Getting Started with K-Comics - Tapas

Webtoons have exploded in popularity over the past few years, which means there are many sites and apps to choose from when you're looking for your next read. So we thought it might be helpful to give you a place to start, especially since most of them have vast libraries that can be overwhelming at first glance. We've looked at WEBTOON and Manta already, so for our third outing, let's see what Tapas offers.

Tapas is the third name of a WEBTOON platform that's been around since 2012. Originally called ComicPanda and later Tapastic, Tapas hosts over 61,000 English-language comics, with the greater part created by women. While most of their offerings are webtoons, the site and app also have web novels, serialized in short chapters and updated regularly. Like Manta and WEBTOON, Tapas operates on a freemium model, with a few chapters of each series available for free and the rest needing to be purchased. Like Manta, the greater part of Tapas' stories falls into the romance, fantasy, or fantasy romance genres. However, they're also building a decent collection of murim (the Korean equivalent of wuxia) stories as well.

Below is a small sample of what's available – five series in different genres to help you get started in your exploration.

---

Isekai

Doctor Elise is a standout in its genre. Although it begins like any other shōjo-flavored isekai story with a woman from our world waking up in the body of a younger woman in a fantasy realm, the story is layered, drawing from both the original author's medical background and the history of Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War. It's also a double-layered isekai, with Elise having first died in the fantasy world, been reborn as Jihyun Song in modern Korea, and then, after dying in a plane crash, returning to relive her life as Elise de Clorence – but this time with her memories as Jihyun, including her vast medical knowledge. Having found fulfillment as a surgeon, Elise is ready to relive her life with a focus on improving medical care in her kingdom, which leads her to try to refuse her betrothal to the crown prince and to gain her medical credentials, which she eventually uses on the battlefield, like her historical inspiration did.

Doctor Elise is much more grounded than a lot of similar stories, and if the medical aspects are somewhat simplified for ease of general comprehension, they still feel more accurate than not. Elise's explanation of a few things to her fellow doctors and nurses allows for a more natural manner of information dumping. Elise is determined in a very realistic way; she has a goal that she wants to fulfill, but she doesn't become single-minded to the point where her character ceases to be interesting. She's a blend of Elise and Jihyun, calling upon both of her previous lives to help her live her third, and the result is something that far surpasses the mediocre anime adaptation. The story keeps improving as it goes on, ably supported and enhanced by Mini's beautiful artwork. Even if the anime left you cold, this is a series to check out, and it's more than worth the price of admission.

Cozy Fantasy

While there's almost certain to be a romance thread in My Farm by the Palace, the start of this delight of a story by Jungyeon and adapted to comic format by Olcha is much more interested in allowing its heroine to be the cutest farmer ever. Hazel Mayfield, the sole heir to her grandfather's estate, was left with the Martin family for a while when she was eight. The sad, neglected orphan blossomed under the Martins' care, and they discovered that she had the rare magical gift of “mano del sol,” or “hand of the sun.” This allows Hazel to excel in anything farm-related: she can help plants grow and thrive, livestock to be healthier and breed more fruitfully, and cook like a dream…she was born to be a farmer. Hazel is forced to give up her farming dreams after her grandfather insists on bringing her back home (although for all the attention he pays her, I can't imagine why he did).

But even her grandpa eventually figures things out, deeding Hazel a random house and plot of land that the emperor is determined to develop – because it's the only property he wasn't able to buy when building his Versailles-style palace. Hazel gets there just before the deadline for the property to be declared abandoned, and Emperor Iz and his ministers are not pleased with it. Hazel Mayfield finally has her farm, and no gorgeous and talented emperor will take it away from her. Hazel herself is the main draw for this story; she's determined and spunky, but not in a “not like other girls” way; she's finally happy and wants to keep her joy. Her efforts to keep her house and land are informed by the fact that she worked as a bank teller for two years, so she's no one's fool, much to the initial chagrin of crusty old minister Albert. If I'm being honest, there's not a ton that's particularly original in this story, but the charm with which it unfolds makes that not matter. In its early chapters, at least, it's a fluffy delight of a farming fantasy, the perfect cozy read when you need to escape.

Family Drama

“Family drama” only partially encompasses what My Brother and His Gift is about. The story, adapted from the novel by Geulyu by Leeji An and Gaejuck, is about twenty-three-year-old Sihyuk and his three-year-old half-brother Siha, who are orphaned suddenly after their parents die in a car accident. Things proceed fairly normally for this sort of story, with Sihyuk defying avaricious relatives to take on the care of his little brother, but they begin to change when Siha refuses to let Sihyuk throw out their parents' computers. Sihyuk, who is busy worrying about how to support them and wondering if he should drop out of college, doesn't pay much attention, but it soon becomes apparent that Siha saw something in the computers that his older brother did not: their parents' spirits. Shown in the art as pink and blue butterflies, the deceased Lees are still there, watching over their sons.

