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BL Webtoon King's Maker Writer and Illustrator Make First U.S. Appearance at AnimeNYC 2025

The two creators of the popular BL webtoon, King's Maker, arrived at AnimeNYC to a room full of excited fans. Illustrator Jiyoung Kang and writer Haga expressed how happy they were to see everyone and promised to take the smiles from the attendees back with them to Korea as a souvenir. After announcing the panel would be a phone-free environment, the duo dove into their origins and how they began their journey into webtoons.

When it came to their partnership, Kang had a funny story to share. “It was the day I came back from Japan to Korea when Haga called me at the airport: 'Could you come to a certain cafe in Seoul in one hour?' I thought she could be a human organ trafficker,” laughed Kang. “But she proposed to work together and the result would be King's Maker.” The panelists showed a slide where Wolfgang and Soohyuk meet for the first time. Explaining how they came up with the concept for their story, Haga took inspiration from two stories that talk about the love of humankind. On the other hand, Kang was reading the Bible while working on the material. She was surprised at how many readers commented and found the biblical references in King's Maker.

The relaxed conversation and spontaneous jokes between Haga and Kang showed how well they work together and how close their friendship and professional partnership are. “I'm kind of a childish person and I love vivid colors,” said Haga. “But because of that, I've been suffering,” inserted Kang. “It was such an advantage for the collaboration of our work because I like cool spectrum colors and she is good at the warm spectrum colors,” she complimented as Haga smiled. Their complementary taste in colors and personality led them to choose the look and feel of the King's Maker world.

“Haga has high standards for the outward appearance of the characters, so whenever I design them, I always focus on that perspective for her,” shared Kang. “I'm not sure if it was the best decision to come here with her,” reacted Haga.

Moving on to the characters, both authors had some fun facts to share. Haga asked readers to take note of the personality gap within Soohyuk. Although he's smart and quick-witted, he's not very good with his hands, as there's a scene where his father ties his shoes for him. “When he makes handcrafted things, it comes out a little ugly.” Kang focuses on the body frame of the characters. Wolfgang and Soohyuk have different shapes and even different finger shapes. “However, when they were young, they weren't that different. We tried to reflect the growing differences between the two as they aged. You'll also see how I satisfy Haga's expectations.”

“Earlier, you mentioned I love to torture the characters, so if I torture you, then readers will be happy,” retorted Haga.

Surprisingly, they don't divide the creative responsibilities cleanly in half as they both work on the story and the illustrations. They know each other's strong points and found that Kang is particularly adept at action sequences, while Haga brings out the emotions and sensitive depictions on a character's face. They work so efficiently that their meeting time would shrink. During our most recent work meeting, it lasted less than fifteen minutes. However, there are times when they disagree with each other as they agreed never to sell a product that they aren't satisfied with. “We couldn't agree on a certain part where who would go and who would leave,” explained Haga. “Later on, we agreed that those two characters would have a similar altercation and would fight over each other because of that.” They used their real-life experiences and conflicts as plot points.

Turning back to specific questions about King's Maker, three elements bring Wolfgang and Soohyuk together despite their contrasting backgrounds: revenge, love, and dream. Thus, the sequel's title is King's Maker: Triple Crown. The two would have different rankings of those elements in their motivations, where Soohyuk would rank dream as his top priority, whereas Wolfgang would prioritize love. “I imagine the moment Soohyuk declares what his #1 ranking is, Wolfgang would be so enamoured he would immediately declare love as his #1,” said Haga while imitating the blonde character's facial expressions.

Closing off the panel, the two authors disclosed that the spinoff for King's Maker is on their calendars. The entire room waited with bated breath for Kang and Haga to share more, but unfortunately, there's no release date. “We don't know when it'll be published or how thick and long the volume will be. But I can give my word to you that we'll definitely make the spinoff,” exclaimed Haga.

As a parting gift, the panel moderator showed a slide announcing that the first volume of King's Maker: Triple Crown will be released in Spring 2027. The English publication will be the mature and uncensored version. Before leaving, Kang wanted the crowd to know how much work she put into a particular scene: “I focused on that part so much that I spent three entire weeks on it!”