Welcome to the second edition of K-Comic Beat’s Monthly Manhwa Recs! Our team has come together to provide you with a variety of recommendations to sample. If you check them out, be sure and let us know what you think of them in the comment section!
Afterlife Diner by ASSAM, HWA JUNG and hyung sang jun (Tapas Media)
Fresh off its recent return for a second season, Afterlife Diner is a heartwarming and fun read, especially during the holiday season. After years of toiling at part-time jobs to make ends meet, Lee Kangjin gets a call that changes his life: He finds out that he has inherited a building in Seoul’s ritzy Gangnam District worth millions. The catch? He has to run a diner on the first floor – a diner that’s open late and caters to hungry ghosts.
If you love stories that mix food and human drama with a quirky cast like Midnight Diner and stories that delve into the everyday lives of people who exist between the world of the living and the afterlife, plus some mouth-watering food pics, then Afterlife Diner is for you. ⸺ DA
For You Who Grieves by DYULANG and 49 (Tapas Media)⸺ Adapted from an original novel by WhiteApril, For You Who Grieves is the tragic story of Doyoon Kim, who was supposed to die during a car crash. However, he wakes up in the body of a student attending the university he graduated from, Doyoon Ye. From hearing other people talking behind his back to going through life as himself but in a completely unfamiliar setting, I enjoy reading tragic body swap romances! This BL VSC has a pretty art style, manages a good balance of heartbreaking moments and romantic ones, and overall is an emotional read! The series is currently ongoing on Tapas with 59 chapters available. ⸺ MG
The Students of Illip Arts High by BACKBONE (WEBTOON) — a comic about artists has to be beautifully drawn, and this one definitely is! It has more of a Skip and Loafer vibe than Blue Period. Our plucky protagonist, Sol, is a country girl who can perfectly reproduce anything she sees— but struggles with drawing from her imagination. She quickly finds herself a fun circle of friends, but money, jealousy and middle school traumas come between them just as quickly. Will Sol and her friend group make it to graduation?
I really like the thoughtfulness and gravity with which this story handles the different topics it touches upon, from an assignment to “draw something no AI can draw” to the conflict between Si-Eun and Da-yeong. It’s never too intense or melodramatic, and Sol is so sweet and earnest! I love her and want her and her besties to succeed! ⸺ MZ
Candy Man by chanok (Pocket Comics) ⸺ Candy Man tells the story of Kyuyeon, a netkama who adopts the persona of “Yorong” to scam clueless male players. The story takes a comedic twist when Yorong’s most diehard fan turns out to be Kyuyeon’s popular and handsome classmate—someone so obsessed with Yorong that he jokingly claims he might “kill her” if they can’t be together. Netkama stories like this always draw me in with their angst and drama. Will they end up together, or won’t they? There’s something thrilling about it. Compared to similar titles, Candy Man feels oddly wholesome, making you root for Kyuyeon and his unwittingly catfished classmate to make it work. ⸺ HK
The Problematic Prince by CACTUS and Solche (Tappytoon)
Based on the novel by Solche (which you can read in English on Yonder), The Problematic Prince isn’t exactly a romantic fantasy nor is it a historical romance either – it’s something kind of in between, but will appeal to readers of both aforementioned genres.
Set in a vaguely European country, The Problematic Prince is about Erna Hardy, an earnest, sheltered young woman who meets Bjorn – a former crown prince who has a reputation for being… well, kind of a jerk. He’s very handsome (because duh, he’s the male lead here), but drinks, he gambles, he just doesn’t seem to care about what people think of him. He wasn’t always that way – when he was married to Princess Gladys, he was a beloved crown prince of the realm, but after divorcing her, Bjorn gained a rep as having a poisonous personality.
Bjorn’s path crosses with Erna, who has come to the city to find a husband, preferably a wealthy one, because her down-on-his-luck, mostly absentee nobleman dad figures it’s time for Erna to cash in on her one asset: her beauty. Through a series of misunderstandings, Erna and Bjorn get romantically entangled and eventually married. But what makes this series interesting is that both Erna and Bjorn start out as a mismatched pair, but their affection for each other grows and evolves in interesting ways. Yes, Bjorn is a bjerk to Erna for most of the first part of the story, but that makes his eventual redemption arc much more satisfying. Also, this story gets pretty steamy sometimes, so if that’s your jam, keep reading because they do more than just kiss after discovering their feelings for each other.
The art is lovely, and the drama keeps readers guessing on what happens next – to the point where I got a bit impatient, so I went straight to the novels to read ahead. That’s gotta count for something. ⸺ DA
I’m a Mom by Leungho (TopToon, Onestory) — Originally published on Naver before being serialized on Toptoon and Onestory, I’m A Mom is a webtoon with a unique premise: A pregnant mother becomes infected with an infection that turns her into a monster during the initial outbreak. She manages to give birth to her daughter, Chuk-Bok, and keep her safe for 7 years. The series is centered around this mother using her new form to protect and go on adventures with her daughter in this post-apocalyptic landscape full of viruses, monsters, and human survivors which there is uncertainty if they can all be trusted with.
It is a really refreshing story among the sea of webtoons which have similar DNA in terms of the premise and genre, plus there are rarely stories that center around a mother who is doing all she can to protect and raise her own daughter in a world that is forever changed. If you want to read something entirely different and get hooked on something new, I cannot recommend this enough. ⸺ JG
NOTE: “I’m a Mom” is also available as a Kindle/Comixology ebook edition on Amazon, published by TopCo.
Come back next months for more manhwa recs! Click here to check out every entry of the column.
