[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Naver Webtoon has unveiled its next lineup in collaboration with DC Comics.
On the 23rd (local time), Shinok Lee, Head of Content for U.S. Business at Naver Webtoon, and Marie Javins, Editor at DC Comics, held a discussion on the new era of comics and digital superheroes at the North American tech conference, Collision Conference.
The discussion was hosted by Rosie Knight, producer at Den of Geek, a U.S. popular culture media outlet. The Collision Conference is the largest North American tech startup conference, attended by over 35,000 participants from 140 countries including global startups, venture capitalists, and investors. It was held over four days starting on the 20th (local time) in Toronto, Canada.
Naver Webtoon was invited for the second consecutive year following last year, and this year discussed the impact of IT technology advancements on the superhero and comic industries together with DC.
In the discussion, Head Lee said, “Our collaboration with DC has garnered attention and support from the industry and many comic fans, confirming the scalability of the Naver Webtoon platform and webtoon content,” adding, “We plan to continue offering DC’s popular characters in new stories through the new digital content format of webtoons to readers.”
Editor Javins stated, “Through our partnership with Naver Webtoon, we have been able to expand DC’s characters and universe into new genres and formats,” and added, “We are pleased to have the opportunity to reach not only DC fans but also readers who are less familiar with us.”
Previously, in September last year, Naver Webtoon introduced the original series Batman: Wayne Family Adventure as part of the Supercasting campaign in collaboration with DC.
The Supercasting campaign is a project that presents original stories not previously released through partnerships with global entertainment companies, in formats such as webtoons and web novels. The original works created with DC are significant in that they transform major IPs into new story webtoon content rather than simply converting existing published comics into webtoon format.
This work trended on Twitter on the day of its release and surpassed 500,000 English service subscribers within a week. It is currently serialized in eight languages and has exceeded 50 million cumulative global views. Recently, it was nominated in the webcomic category of the 2022 Eisner Awards, known as the ‘Oscar’ of the North American comic industry, receiving critical acclaim for its quality.
Building on this success, Naver Webtoon will release additional original webtoons with DC. Starting with Vixon: New York, serialized since May this year, Red Hood: Outlaws and Zatanna & The Reaper will be simultaneously serialized in July and August on Naver Webtoon’s English and Spanish services, respectively.
Meanwhile, Head Lee will also participate as a speaker at VidCon, the world’s largest creator event held on the 25th (local time) in California, USA. Together with Uru-chan, the creator of the fantasy webtoon Unordinary, he plans to discuss Naver Webtoon’s creator ecosystem and expand its influence in the global market.
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