Thoughts on the new Webtoon Contest?

wow I'm looking at all the entries and there are so many good ones! This competition will definitely be tough and will only get more difficult once July comes (cause I saw a lot of creators are planning on posting during that month) But hopefully the contest will remain in good spirits with not too many down voters/senseless trolls.

Also guys, do you think webtoon will ever consider choosing a comic that portrays/contains taboo/sensitive themes? I know just recently they've been pumping out lgbt comics and even added a pride month but what about stuff like mental illness? I know Line is still primarily an Asian run company and in general especially in Asia, mental illness is not looked well upon and often shoved under the rug/completely disregarded (actually I created the comic as a way to combat the stigma and hopefully foster understanding) . I saw another comic like mine dealing with such a topic but i'm afraid the stigma kinda makes the competition pointless to enter for such a story? Because whether I like it or not, certain things are just not as well accepted in society like how violence is much better in accepted in media than sex

I believe they already know whom will win... or get close. They have certain comics in mind they wish to favor, but are open to finding better.

Why do I say this? It's very simple: the contest is partially judged on audience participation and yet the audience can't tell who is in the contest unless they actually get into the comic and look at dates. Secondly, they aren't about audience participation at Webtoons; they are about pushing an agenda (cultural, social, national, regional, etc), as evidenced by how they structure their site and the "discovery" area. Third, they aren't highlighting any works from the contest, so the contest entries mean little to them or the outcome of the contest. They should have a contest page that shows off the contest works, maybe with a "slot machine" to randomly present icons of 5 entries for a visitor to try before going into the big bin of entries. Fourth: due to how they structured, the money is merely there as a lure to get traffic going. Most people see $80,000 and flip out and will claw and scratch and burn and kill, so the visitors and clicks will BLOW OUT at this time for that dangling carrot. But it's clearly a rigged contest due to their inattentiveness to allow audience to find and support entries (without extra hassle).

I'm sure I could find a fifth and sixth reason to back up the theory and make it seem closer to empirical, but it is too early in the morning.

What am I missing?

Using Chrome (desktop browser) and I click the WEBTOONS CONTEST banner and get the long contest explanation graphic. I click anything with the contest and the same window appears. I see "recommended" in discovery (as usual) and those aren't entries (maybe some are).

Then I looked around discover to see if the icons of updates or specific comics might show something for the contest... nothing.

Hopefully they evolve their code and working of the contest, but why go into it half-cocked? They should be whooping it up, and yet they merely whoop up the ability to "enter" for the $80,000!!!
$80,000!!!
$80,000!!!
$80,000!!!
$80,000!!!
$80,000!!!
Seems carroty.

They actually made that page with all the entries from the contest but right now it's only on the phone app. If you try to browse in a computer you won't find it because they didn't change things there yet.

The whole contest boils down to the same thing everything they do does- making money. They were only investing in the past years and it's the same with this contest. Webtoon is trying to grow so that it will make huge amounts of money later on. Line Webtoon is so big in Korea, they want to establish the same thing in the US. They are far from there, so don't expect them to stop throwing money at creators without any financial gain on their side any time soon. They did start with ads recently, but it will take aeons until they get any earnings from this alone.

Of course this contest is meant for publicity and luring in creators, but also -and I like that point very much- to educate authors to properly format their comics to webtoon style. The vertically scrolling format is the evolution to get the best possible reading experience on mobile phones. There are several good reasons they want to push that.
Oh, and they also try to get people to stop spiltting their chapters into tiny, tiny updates by forcing the panel count. I also support that, while I do see that there are some poor folks on the receiving end like short comic strips. Okay, you can put multiple ones into a single update to get the necessary number of panels. At least you got that option.

@theyaoiarmy
While I agree that there are many webtoons worth publishing on Discover, they can only feature that many due to several factors. They'd need enough personel in the editing department, can't have too many too similar stories at the same time, need author's to be able to stick to schedules (there has been some problems and right out embarrassment in some cases), popularity doesn't equal consistency, reliability or even good work climate (you really don't want to put up with some Diva who think they are the greatest stuff in history); and the most important- not everyone who is popular/ gets asked to gets featured wants to be. There have been cases where the offer was turned down. Most of finalists in previous contests didn't get featured, although you get the chance if you place high enough. But even Discover creators refuse every now and then. Because they don't want to publish exclusively on webtoons, they don't have the time or don't want to publish weekly, they don't want to change the layout to fit webtoons preferred format etc.

@twinblades
You can publish the same comic on Tapas. Self publishing online is no problem. As long as webtoons doesn't have to battle it out with another company to get the rights to publish your story, you are good to go. Like, if your contest submission is a Premium Comic.

