In the midst of the print shortages during the global pandemic, webcomics grew in readership with their stories being only a few finger taps away from consumers’ eyes. This caused platforms like Webtoon and Tapas to grow, with many of their titles gaining millions of views. Readers can spend money to read episodes, the webcomic term for chapters, early or wait for the content to be free to view. Some other platforms take alternative approaches, such as monthly subscription fees or cheaper episodes with less of them becoming free over time. As time went on, it became obvious that readers were willing to pay for these mobile comics, and companies and creators thought up more ways to expand their audience and profits. This led to the print publications of webcomics.

Would readers, who have already paid to read the webcomics on their phones and computers, really pay for the graphic novel version of the same titles? Especially since these titles cost an average of twenty-five dollars per volume, which is about ten dollars more than the typical volume of manga or five dollars more than the average full-color graphic novel. The answer is an overwhelming yes! Penguin Random House took a leap by publishing a print copy of Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe, which had been topping the charts of romance and overall webcomics read on Webtoon’s platform consistently. During its first week on the market in November of 2021, the title sold more than forty-four thousand units. This was a massive success, and the series has added on four more volumes that have shown similar success, with initial print runs as large as five hundred thousand copies.

With proof that webcomics can also excel in print, Naver, Webtoon’s South Korean parent company, launched Webtoon Unscrolled, a graphic novel imprint that publishes print editions of popular webcomics. These titles include True Beauty, Let’s Play, Tower of God, and many more. Yen Press, known for its publication of manga, has also joined in printing popular webcomics with their most prominent title currently being Solo Leveling. And Oregon’s very own comics publishing company Dark Horse has formed a partnership with Tapas Entertainment to publish some of their most popular titles in print, such as Animalheads and Signals. While none of these titles have quite as overwhelming of sales numbers as Lore Olympus, they are still very popular and well-received by both original fans and new readers of the series.As Penguin Random House continues to acquire new webcomics titles to publish in print, their editorial director says that “Partnering with webcomics creators gives us the perfect opportunity to both give an already established fan base a beautiful physical edition to treasure, while also expanding the webcomic audience to people who might otherwise never encounter the story.” Some companies such as BOOM! Studios and Vault Comics have started to publish their print comics as webcomics in a reverse effort of gaining more readers for their popular titles. They work with webcomics publishers to reformat their current print stories to look and feel like they were meant to be read on mobile devices. Expect to see more popular titles brought both to print and to webcomics platforms as both industries grow and expand!

Written by Jennifer Wurtele.