Web comics platform Tapastic acquires Webtoon Live

By John Freeman on November 18, 2014

Digital web comics platform Tapastic – which hosts web comics by some British comic creators, including myself, as well as many more from around the globe – has announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Webtoon Live, a grassroots community dedicated to promoting webtoons, vertically-formatted comics that are optimized for mobile viewing.

“Webtoons is quickly becoming a global phenomenon and it is largely due to amazing online communities such as Webtoon Live that paved the way,” said Chang Kim, founder and CEO of Tapastic.com. “Like Webtoon Live, Tapastic is also a thriving comic community, and we are extremely excited to join forces to promote the creators and stories that we love.”

“We are very proud to partner with Tapastic; we feel like this partnership will benefit our community greatly. Our aim with Webtoon Live was to promote Korean webtoons and I feel like the people at Tapastic can help us achieve just that,” said Maxime Deuse.

There are of course number of web comic platforms out there, but aside from a great user and creator interface – one of the best I’ve used – one aspect of Tapastic that appeals to me is that like Patreon, providing you gain enough subscribers, your fans can choose to support your comic financially in return for exclusive rewards.

DaumKakao (Daum Webtoons) and SK (Nate Webtoons) are both strategic investors of Tapastic. In addition, Tapastic has a strong relationship with key webtoon promotion agencies. Popular series in Korea such as Michelin Star, Like A Wolf, and Jack, The American Ghost are already being published on Tapastic.

>Under the terms of the agreement, Tapastic will acquire all of Webtoon Live’s assets at an undisclosed amount. Subject to customary closing conditions, the acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Tapastic is a leading publishing platform for awesome bite-sized digital comics. Since its debut in October 2012, it has amassed approximately 3,000 creators and houses 4,000 comic series. Tapastic is dedicated to using technology to empower independent creators to share their extraordinary visual stories with the world. The Tapastic app is available for Android and iOS.

Founded in October 2010, Webtoon Live is a community dedicated to promoting webtoons. In the early days of English webtoons Webtoon Live quickly became a must-visit platform for them. A community of recurring readers started to build up around the website and Webtoon Live started releasing webtoons on a weekly basis thanks to a group of dedicated volunteers.

• For more about Tapastic visit http://tapastic.com or follow the service on Twitter @tapastic. Webtoon Live http://webtoonlive.com

• View Crucible by myself and Smuzz on Tapastic here

• View The Worry Man by Nick Miller on Tapastic here

• View The Really Heavy Greatcoat by myself and Nick Miller here

• View Man from Space by Marc Makes Comics here

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.