S. Korea ‘webtoon’ craze making global waves

K-toon craze: South Korean webtoon artist Seok-Woo working at his office in Bucheon, west of Seoul. He is one of a growing ranks of "webtoon" artists creating Internet-based comics that are gaining popularity in South Korea and abroad.

SEOUL: Seoul office worker Park Sun-Min constantly checks his smartphone – trawling for updates on an insect apocalypse, ghost soldiers haunting the inter-Korean border, and a supermarket worker’s struggle to form a trade union. 

Along with millions of other South Koreans, Park is, by his own admission, irrevocably hooked on the vast network of varied Internet-based comic strips – or “webtoons” – available through his mobile.