This leads to the science fiction element of this story: the brothers' father was a highly acclaimed translator and interpreter, and when Sihyuk's professor suggests that he follow in his father's footsteps, the elder Lee's computer downloads all of his knowledge into his son's head. Suddenly, Sihyuk is an English-translating prodigy, a gift he doesn't understand but certainly isn't complaining about. And his dad's not the only one looking out for him – friend Dohwan helps him get Siha into the university's daycare, his professor helps with scholarships and a job, and Sihyuk realizes he's not doing this alone. This series has a strong heartwarming feel, with science fiction and paranormal pieces only supporting it. Not everything is going to be able to be solved by ghosts in the machine or good friends, either; Siha is largely nonverbal at age three, something his new preschool teacher immediately recognizes may be significant in terms of his development. Sihyuk is hinted to be able to “translate” Siha's baby talk because of his new abilities, but it's also clearly just a sign of how much he loves his brother. Although the art and translation can be a little stiff, this scratches the same itch as The Yuzuki Family’s Four Sons and School Babysitters. It's warm, sweet, and just a little bit supernatural.

Zombie Horror with Bonus BL

Don't you just hate it when you work so hard on a project for school that you end up sleeping through the zombie apocalypse? It's not a scenario that has ever occurred to college student Hohyun. Still, it's precisely what happens at the beginning of gunbam and coinmint's adaptation of Eise's Dead Man's Switch novels. (For the record, the novels are available in English from both Tappytoon and Wordexcerpt.) A piece of him may be aware of what's been going on during his three-day nap because he has a dream about his business professor trying to kill and eat him, but that still doesn't prepare him to wake up on Christmas morning and find a whole lot of undead beneath his metaphorical tree. The only person who seems to know what's going on is Youngwon, an older ceramics student who acts like he and Hohyun know each other…perhaps in the Biblical sense. It's all very confusing for Hohyun, and fortunately, that translates into a fast-paced, exciting first eight chapters, replete with gore, typical stupidity from some of the survivors, and plenty of mysteries for readers to solve.

The most pressing issue, apart from the ever-present threat of the zombies, is whatever's going on with Youngwon. Some of the comments he makes, such as how he could kill Hohyun and he'd come back, seem to hint that he's living in a different timeline than the rest of the cast. Not only is he ridiculously good at killing zombies with his axe, but he's also covered in scars, and his attitude is completely different from the Youngwon that another survivor, Dabin, knew. While one possibility is that this is a game they've all been dropped into, the more viable explanation is that Youngwon is somehow looping through time, and he's done it enough that his sanity is beginning to fray. (A similar scenario happens in Omniscent Reader's Viewpoint.) Whatever the issue, it's undeniable that he's very attached to Hohyun, to the point where just touching him gives him comfort. Hohyun may be the point of view character, but Youngwon embodies the story's mysteries, and their dynamic makes for interesting reading.

This is one of Tapas' mature-rated titles, and thus far, that's just for gore and language, but there's no guarantee that it won't also be for sex scenes later on. Either way, the violence may be enough to turn some readers away, but if it's not, this is an intriguing BL take on zombie horror.

Bad Decisions Book Club

Look, I'm not proud that I've read this. But the fact remains that I've read it in both original novel form (available from Wordexcerpt) and comic form, and something compels me to share the addiction. Kiss Me, Liar, based on the novels by Zig and adapted by Kongback and Ghost, is an omegaverse festival of bad decisions. Yeonwoo began life as a beta and was shocked into an omega transformation the first time he met Keith in college – exposure to his extreme alpha pheromones spurred the change. Now working as Keith's secretary in the high-powered world of American business, Yeonwoo continues carrying a torch for the other man while desperately hiding his crush and omega status. Keith, meanwhile, is everything an extreme alpha is meant to be in the tortured world of omegaverse, and one of Yeonwoo's jobs is to find and later break up with willing ladies for Keith to sleep with. He also arranges the sex parties Keith occasionally attends, and it's at one of those that his secret is revealed. Keith saves him from a horrific sexual assault and moves Yeonwoo into his mansion to help him and protect him, and you can guess where the story goes from there.

If you're not familiar with the phrase “bad decisions book club,” it means a book you pick up knowing it's going to be garbage. Romance as a genre is particularly littered with them, and Kiss Me, Liar is up there with the best (worst?) of the bunch. Its characters are more tropes than people, its story relies on contrivances and smut, and it makes very little actual sense. But sometimes, that's what you want in your reading, and this is very addictive. The art isn't great, and you should be warned that there are nonconsensual elements, albeit not between the main couple, but when you need to make a terrible reading choice, this is the way to go.

Fortunately, there are many more titles on Tapas, good and bad, just waiting for you to discover them. Happy reading, and let us know what your favorites are in the forums!