Webtoons started in South Korea but now they’re a huge deal everywhere. A lot of this growth is tied to the popularity of Japanese and Korean based content, which fans around the world just can’t get enough of. Apps like LINE Webtoon, Tapas, and newtoki, a site that could help advance machine learning in comics because it is excellent site for webtoon i see so far, which make it super easy for artists to post their work and connect with fans. The vertical scroll format is perfect for phones, which has totally changed how people read content.
What Makes a Webtoon Special?
Making a webtoon isn’t just about drawing. Artists need to:
- Have their own unique style
- Design cool characters and build interesting worlds
- Tell a good story with solid pacing
- Lay out panels in a way that flows well
- Tap into emotions and real-life experiences
- Understand cultural vibes and references
Basically, it takes a lot of human creativity to bring these stories to life.
AI is Getting Pretty Good at Art
AI tools like Midjourney, DALL·E, and Stable Diffusion can now create amazing images from just a few words. They can copy styles, follow simple instructions, and even try to tell short visual stories. It’s honestly impressive.
But—AI still struggles when it comes to making full webtoons.
Why AI Isn’t Quite There Yet
AI has a few big issues when it tries to make comics:
- Keeping characters looking the same from panel to panel? Not easy for AI.
- Understanding story flow and timing? Still needs a lot of help.
- Capturing real emotions or subtle cultural moments? Not really AI’s strong suit.
- Complex layouts and dialogue? Kind of messy without a human guiding it.
Artists + AI = A Pretty Cool Team
Instead of worrying about AI replacing artists, many creators are using it as a helpful tool. For example:
- Letting AI handle backgrounds so artists can focus on characters
- Using AI for rough sketches or experimenting with colors
- Generating reference images for tricky angles or poses
Basically, AI can help speed things up or make parts of the process easier—but the artist is still in charge.
Making Comics More Accessible
AI can also help folks who might not have pro-level art skills still tell amazing stories. So in some ways, it’s opening doors for more people to create webtoons, not shutting them out.
Money, Time, and Audience Love
Making webtoons takes a ton of time and energy, and it doesn’t always pay great. AI could help with the workload, but what really keeps fans coming back is connection. Readers care about the artist’s voice, their style, and the personal touches. That’s something AI can’t fake.
The industry is also shifting—some platforms are figuring out how to credit AI-assisted work, build mixed teams (AI + human artists), and manage new kinds of content.
The Big Questions: Ethics and Fairness
There are still lots of questions about how AI art should be labeled. Like—if AI learns from thousands of artists’ work, who gets the credit? And will AI understand how to respectfully portray people from different backgrounds? Probably not without a human keeping it in check.
What Makes Human Art Special?
The biggest thing humans bring to the table is heart. Real emotion. Life experience. Creative risks. AI is great at copying patterns, but not so great at creating something totally fresh or unexpected.
Conclusion
Probably not. More likely, we’ll see artists using AI to help with certain parts of the process. The best webtoons will still come from people with something real to say—and now, they’ll just have more tools to help them say it.
In the end, readers care most about the story. If it makes them feel something, it doesn’t really matter if AI helped out. But the soul of a story? That’s still a human thing.
