The webtoon continues to grow in France. After the specialized platforms and publishers, French schools are seizing the phenomenon from South Korea. Human Academy, International School of Manga and Animation, the Jean Tubert School or the European Manga Academy… Many establishments have been offering courses or masterclasses for nearly two years. The advantages of webtoon are numerous according to the specialists interviewed: multiplication of readers, possibility of being published more quickly or even less risk taking for publishers.
“There are many opportunities at the end of the course for our students.“, insists Caroline Parsons, director of the Human Academy in Angoulême. At her, there is not yet a course dedicated to webtoon, but students are invited to devote their graduation project to it. The head of the establishment hopes to register specific courses from the start of the 2023 school year. To make these issues understood, she will hold a conference on Thursday, October 20 entitled “Webtoon training, an issue that will necessarily grow”. His speech is part of the round tables of the World Wide Webtoon Festival, the first event dedicated to the genre in France which will be held on October 20 and 21 in Monteux.
Focus on the verticality and rhythm of webtoon
In Paris, the Jean Trubert school is already well advanced. From the second year, students learn the codes of webtoon at the same time as digital comics. For the author and teacher, Christelle Pecoutthe main difficulty is the rhythm: “The webtoon is different from the comic or the manga since its episodes work like a soap opera, each of them must make you want to “scroller” (Editor’s note: method of reading a webtoon by scrolling the content on a computer screen from top to bottom)”.
The European Manga Academy rightly invites its teachers and students to focus on the vertical medium of webtoon. “There are many studies and articles on the horizontal path of the eye, but there is almost nothing on the behavior of the eye facing a vertical support“, underlines the director of the establishment Nicola Ronci. The difficulty is then to integrate attractive narration modules with less pagination. “The webcomic is not a technique in itself, but a particular way of laying out and telling a story“, summarizes the director.
In the school, the courses are not limited to the creation phase. Working conditions are also discussed through a professional scenario. The institution supervises their students in the creation and publication of a webcomic on platforms. For her part, teacher Christelle Pécout, also vice-president of the national union of authors and composerswarns once morest the risk of overwork: “The authors are often the only ones to create an entire webtoon, whereas in comparison a mangaka is supported by a studio.“
A new breeding ground for recruiters
To complete this professional orientation, the schools rely on partnerships with professionals in the sector such as Webtoon factory, Izneo, the American studio Laurel Pursuit or the South Korean company Naver Webtoon. The latter began as soon as it settled in France, in 2020, to focus on schools. The rapprochement results in two-three masterclasses per year to present the webtoon and the work of one of its authors. “As soon as there is a course that touches on the world of illustration or storytelling, we are present“, Explain Emilie Coudrat, development manager of the French subsidiary of Naver Webtoon. The objective is to find new local talent to be added to the 70 French authors in the catalogue.
The platform therefore multiplies calls for projects from students. In partnership with the Human Academy, Naver Webtoon offers for example to study the first episodes of a webtoon with an editor. The student then benefits from feedback, or even publication. The company receives between 20 and 30 projects per year. Today, two former students of the institute are part of the platform’s catalog. Another giant, installed in France for almost a year, Piccoma also says it is ready to form partnerships with schools, provided that it is at the request and in the company of a publisher. The latter are slowly joining the French momentum for the webtoon.
