[Asia Economy Reporter Seomideum] Jang Seong-rak (37), the artist who illustrated the webtoon "Solo Leveling," passed away on the 23rd. The popular work was adapted into a webtoon in 2018 and recorded 14.2 billion global views.
The webtoon production company Redice Studio stated on the 25th, "He had a chronic illness and passed away due to a cerebral hemorrhage," and added, "The funeral was held as a family ceremony with only relatives and close acquaintances attending." Redice was also the company where Jang served as CEO.
"Solo Leveling" tells the story of a protagonist who was a low-rank hunter but awakens and becomes the strongest hunter. Based on a web novel written by author Chugong in 2016, the webtoon was serialized on KakaoPage starting in March 2018 and gained great popularity.
Recently, it was also produced as an animation in collaboration with the famous Japanese animation studio A-1 Pictures. Kakao Entertainment, which serialized the webtoon, said, "We are saddened by the sudden news of the passing of the author who sparked the global K-webtoon craze."
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