Work Corn Game
Graphic · Illustration

Corn Game, a love letter to the cinema, post-pandemic.

An original webtoon I made when Korean theatres started opening up again. A small, real cultural shift, turned into a quietly absurd short story about going to the movies.

Role
Designer
Industry
Entertainment
Duration
1 month
Corn Game webtoon key visual
Overview

What the project was

Korean cinemas had been losing money for two years. When the "Living with COVID-19" rules arrived, the changes were small but they meant a lot to a movie fan. Groups could sit together. Popcorn was back. Theatres opened past midnight. I wanted to tell that quiet shift through two characters who'd been waiting.

Approach

How I worked

01

Story outline

Wrote the beat sheet. Squid Game became Corn Game, a softer pastiche of a national obsession.

02

Character design

Two leads, drawn in a deliberately light style. Story over detail.

03

Storyboard

Panel-by-panel layout tuned for the vertical webtoon scroll, not the comic-book page.

04

Final art

Drew the episodes in vertical format, sized for reading on a phone.

Episodes

Read it, cut by cut.

Use the arrows, swipe, or your keyboard's ← →.

Corn Game webtoon — cover
Corn Game webtoon — cut 1: the review-writing challenge
Corn Game webtoon — cut 2: an old man and a young man enter the theatre
Corn Game webtoon — cut 3: the young man reminisces about popcorn
Corn Game webtoon — cut 4: asking if the old man is a CGV regular
Corn Game webtoon — cut 5: the old man recalls watching three films a day
Corn Game webtoon — cut 6: making a pact as CGV buddies
Corn Game webtoon — cut 7: a pinky-swear promise
Corn Game webtoon — cut 8: remembering the masked, distanced days
Corn Game webtoon — cut 9: the movie starts in five minutes
Corn Game webtoon — cut 10: the young man panics about time
Corn Game webtoon — cut 11: the old man refuses to watch here
Corn Game webtoon — cut 12: realising snacks are allowed again
Corn Game webtoon — cut 13: the old man second-guesses himself
Corn Game webtoon — cut 14: Coni welcomes viewers back to CGV
Corn Game webtoon — cut 15: post-COVID rules and a discount event
Corn Game webtoon — cut 16: an invitation to return to the cinema
Reflection

What I took away

Storytelling rhythm in webtoons depends on panel spacing as much as illustration. A long empty stretch between two panels can do more emotional work than a line of dialogue. In a vertical comic, white space is a timing instrument.