@Zushi
Webtoons is based in the United States. There are other departments taking care of asian territories. The one you are interested in is the one with the contest. Ignore the rest. Just make sure you do something that won't get you into trouble showing to minors in the US. While there is a parental guidance function, sensitive content is still visible to minors just a click of a button away.
I think theyaoiarmy summed it up wonderfully. Tastefully is the keyword here.

Hey guys, I know this is kind of going off topic a bit but if any of you guys are interested in sharing eachothers comics and like each others comics that would be awesome. As you all know its really difficult to gain an audience when your just a small creator and just starting out. So I think if we'd support eachother it would be a lot easier to possibly get noticed. Let me know what you guys think. My webtoon is called "The Misfit Club" I'm going to be honest the first episode is a bit slow, but I plan to improve its my first webtoon after all I'm just a little noob yet. And I have defiantly noticed people downvoting incredible comics in this contest. I understand its a competition but I wish they would just be honest and rate it what they think the webcomic deserves. They either rate is 1 star or rate it 10 its like theres no where in between. Another thing I'm finding be an issue is it just me or are some people entering in the Comedy genre when there comic isn't even comedy. I recognize you need less panels if your entering in comedy. But still its not fair to enter through the wrong genre. Maybe I'm just noticing this. What are your guys thoughts and what you have seen and thought on this?

Thank you very much!! I did not know about that thread, I greatly appreciate you sharing it with me I'll defiantly will check it out. Also I'm sure your right, I don't think webtoon would let them get away with that. There very picky, on what webtoons they feature to begin with.

Webtoons has started promoting contest entries on desktop and mobile.

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Well that's just not fair. how does that even begin to create an even playing field?

Yes. Everything is conjecture. Unless we are in their heads, we will never know, and even then, they might be lying. So let's drop the obvious and get down to what matters and what it says: actions.

The ACTIONS of Webtoons betray what they are thinking and planning.

You would think that they are ultimately thinking of making money. However, if they were thinking that they would allow the audience to dictate what succeeds and doesn't, but they clearly squash everything they decide not to promote within discovery. They would promote creators that provide massive content with some kind of minor popularity, but stuff like Bite-sized (now Probl-o-matic) never gets any hand.

So clearly money isn't "all consuming" and there is agenda > money.

Prolific titles will bring in good revenue once their "ad revenue" program begins. I have no idea what that ad revenue program will be like, but I hope it is 2 ads/page with .1 cent per ad, 50-50% webtoons/creator. That might be much too hopeful.

But money is a high priority, and this contest (back to the contest!) is aimed solely toward helping the ad revenue program following behind. Webtoons has a problem: it is the king of the hill in western webtoons at the moment. It could be easily toppled, if they don't secure the next step properly and a wealthy competitor steps in.

The contest is almost certainly rigged, heavily slanted to the ultimate winner, at best. They are already promoting a bunch of comics and letting the others rot. I still don't see the entries on my desktop platform. I finally saw them on my iPad this morning, and they are a long list in no particular order that is helpful to discovering hidden gems. You can choose rigged or incompetence, I say rigged--top of the heap is already a comic they hawked in the square for many months.

However, what the contest is doing (I hope they meant to do this) is getting everyone rabid for a carrot. So ALL WEB COMICS CONGREGATE ON WEBTOONS. They will become a central library of almost everything out there that is kind of current or even archival. Very smart. And then they will transition into ad revenue to keep people there.

The contest is just a foothold to the next, necessary, phase of being the king of webcomics.

But I doubt there is any altruistic motive from Webtoons.

As for purity of motive on the artists' behalf, they are flooding in there for the money. If a comic artist is only doing it for the cash or hope of cash, they are blowing it; become a stock broker! Lawyer! Dentist! The contest should be seen as a tourist trap off the side of your life's highway.

"If they didn't make you, they can't break you" If you hinged your career on Webtoons' revenue, Webtoons will break you like a dry twig when they take away that revenue. Make it elsewhere and the Webtoons trough doesn't mean so much, because you are your own person.

Webtoons posted an info video about the contest:

ummm can i ask a question? in the video eunice says that "if you're attending the party(ny comic con) it means that you''ll become a featured creator" does that mean if you are say unable to attend it you are disqualified from the contest even if you're chosen as finalist? the way i read the rules isn't like that and this is very concerning for people abroad/non us participant.

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These aren't necessarily my views on it, but it is something to think about. I do like tapas and webtoons.

