Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Stan Lee and Michelle Phan Help Line Webtoon, Digital Comics Site, Expand in U.S.

A popular comics portal in Korea is partnering with Stan Lee and others to promote its English-language version.Credit...Naver Corporatio

Comic books are known for unlikely pairings — from the classic meeting of Superman and Spider-Man to the more recent face-off between Archie Andrews and the movie alien Predator.

But what could unite the comics legend Stan Lee and the YouTube personality and makeup expert Michelle Phan?

The answer is Line Webtoon, a portal for free digital comics that was founded in South Korea and is now making a big push into the United States. The site will announce partnerships with Mr. Lee, Ms. Phan and others at the Comic-Con International event in San Diego this week.

“In Asia, comics and manga and anime are definitely ingrained in the broader pop culture,” said Tom Akel, the head of content at Line Webtoon. “It’s almost difficult to put into words the scale and success of Webtoon over there.”

He said that more than six million people are reading comics every day through the portal and that many of the series on the Korean site have been adapted into other media like TV shows and games.

The site is generally open-platform like YouTube, where amateurs can post content after some editorial vetting against coarse language and graphic sexual situations. Comics gain prominence through frequent “Challenge League” completions, which allow users to vote on their favorites and give creators a chance to become paid professionals. Last year, Stephen McCranie won $30,000 for his “Space Boy” series, which began in March and has new chapters every Thursday.

Like the Korean site, called Naver Webtoon, the English-language version is free. The Korean site and creators make money through merchandising, product placement and subscriptions that allow users to read new chapters before they become available to everyone.

Mr. Akel said that around five million people read the weekly installments of one of its most popular series, “Tower of God,” and that women made up roughly half of that audience.

The English-language version of the site, which has more than 100 series, hopes to capitalize on that demographic with Ms. Phan, a longtime fan of comic books. Webtoon will publish her fantasy and science fiction story that she began developing when she was 11. “I’m a nerd on the side,” the 28-year-old Ms. Phan said. “I loved learning about space and time and dark matter.”

Mr. Lee, 92, will put his knowledge of superheroes to use. He will help decide the winner of a contest to find a new superhero series and will give the victors advice on how to develop their intellectual property.

Another comic creator making the leap to Webtoon is Marc Silvestri, one of the founders of Image Comics, started in 1992 so that creators would own their characters and reap the financial benefits from their creations. He is bringing his Cyberforce series, about a team of heroes with cybernetic implants, to the site, but with a twist: The digital story will have ties to “Aphrodite IX,” a printed comic about a female android in the future.

“I’m an old-school guy,” Mr. Silvestri said. “I love print. But the digital is getting bigger and bigger. It is not going away. In a perfect world, if all goes as planned, one will feed the other.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Free Digital Comics Site Is Expanding in U.S. With Celebrity Help. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT