Mini-Reviews: Horror/Thriller Webtoons edition(Uriah, Bastard, Counting Sheep)

You’ve probably heard by now that webtoons are the future of comics. They’re designed to be read easily on mobile phones. Have massive global audiences. The demographics skew young and female. But where should an aging indie comic book fan start with this new-fangled format?

The webtoon medium is dominated by various combinations of YA, romance, and reincarnation. If that appeals to you, you should have no trouble finding something to read.

I like some of that stuff. I was a Strangers in Paradise fan back in the day, Blue is the Warmest Color is one of my all-time favorite graphic novels. I really appreciate that webtoons are so radically different from the Big Two direct market comic book publishers, building entirely new audiences. But I like my comics darker.

Fortunately, there’s a thriving horror and thriller comics scene within the webtoons scene. These three stories still fit within YA conventions in the sense that they center around young characters coming of age, but do so through through disturbing, often graphic storytelling. Here are my favorites so far.

(Note: All of these are on Navar Webtoon, I haven’t dug as deeply into other platforms, like Tapas, in search of horror yet.)

Uriah by Toffuo

It’s hard to say much about what Uriah is about without revealing spoilers. The story opens with a boy waking up in a wrecked car. He’s missing a thumb. He has no recollection of how he got there. He stumbles into the street and is almost hit by a woman motorcycle. It’s soon revealed that the boy and the motorcyclist are trapped on an island because the only bridge out off the island is closed for the night. As the boy remembers bits of his past, we start to suspect he might not be as innocent as he appears. Writer/artist Toffuo (Magnolia Winroth) takes us on a very dark journey about child abuse, snuff films and red rooms, cannibalism, friendship, and loyalty.

The art is good, but it’s not a style I generally like. However, the innocence of it might help enhance the horror of many scenes. The pacing is great, with just enough information doled out to keep things mysterious without feeling like we’re getting nowhere.

I’ve only read the first two “seasons.” The third is still underway, so I can’t speak to this as a whole, but I’ll keep reading this and highly recommend it to anyone who can stomach its subject matter. If Toffuo can stick the landing this will be the best of this batch of comics.

Bastard by Carnby Kim and Youngchan Hwang

Bastard was the first webtoon I got into, and appears to be one of the, if not THE, first breakout successes horror webtoons available in English. It fuses YA coming of age with an unusual spin on the age-old serial killer trope. Jin’s father is a serial killer who makes Jin participate in his killings. Jin is terrified of his father, and desperate to protect his only friend, Kyun Yoon, who happens to be in deep debt to the mob. Creators Carnby Kim and Youngchan Hwang went on to do Sweet Home, which was adapted into a live-action Netflix series.

It has solid art, good characters, and a complete story arc. It’s unsettling as hell, and particularly gripping as it closes in for a finale. When I first read this, in 2018 or 2019, I had trouble finding more like it. Now I have a big list of other professional-grade horror webtoons to read. It feels a bit less special in a more crowded field. But it’s still a great read and a good starting point for the webtoon-curious since the whole thing is complete.

Counting Sheep by A.Rasen

Counting Sheep is the third part of A.Rasen’s “horror trilogy,” however as far as I can tell they’re a thematic trilogy and can be read in any order.

Started off with Melvina’s Therapy, an anthology series with great black and white art. But the writing, particularly the scripting, wasn’t great. So I decided to jump to Rasen’s newest completed project, a story about an outbreak of sleepwalking and nightmares in a small town, all of which seems to be connected to a cult. I liked Rasen’s art better in black and white. The color put me off at first, but I got used to it. The dialog feels stilted, which may be a translation issue. The strong point is the characters. It centers mostly around a love triangle between three friends who attend the local college.

This comic is very much about the journey rather than the destination. The ending wasn’t particularly satisfying, but there were enough strong character moments and, of course, disturbing imagery and horror along the way to justify reading this.

Other webtoons on my to-read list:

• Everything is Fine. I’m only a few episodes into this and it’s already the most disturbing webtoon I’ve found.
• The Predator Great art. I was reading Uriah at the same time and was more interested in the story in Uriah, so I ended up back-burnering this. Will come back to it.
• Not Even Bones. This is one of the most popular horror/thriller series on Webtoon right now. I haven’t really looked at it yet.
• PIGPEN Another one by Bastard/Sweethome writer Carnby Kim. I haven’t looked at it yet. It’s only nine episodes, though I’m not sure how long each one is.