This is interesting,
collaborations on tapas is a common thing but now that webtoons has a contest with money as a prize there seems to be a lot more people looking for an artist to collaborate and join this contest. You may spend a lot of time and effort on a collaborative series that may not win.

For a writer it's better to collaborate with an artist on a series now that you can enter for prize money rather than just collaborate because you have genuine interest in creating a successful story on any platform or self-publish.

It starts to make sense why wetoons allows series to re-upload and enter the contest because those people already worked hard on their series, they built a following. All the work was done prior to the contest.

This is why as an artist and a web developer I decided to focus on making a creator owned platform.
On the business side of things it makes sense to have work for hire or creator owned, partial ownership, etc.
These are our options, were not confined to one. We get to pick and choose. If the company doesn't make money then how can they keep paying the artist? what about web developers? advertising? In that sense you become a worker ant, that ant pile didn't get big because of one ant. Why else would they have volunteer positions?

Ton Roosendaal in an interview with BlenderGuru mentions how developers are at the end of the chain for big companies when it comes to pay. Don't quote me on that, google the video.

I think everyone has a different perspective on things especially if you're an independent artist vs someone who works behind a desk at a big company with the cold ac blowing in your face wondering "When is that page gonna be done?".

It's kind of like "Big companies are evil but if you are successful and you become a big company then you're evil too, or if you quit your big name company job and decide to do a kickstarter to start your own thing your evil too". That's my impression of artists who complain. He does make a lot of valid points but it comes with the territory of being an artist.

What I see in comics now is that more and more people are becoming independent and webtoons is making kpop stars out of webcomic artists.

So, I'm not sure if I'm going to try my luck with this contest, but... What is Webtoon's stand on foul language, showing blood and generally dark themes in comics?

My comic is set in a pretty dark world and it is also reflected in how some characters act (curse a lot). Do I have to censor every single curse word? And what if I have too many (even censored), will they even consider my comic suitable for winning or would they discard it even if it's good?

And what about showing character's deaths? I have a few dramatic scenes prepared and there is some blood in them. Is it okay with Webtoon? I mean, what can I do, people bleed when they are stabbed!

Have you read Bastard? I think it's a good example of how far you can go with your webtoon. You do can use curse words, but try not to add too much of it, the same with blood, you have to use them with moderation. And about death, it depends on how they die and how you show it

Thanks for the response! I have not read Bastard, but thanks to your suggestion I guess I will!

It's just that in my comic I think it'll be a bit harder to keep everything in check. It's mainly because I'm making a fantasy action comic, so there will be a lot of people fighting using various blades, huge axes, hammers, some may use fire spells or something like that.

So yeah, people in my comic can get hurt very easily and messy too. Fortunately, I'm not planning on making very brutal death scenes. I prefer giving my characters more graceful deaths. I guess the most brutal death scene will be getting burned, but I can easily cover the details with more fire, lol.

Ohhh, I thought your comic was for the most gripping, sorry, my bad!

Hmm I haven't read too many fantasy/action comics, but I always had the feeling they are less heavy than horror and thriller. As for the being burned to death, if you don't show too much detail (like flesh showing up) will be fine

Thank you for putting these concerns into perspective. I'll admit, despite reading all the rules and adjusting things to give us the best shot we can it still feels like a gamble and we're not even the ones who have given up jobs or school to do this. We're such a small fry comic that we don't expect much. In fact we feel so honored by the small fan base that we have. But this was an experience we could not say no to. We've risked pissing off our fan base, we've put in a lot of time and effort and for all that work we're still wondering what more we can do. As much as we would like an even playing field we recognise what we're up against. Whatever gains we make will be a win for us.

To aspiring creators out there, these are the most important things you need to keep in mind to succeed:

• Self care. Injury or health problems will kill your career prematurely.
• Time budgeting and stable plans.
• Self motivation and avoidance of distractions when you do draw will take you further than forcing yourself to draw that extra hour, if that extra hour turns out to be mostly procrastination anyway.
• Confidence and intuition over perfectionism. Throw perfectionism out the window, aim for "a critical but healthy eye for detail" instead.
• Always remember why you're doing what you're doing. If you think it's not worth the effort, you're doing the wrong thing with your time.
• DON'T WASTE TIME BEING JEALOUS OR BLAMING OTHER PEOPLES SUCCESS FOR YOUR LACK THEREOF!!! Those people usually have years of failure behind them that you weren't there to see, and when you assume that they "went famous overnight", that hurts YOU and YOUR PROGRESS more than it hurts them. By doing this, you prohibit yourself from ever learning how to get noticed or develop forwards because you've already locked your mind down to a "it will never work for me because everyone is against me" mentality.

Good luck with your projects! ️