By Park Jin-hai
Behind the pan-Asian success of the Korean film "Along With the Gods: The Two Worlds," as well as many hit K-dramas and games, have been webtoon series.
Webtoons have grown into one of the most important, original cultural products in the country. Kakao and Naver _ which run the two largest web portals here _ and many other webtoon companies have launched global services targeting overseas fans.
Yet webtoon artists claim the industry has thrived at their expense.
Webtoonists have gathered together to deal with prevalent weboon companies' abuse of power. "So many artists have been manipulated, working and not getting fair payment. Artists who disagree with webtoon companies' demands have been unilaterally notified that their webtoon services would be terminated and have received various disadvantages," said Lee Lim, director of The Korea Cartoonist Association, during a forum, Tuesday, organized by the culture ministry and Korea ManhaManhwa Contents Agency, to make a fair webtoon industry.
During the forum various unfair practices were reported including companies failing to give promised payments and pocketing money by providing content to other websites without notifying the artists. Yet when artists take issue, companies threaten to take legal action mentioning confidential agreements included in their contracts.
A webtoonist pen-named "Grey" wrote a complaint that the artist paid more than 10 million won in late penalties a year to webtoon company Lezhin Entertainment. The company was alleged to have levied maximum 9 percent of the artist's minimum guarantee each month to those who fail to meet deadlines the company has set.
Other artists also claimed that the company blacklisted artists who wrote complaints about the webtoon company and excluded them from promotions.
The Korean webtoon market is estimated to expand to 1 trillion won by 2020, from 420 billion won in 2015, according to a research firm run by Korea Telecom.
Lezhin Entertainment recently sued two webtoon artists for damages, after they raised allegations of the company's unfair treatment.
"Rookie artists get meager payment for work on their webtoons, wishing for future gains they can get when their content gets exported or used in other cultural products. Webtoon companies manipulate those webtoonists, making them creative laborers living on minimum wage," said cartoonist Hwang Jung-han.
Lee Young-wook, a cartoonist and lawyer, who was at the forum, said, "The current standard contract form between the company and the artist is too simple and fails to include detailed clauses, which should be dealt with first." Park In-ha, a professor at Chungkang College of Cultural Industries, called for an industry-wide investigation into unfair contracts.
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