Made-in-Japan manga goes global with Webtoon, Deadpool

By YURI KAGEYAMA
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Manga is going really global. A Deadpool story created by a Japanese manga artist has become a top-selling Marvel work. The global manga market, valued at $23.5 billion in 2020, is expected to balloon to $48 billion in 2028, according to San Francisco-based Grand View Research. Manga has also inspired Netflix series hits like “Fishbowl Wives.” Webtoons, digital comics which started in South Korea two decades ago, are taking off in Japan, the nation that originated manga. The chief executive of a Tokyo Webtoon studio, set up last year, hopes to bring the strengths of manga to his company’s Webtoon products.