The Journal of Culture Contents ISSN:2287-2256(Print) 2671-7026(Online) 문화콘텐츠연구

This study analyzes the industrial and cultural implications of webtoon production utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on the “Lee Hyun-se AI Project,” a collaborative initiative by Jaedam Media, Sejong University, and renowned Korean cartoonist Lee Hyun-se. The project involved training AI on the artist’s distinctive style and four-decade oeuvre, and then using this knowledge to remake his past work, “Dawn of Charon,” as a color webtoon. Through this process, the study comprehensively explores the modes of collaboration between creators and AI, as well as the technological and artistic limitations, and issues of copyright and creativity.
The research employs a qualitative case study approach based on project report analysis and interviews with participants and experts. The findings indicate that while AI excels at repetitive image generation and style replication, human creators are indispensable for maintaining character consistency, expressing details, and ensuring creative direction. Notably, although the remade webtoon successfully reproduces much of the original’s style, it somewhat diminishes the unique intensity and gravitas of the source material, and the fast-paced direction characteristic of the webtoon format tends to dilute the narrative depth.
This project, as the first empirical case in Korea to go beyond mere technical experimentation, vividly demonstrates changes in the creative ecosystem in the AI era. It provides important implications for establishing future models of AI-human collaboration, restructuring copyright systems, and building sustainable business models for the webtoon industry.