Webtoon Week 2026: ICv2 Interview: Deanna McFadden, VP, Head of IP Strategy at WEBTOON Consumer Goods

WEBTOON Unscrolled, the sister company of Naver’s WEBTOON that brings many of their titles into print, launched in 2022 (see “WEBTOON Announces New Graphic Novel Program”) and has built up a solid catalog that includes True Beauty and Cursed Princess Club (see “Top Webtoon Franchises – Spring 2023”), as well as Doom Breaker, Morgana and Oz, and Boyfriends. We asked Deanna McFadden, VP, Head of IP Strategy at WEBTOON Consumer Goods, about what’s selling and what goes into bringing webtoons to print, and she also has some suggestions for retailers on how to tailor their webtoon collection to their customer base.

What were your top new releases so far this year, and what are your strongest backlist items?
WEBTOON Unscrolled has had a really exciting year for new releases, with Reaper and the Waiting, Operation: True Love, Love Bites, and Accidental Assassin all joining the list. We’re also seeing a lot of anticipation building around Gourmet Hound, which is a culinary drama coming out next month, and Act Like You Love Me!, a workplace romance with a supernatural twist, out in November.

On the backlist, it’s been fantastic to see the continued strength of titles like The Mafia Nanny, Morgana and Oz, and The Kiss Bet. And True Beauty, Tower of God, and Cursed Princess Club, which were the first series we launched when we established WEBTOON Unscrolled, all are perennial top sellers. Those titles really helped define the imprint and demonstrate the incredible potential of bringing WEBTOON’s most beloved stories to print.

Is there a core list of titles you would recommend a retailer with limited floor space carry? Are there comics you think do particularly well in a certain kind of store, such as stores that focus on manga, tabletop games, superhero comics, etc.?
If a retailer has very limited floor space, we’d point them toward titles like True Beauty, The Mafia Nanny, Cursed Princess Club, and Tower of God. Together, these represent the key pillars of WEBTOON, from romance and YA to action, fantasy, comedy, and Korean storytelling.

For retailers with more specialized audiences, there are natural fits across the list. Manga- and manhwa-focused stores are a great home for titles like Doom Breaker and The God of High School, while stores with strong YA or romance readership might gravitate toward The Kiss Bet, Act Like You Love Me! (coming soon!) or Operation: True Love.For retailers with a strong fantasy or action customer base, Morgana & Oz and Accidental Assassin offer another avenue into the WEBTOON universe.

We’re also thinking about titles that can serve as gateways for readers who are new to comics. Books like Raven Saga, Third Shift Society, Love Advice from the Great Duke of Hell, The Reaper and the Waiting, Hooky, School Bus Graveyard,and Lore Olympus showcase what makes WEBTOON storytelling so distinctive, from its pacing and visual storytelling to its incredible range of genres and creator voices. For retailers, these titles can be a great way to introduce someone to the format and encourage them to explore beyond a single book.

What factors do you look at when deciding whether to publish a comic?
Audience and platform data are often the starting point for us, but they’re only part of the equation. An engaging, distinctive art style and, most importantly, an incredible and addictive story with interesting characters are what ultimately drive our acquisition decisions. 

WEBTOON Unscrolled’s upcoming release Superfish, which was nominated for an Eisner Award, is a great example of that combination. It has a strong, highly engaged audience on WEBTOON, a visual style that will really pop in print, and a story that we believe has tremendous potential with the North American publishing market (it’s a BL supernatural fantasy). It’s already performing exceptionally well on the platform, and we’re excited to bring that momentum to print.

What catches your eye when you’re looking at new material?
We’re always balancing what we see working in the broader trade book market with the comics we genuinely love. Ultimately, we’re looking for books that feel distinctive but also have a clear audience.

WEBTOON Unscrolled’s list spans both YA and Adult, with a particular focus on fantasy, romance, and coming-of-age YA – and we’re beginning to expand further into genre-driven comics, including horror. We’re also in the unique position of being able to discover and acquire stories from WEBTOON in other languages, including Korean, French, and Spanish, which opens up an incredibly rich pool of international talent and storytelling.

The strength of the graphic novel, manhwa, and manga markets is also creating exciting opportunities on the publishing side. Our Licensing team is regularly approached by North American publishers looking to round out their lists, often with very specific themes, genres, or audiences in mind. Because WEBTOON has such a broad range of stories and genres on the platform, our team can essentially act as matchmakers, connecting the right comics and creators with the right publishing partners. It’s great for the business, but even better for creators, because it creates more pathways for their work to reach new audiences and markets.

{IMAGE_7}Is the challenge of bringing a particular comic from vertical-scroll digital to a print format something you’re thinking about at this point, or are things like genre and intended audience more important?
At WEBTOON Unscrolled, translating a vertical-scroll comic into print is no longer a challenge – it’s a core area of our expertise. We essentially built the scroll-to-print process as we developed the imprint, and we now have a highly experienced internal team of editors, book designers, and letterers who specialize in making that transition. That expertise has also extended to projects we develop with our publishing partners.

The goal is always to create a print edition that feels authentic to the original WEBTOON comic while taking full advantage of what the print format can do. Our team is incredibly thoughtful about preserving the storytelling, pacing, art, lettering, and all of the elements that make the scroll version work, while translating them into a traditional comic or graphic novel format. Because that process is so well established for us, we’re able to focus our acquisition decisions on the things that matter most from a publishing perspective: audience, market opportunity, genre and trends, and, of course, the titles our editorial team believes have that special something. 

The scroll-to-print adaptation is something we know how to do exceptionally well, so it’s not a barrier to what we choose to publish – it’s one of the things that sets WEBTOON Unscrolled apart.

{IMAGE_8}Who decides whether a comic will be published by WEBTOON Unscrolled or by another publisher?

Our acquisition process is a collaborative one, bringing together representatives from our publishing editorial, sales, and marketing teams alongside colleagues from WEBTOON’s platform content and creator teams. That cross-functional perspective allows us to look at a title from every angle: from the strength of the story and creator to audience data, market opportunity, and where we think the book can have the greatest impact.

With so many brilliant comics on WEBTOON, there truly is a story for every corner of the market. Our job is to identify the right opportunities and, importantly, the right publishing home for each one. Sometimes that’s WEBTOON Unscrolled, and sometimes it’s one of our publishing partners. Either way, the goal is the same: to create more opportunities for our creators and help bring their stories to readers in print and onto shelves around the world.

The incredible growth of the comics, graphic novel, manhwa, and manga markets has also meant that the needs of the publishing industry are evolving alongside consumer demand. We’re seeing readers who may never have considered themselves comics readers discover the format through WEBTOON, and we’re excited to help bring those new readers into the broader world of comics.

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