Chapter 90 – Webtoon? Webtoon.
A short while after checking the results of Oh Seung-heon’s contest submission,
The real vacation finally began in earnest.
In the end, the way Min-hyuk chose to spend his break was—
“Ugh… The air conditioner feels sooo cool.”
—to hole up at home with Oh Seung-heon, reading comics borrowed from the local library while basking in the blast of cold air.
Well, this was its own kind of happy vacation, in its own way…
‘But at this rate, it’s literally no different from last year.’
From Min-hyuk’s perspective, it was honestly just a tiny—no, a very big—disappointment.
Read a lot, draw a lot, produce a lot.
Of course, reading tons of comics is helpful for any artist.
The problem was that most of the comics he was reading now were ones the past Kang Min-hyuk had already gone through countless times.
Just like anything else in the world, repeating the same thing without purpose inevitably drops in efficiency.
Spending this special time called vacation on nothing but that felt like such a waste.
And beyond that…
‘It’s just… not fun anymore.’
Ever since returning to the past, Min-hyuk had constantly chased after things that made his dopamine— no, his heart—race.
So this just wasn’t satisfying at all.
“Huuuuh.”
“Why are you sighing while looking at me?”
“Nothing, it’s nothing.”
While Min-hyuk let out a pointless sigh, Seung-heon asked,
“Kang Min-hyuk. Can I use the computer for a sec?”
“If it’s Gun Amplified, I’m not playing.”
“It’s not that. I just need to check something.”
“Then go ahead.”
When Min-hyuk gave a lazy wave, Seung-heon got up and headed to the computer.
He grabbed the mouse for a long time, clicking around here and there.
Then, with the corners of his mouth stretched wide, he stared at the monitor…
Tap tap! Tap tap tap!
…and started typing something furiously on the keyboard.
The whole thing looked suspiciously shady at first glance.
Min-hyuk, who had been reading a comic, glanced over and asked,
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing, nothing.”
“Nothing my ass…”
“Eek!”
When Min-hyuk approached the monitor, Seung-heon hurriedly blocked it with his body.
“Show me.”
“No way.”
“I said show me.”
Swish! Swish swish! Swish swish swish!
The two of them kept crossing paths, engaging in a fierce psychological battle.
But in the end…
“Move.”
“Aaaah!”
Min-hyuk easily pushed Seung-heon aside and looked at the screen.
“Hm?”
Min-hyuk tilted his head.
What was displayed on the monitor was a blog on the portal site Bluehouse.
And on it…
[Oh Seung-heon Artist Blog – ‘Earth-Destroying Level Gag Impact’ Episode 1.]
The comic he had submitted to the Jump Comics contest, Earth-Destroying Level Gag Impact, was uploaded there.
And attached to it were more than a dozen comments from readers.
‘So this is what it was.’
The moment he saw it, Min-hyuk immediately understood the situation.
When Min-hyuk stared straight at him, Seung-heon spoke with an awkward, defensive expression.
“Ah, well… They said even though it got an honorable mention, it wouldn’t lead to a contract anyway, so it was fine for me to use it however I wanted. I figured since I already drew it, it wouldn’t hurt to let other people see it…”
“Why didn’t you show me this?”
“Well… It’s embarrassing. A guy who couldn’t even get serialized doing something like this.”
“What’s there to be embarrassed about? Everyone’s just doing their thing.”
“…I was worried people would think I’m acting all high and mighty when I don’t even have the skills.”
What the hell does he think I am?
Min-hyuk let out a sigh and turned back to the monitor to check the comments.
[OnlyFourDays : LOLOLOLOL the comic is hilarious af.]
[Serious Guy : ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ Art is trash but the trashiness makes it even funnier]
[CoilRail : LOLOLOLOL that’s insane.]
Almost all of them were comments collapsing in laughter.
Everyone seemed to have quite a bit of fun with it; the comments left were extremely positive and friendly.
Watching them, Min-hyuk narrowed his eyes slightly.
‘…This really… might have potential if we go in that direction.’
As he stroked his chin with a serious expression,
“What? Is something wrong?”
