Manhwa
Manhwa is the Korean equivalent of manga — comics with a rich national history tracing back to 1909. The digital revolution transformed manhwa through the Webtoon format: infinite-canvas vertical scrolling strips designed specifically for smartphones, now read by over 85 million users globally and spawning major global streaming adaptations.
Full Guide →Key Milestones
- 1909
The first known Korean comic, a political satire strip, appears in the Daehan Minbo newspaper, marking manhwa's origins.
- 1945
Post-liberation boom: Korean cartoonists develop a distinct national style, influenced by but separate from Japanese manga traditions.
- 1997
The Asian financial crisis devastates print publishing; manhwa creators pivot online, accidentally pioneering the webcomic format.
- 2004
Naver and Daum launch official webtoon platforms, offering creators revenue-sharing and readers free legal access — a model that will go global.
- 2014
LINE Webtoon launches internationally in English, Spanish, and Chinese; Tower of God by SIU becomes the first major globally viral manhwa.
- 2018
Solo Leveling by Chugong begins serialization; it becomes the most-read manhwa worldwide and is later adapted into anime by A-1 Pictures.
- 2021
Webtoon (the platform) reaches 82 million monthly active users and is valued at $2.7 billion, signaling manhwa's mainstream global arrival.
Did You Know?
Unlike manga, manhwa is read left-to-right — the same direction as Western comics — because Korea uses a horizontal writing system.
Webtoon's vertical scroll format was invented out of necessity: early creators had no money for print and used basic HTML pages, accidentally creating the perfect mobile reading experience.
Solo Leveling, the most-read manhwa globally, accumulated over 14 billion views on Kakao Page alone before its anime adaptation premiered in 2024.
Korea's government actively funds manhwa creators through the Korea Manhwa Contents Agency (KOMACON), treating the medium as a cultural export worth protecting.
Many major manhwa artists are anonymous or use pen names, a legacy of South Korea's historically strict government censorship of comics in the 20th century.
The "dungeon hunter" and "regression" tropes — hero returns to the past with future knowledge — are uniquely dominant in manhwa, less common in Japanese manga.