Tianyu Zhu

If you like webtoons — comics (usually Chinese or Korean) meant to be read online instead of physically, you’re most likely into one of two things; either the glossy and romantic adventures of a likable heroine, or the flashy combat and baddass displays of skill of a hero. But while these genre-trending topics are good for sales and views, I believe that the best webtoons are more unique.

The Horizon, written and drawn in 2016 by Jeong Ji-Hoon, is a story about young boy and girl journeying through a war-torn world. While most other webtoons are content with being flashy or moody, this one simply has a story to tell – one that it delivers powerfully and effectively. 

The characters in this story are very simple in their traits, but complex in what they represent. Over the course of the journey, the boy and girl meet all kinds of people, from a man gone insane with unchecked PTSD, to a killer with nothing left to lose, to kids just like themselves, trying to make it out alive. They represent the effects of war on people in various circumstances.

The Horizon is short, a mere 21 chapters, each totaling to around a half-hour read. Its short length does not discount the amount of content it contains. The story is split into four main story arcs, with each focusing on a different topic. It is a very emotional one, largely bleak and depressing, but with a final lesson that is of hope and optimism.

The main motif within the comic is the constant question of the worth of human existence. Most characters are introduced blandly but die in brutal and cruel ways, amplifying the bleak themes even more. Building upon them, there are many techniques that the author used to convey his emotions and his perspectives, some of which are general to art, and others are more confined to the art form that he has chosen. There are a multitude of ways that the artist amplifies his themes, one of which is the contrast between black and white, and between black-and-white and colored pages.

For most of the story, the pages are predominantly white, this signals the reader that there is not much tension currently going on, but when the tension rises, the panels shift to black, this is so that the reader is more drawn into those panels because they contrast with the rest. Building upon this technique is the use of colored panels, which are only used twice in the entire story. These scenes immediately draw the viewer in due to how jarring the color changes are and serve well as an emotional trigger.

What is more impressive to me is the author’s clever utilization of the webtoon format – or lack thereof. There are panels of all shapes and sizes being utilized to emphasize visual storytelling, and it would be impossible to use in a physical medium.

Furthermore, while many of the less tense moments have multiple panels that can be read at once, most of the most impactful moments in this comic are told through full-screen panels that can be only read one at a time with very few words, and whatever could not be told through the art are fit in between the panels instead of laying it on top of them. I believe this is used so that readers don’t get distracted by the previous or next panels and don’t get irritated when the speech bubbles block the art.

The Horizon is a story about the bleak conditions of human existence and suffering, that ends on a golden key about hope and optimism. And though it is intriguing, it has a fraction of a fanbase of a longer running webtoon. The author crafts a philosophical question that leaves much to be discussed by the readers, and I believe it deserves to be seen by more people. Overall, I can definitely recommend this comic to anyone who is a fan of philosophical stories.