“Wrong? Nothing’s wrong…”
Min-hyuk waved his hand dismissively, then added one more thing.
“Oh Seung-heon, can I tweak this just a little?”
“Tweak it? You said you weren’t going to give feedback because if you half-assedly fix my stuff it’d lose the fun.”
When Seung-heon tilted his head in confusion, Min-hyuk answered,
“No, I don’t mean changing the content this time. I’m just going to adjust the editing style a bit.”
“Editing style…? What do you mean?”
“Can I do it?”
“Go ahead.”
“Okay.”
Min-hyuk quickly downloaded Seung-heon’s manuscript from the blog.
Then he opened it in Photoshop…
…and started moving the mouse busily.
“Hm? Why are you separating the cuts?”
“Just wait.”
Min-hyuk swiftly used the selection tool to pull apart the placed elements.
Then…
He created an extremely long vertical canvas and placed the detached cuts at regular intervals along it.
‘What the hell is he even doing…?’
While Seung-heon kept tilting his head in bewilderment,
Min-hyuk next used the eyedropper tool to sample colors,
Click! Click! Click!
…and filled in the characters with flat, solid shades.
It was nothing fancy—just simple monochrome coloring.
But because Seung-heon’s art style was so simple to begin with, it actually matched surprisingly well.
About ten minutes passed like that.
“Alright, done… Oh Seung-heon, upload this to your blog once. As a secret post.”
“Secret post? Why?”
“Because I want to check something. Hurry.”
“Hmmmmm, fine, got it.”
Seung-heon reluctantly did as Min-hyuk instructed and uploaded the file.
“Now read it. Scroll down slowly.”
“…Hmmmm. Do I have to?”
Even as he grumbled, Seung-heon slowly scrolled and began reading his newly edited comic.
Then…
“Hm? Hmmmm?”
His pupils gradually widened, and a subtly surprised expression naturally formed on his face.
When the scroll finally reached the bottom.
‘What the…’
Seung-heon’s eyes rounded as if he’d been startled by something.
At that moment, Min-hyuk lifted the corner of his mouth and said,
“How is it? Isn’t this edited version way easier to read?”
“…No, why is this easier?”
“Because right now you’re reading it on a PC, not in a printed comic book. With printed comics you flip page by page, but webtoons… or rather, on PC, people are used to scrolling from top to bottom.”
“Ah! Now that you mention it…”
Seung-heon nodded as if he finally understood.
Min-hyuk scratched his chin for a moment.
‘Come to think of it, the kind of comics Oh Seung-heon draws… in this era, they might actually work in webtoons.’
2006 was right around the time when Bluehouse and Lemon Tree—the two future giants of the webtoon world—were just starting their webtoon services.
And the webtoon medium at this point in time…
‘Back then, it wasn’t so much about raw quality as it was about the inherent charm and appeal of the work itself.’
It was the golden age of comics that were easy to view on PC and internet environments, easy to get immersed in, and light enough to read casually.
The internet culture was exploding, and webtoons were just beginning to emerge.
In the 2024 that Min-hyuk came from,
Webtoon competition had become highly advanced; studio production systems where multiple people worked on a single series were the norm.
The advantage was that average quality rose thanks to so many hands involved.
But every coin has two sides.
More people means more money spent, and more money spent means the studio absolutely has to make the work a success.
In that kind of situation…
‘Safe, predictable stories become inevitable.’
On the other hand, the current era was the complete opposite.
Webtoons at this time were closer to being one current within internet culture rather than a strict comic format…
The format was free, and rather than demanding high polish, the demand was for freshness and novelty.
Because webtoons in the 2006 era had exactly these characteristics, there was one genre that exploded massively around this time.
“Silly gag comics.”
Precisely—Oh Seung-heon’s comic ‘Earth-Destroying Level Gag Impact’ fell squarely into that category.
Min-hyuk stared straight at Seung-heon and asked,
“Oh Seung-heon, are you going to keep drawing this?”
“Keep drawing?”
“‘Earth-Destroying Level Gag Impact’—are you planning to continue it after this and serialize it?”
