Sung-Rak Jang, also known as DUBU, the artist for the breakout manhwa hit Solo Leveling, died on July 23 of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 37. Yen Press, which publishes Solo Leveling, posted a translation of a message from Redice Studios that stated that Jang had a chronic health condition that led to the hemorrhage.
According to Anime News Network, Jang was the CEO of Redice Studios, which adapts novels into webtoons and is one of the partners in Yen Press’s new manhwa collaboration, Ize Press (see “Yen Doubles Down on Korean Webtoons”). Redice also provided artwork for two manga that are available in English, Space Dandy and The Island of Giant Insects.
Solo Leveling was originally published as a web novel (also licensed by Yen Press) and was adapted by Jang into a webtoon that ran on Tapas and several other webtoon platforms. The manhwa series has been a best-seller, making the BookScan Top 20 list every month, and it was one of ICv2’s top franchises for Spring 2022 (see “Top Author Graphic Novel Franchises – Spring 2022”). The Japanese studio A-1 Pictures is adapting the story into an anime (see “‘Solo Leveling’ Anime”), which will stream in English on Crunchyroll. Yen Press will publish the fifth of the six volumes in September.
Source: ICv2
