeALSO “Korea’s Digital Comics: The EvolutionofWebtoons in a Global Context” lecture; 1p.m. April 14 in the Charles B.Wang CenterTheatre

ON THE COVER Artwork from Naver Webtoon’s“Girls of the Wild’s,” part of the exhibit “Webtoon:The Evolution of Korean Digital Comics.”

You don’t need experience or apartner to get in on the fun atSwing Dance Long Island’sdance at 8 p.m. Saturday at theSmithtown Historical Society’sFrank Brush Barn (211 MiddleCountry Rd.). Brian Lewis and theNew Vintage Swing Band providethe tunes. A few ballroom danceswill be in the mix. Arrive 30minutes early for a lesson.ADMISSION $15INFO 631-476-3707, sdli.org

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govintageBrowse crafts, collectibles, DVDs,souvenirs, coins, records and more,10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday at the VFWMedford.ADMISSION FreeINFO 516-485-1424

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tions in audio and motion effects.”The exhibition provides a brief

history of the webtoon as aglobal phenomenon where onecreative source has been used inmovies, TV dramas, animation,games and design products, Jinsays. The genres — includingthrillers, horror, action, fantasyand drama — can be seen in thegraphics of popular charactersand film promos presented in thegalleries.

THE BIRTH OF WEBTOONKorea’s comic publishing indus-

try suffered an unprecedenteddownturn in the late 1990s andearly 2000s, mainly because of afinancial crisis and a juvenile pro-tection law that restricted adultcomic magazines, Jin says. As aresult, only six of the 26 Koreancomic magazines survived, and agreat number of professional car-toonists lost the chance to publishtheir work.

Then came the Internet, whichintroduced online computer gamesand chatting services that helpedreshape the comic industry. Smart-phones, in particular, contributedto the birth of webtoon platforms.

The earliest incarnation of thewebtoon was made from an origi-nal comic that was uploaded to theInternet and formatted into a hori-zontal layout.

“From 2003 onward, Koreanportal sites such as Naver, Daumand Nate systematically began tobuild free digital comics platformsin order to attract users and toincrease traffic,” Jin says. “As smart-phone users increased, webtoonsbegan to make their mark.”

Within a few years, webtoonartists began experimenting withnew digital effects to enhance theirreaders’ experience. Top webtoon-ists have started incorporatingsound and motion into previouslystatic comics, Jin says. One of thecurrent trends is to add back-ground music to a series of panels.Some artists have begun using 3-Danimation and flash effects.

Naver, which created the firstwebtoon and coined the term, nowhas more than 6 million daily visi-tors.

AT THE EXHIBITThe Wang Center’s webtoon

exhibit highlights works frommajor webtoon companies in iPadand video format such as Spottoon,a webtoon portal launched in Eng-lish just last year. Spottoon is acompilation of the Korean webtoonartists’ group RollingStory and TheHuffington Post. Its stories cover arange of genres and subjects, fromheart-wrenching tales to unpre-dictable and race-against-timethrillers, Jin says.

Popular film trailers and TVdrama posters also are prominentlydisplayed, such as “Secretly,Greatly,” a comedy-action-dramabased on a webtoon about a NorthKorean spy that broke box officerecords by selling 2 million ticketsin two days.

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Artwork from Line Webtoon’s “New Brooklyn,” part of the exhibition“Webtoon: The Evolution of Korean Digital Comics.”

Artwork from the mystery thrillerwebtoon “Moss,” created by YoonTae-ho and published onRollingStory’s Spottoon.

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