Seung-heon crossed his arms and answered with a serious face.
“Well, I’d like to… but since my goal is debut, maybe it’s better to move on to a new work instead of clinging to this one.”
“Upload this to your blog, and also submit it to the challenge comic sections on Bluehouse and Lemon Tree.”
“Challenge comic? What’s that?”
“…….”
‘This guy really knows nothing.’
Min-hyuk let out a shallow breath and spoke with a quite serious expression.
“I’ll explain it just once, so listen up straight.”
“Uh, yeah!”
***
A week flew by like an arrow from that day.
“Hmmmm……”
In Min-hyuk’s room, Oh Seung-heon—who had once again taken up permanent residence—was grinning stupidly at the monitor.
Min-hyuk, who had spread out a small table and was working, let out a sigh and said,
“Oh Seung-heon, stop staring at that and do some work.”
“No, just this one more… Hehe!”
After receiving Min-hyuk’s feedback, Oh Seung-heon had begun simultaneously updating his gag comic ‘Earth-Destroying Level Gag Impact’ on his own blog, Bluehouse, and Lemon Tree.
He reduced the length of what he’d submitted to Jump Comics by about one-third, switched the editing to webtoon format, and added simple flat coloring.
And then…
A truly dramatic change occurred.
He had only uploaded three episodes so far, yet each one was getting well over 100 comments and thousands of views.
Naturally, Seung-heon couldn’t tear himself away from the monitor, obsessively reading every single comment.
If luck smiled on him just a little more from here…
‘Something good might actually happen.’
But if there was one small side effect—
“Ehehe, ehehehe.”
—it was having to watch Seung-heon let out those bizarre laughs while reading the comments…
And somehow feeling a vein throb in his temple.
‘Sigh. Whatever. As long as he’s happy, that’s fine.’
Min-hyuk shook his head and turned his eyes back to the Brave King manuscript.
And a little while later.
“Huuuuh, done.”
Min-hyuk set his pen down from the manuscript paper and let out a deep breath.
Seung-heon glanced over and asked,
“What, you already finished the deadline?”
“This episode didn’t have many fight scenes.”
“Woooow, as expected of Kang Min-hyuk. Finishing a whole chapter in less than a week.”
“…….”
“Why’s your face like that?”
“Now that the manuscript’s done… I’m just wondering what to do next.”
“Just play? Gun Amplified, read comics.”
Min-hyuk shook his head.
‘I’ve already done that to the point of getting sick of it… It doesn’t really feel like input anymore.’
He needed new stimulation.
Some kind of fresh stimulus that could spark inspiration all at once…
For example, like when he and Han Yu-ra teamed up as the gorilla duo during the sports festival…
Or like the dopamine-exploding rush of preparing for the Tu-ji-man-chang event together.
- Trying out various experiences—that’s what really helps a lot in an artist’s life. Just reading comics or books has its limits. Things you experience directly versus indirectly… the vividness is on a completely different level.
Words he had once heard from a respected webtoon artist he admired in the past.
Back then, as a rookie artist, Min-hyuk had thought “input is important” was just empty advice.
But after spending nearly a full year churning out Brave King and all sorts of one-shots like a machine, those words now cut deep into his bones.
If he didn’t find some new experience that could provide real stimulation…
He felt like he was on the verge of repeating the same things over and over in his work.
This was probably the early stage of the disease artists commonly suffer from: mannerism.
‘Should I sign up for one of the school’s special lectures now? Or maybe try out an entrance exam cram school like the others?’
If that didn’t work, maybe just draw a random one-shot and upload it online.
Well, none of those options really screamed “this is it” to him yet.
“Haaaaah, what should I do…”
“…I seriously don’t get why you’re like this.”
While Min-hyuk sighed and Seung-heon tilted his head in genuine confusion—
Vrrrrrrrm!
“Hm?”
Suddenly the phone on the table vibrated roughly.
Min-hyuk flipped it open to find one new message.
[Kim Rok-hee: Hey, Kang Min-hyuk. Wanna do something fun together with me?]
It was a text from his same-class classmate, Kim Rok-hee.
**************
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