We recently had the pleasure of speaking with some of the people behind Tappy Toon — a fairly new service dedicated to distributing comics and web comics, most notably Manhwa, to a global audience.
OR – Why don’t you tell me how Tappy Toon started and what you plan to accomplish with this?
TT – Recently in America there has been an expansion in comics that are not from the big two like DC and Marvel. So we are talking things like manga or Asian comics; they have been on the rise and Korea is one of the countries that has a very active comic scene. So what we are doing, is bringing some of those artists from Korea whose works have only been seen there and bringing them to international and English speaking audience.
OR – That’s great that you are trying to expand what we already have. We have publishers such as Viz and Kodansha Comics, who try to bring over mostly Japanese works, so it’s kind of nice that we finally have an official place to get Korean Manhwa. So do you feel like you have a huge audience in the US that is really interested in Manhwa? Do you get a lot of emails from people that are asking you to bring over a particular series?
TT – Of course but it isn’t as much in comparison to Manga, which is already ahead of us by 20 years. The awareness of Korean culture in general, K-pop and all that stuff and now Korean comics is on the rise, so people are asking for titles, like they want to see certain titles in English, and we are happy to make that happen somehow. We keep getting more new titles every month and expanding the library.
OR – So is Tappy Toon assisting with the actual localization of the Manhwa or just distributing?
TT – We do both. We get the comics and we get the licenses and the rights. We get them translated and proofread into English so that they are good, and we try to get the highest quality artwork from the original authors and creators. So we work with publishers and creators from Korea and release them in English.
OR – Is there a particular genre that you feel is most popular in Korea that you really want to see take off in the US?
TT – It’s hard to limit it to one particular genre but what we noticed so far with our library, is that 90% of our readership is Female. We try to make those 90% of the fans very happy. So if they are interested in it, we will try and get those comics. This tends to be skewed a little bit towards romance and drama, but there are also a lot of fantasy elements. Our most popular title, Bloody Sweet, is a romance between a 500-year-old Vampire and a high school teenage witch.
OR – It’s great that you can appeal to that demographic, because often times with the other distributors it’s very shounen-dominated. You mentioned Bloody Sweet which is actually related to my next question. What are some titles we can look forward to seeing on your site?
TT – Bloody Sweet is our number one title right now but we have Daughter of the Emperor, which is also a fantastical romance/drama, and I Got a Boy, which is more of a “Boys Love” kind of title. We have a lot of different titles covering a lot of different genres.
OR – Can our readers expect to find your products both on the site and at retail?
TT – Unfortunately not at retail. Right now, the only places you can read our comics is through our apps and on our website.
OR – Do you feel like the titles you have so far and the titles you are planning on bringing will be enough to introduce people to Korean Manhwa?
TT – Think so. We try to be very picky with what we are bringing. And if we feel it will really hook you or is something that we feel the market is lacking, we will try to bring those. We try to be a little more unique with the titles we are bringing and are very selective.
OR – Will you be able to have a forum or any kind of platform for users to voice their concerns and their feedback?
TT – A lot of people have been asking about that. Our service and our website have only been around for about a year and a half. So more and more people are asking for that and that is definitely on our checklist of upcoming updates.
OR – Do you have any last comments for your fans, or rather potential fans?
TT – I think if you are already interested in manga and anime, I think it’s not that far of a stretch that you can try something else from our platform. If you are already into manga and anime we are right up your alley. And it’s more of the good stuff and some even better.
You can check out Tappy Toon on their site right here.
