Welcome to K-Comics Beat‘s Best Webtoons and Webcomics of 2025!
This year, we opened the nomination field to include vertical scroll, digital, and experimental comics of all stripes. Our staff and contributors compiled a list of titles spanning a multitude of genres including supernatural, slice-of-life, romance, fantasy, crime, and more.
In addition to comics published on some of the biggest platforms out there, like Webtoon and Manta, this list also highlights self-published webcomics hosted on personal sites. Looked at collectively, we hope this mix offers a little something for everyone.
Without further ado, here are the Best Webtoons and Webcomics of 2025.
The Bathroom Ghost
Writer/Artist: Volpe
Platform: Webtoon
A visually striking Webtoon that I can best describe and pitch as: GREEN YURI, but RED, and about a Ghost Girl in training who haunts a Bathroom Mall and is trying her best and failing to scare people. This series has such wonderful art and an interesting cast of supernatural characters that bounce off our beloved shy bathroom ghost, all with a pinch of supernatural bureaucracy at play.
The Bathroom Ghost was originally a series on Webtoon Canvas and to see it grow as a Webtoon Original warms my heart as it is given the attention and care to become its own thing. With only about 37 episodes so far, I really am curious to see future antics and adventures, as well as how the world will develop past what was originally seen in the Canvas version. I am otherwise hooked by its charm, writing, and overall presentation. — Justin Guerrero
Curveball and Splitter
Writer/Artist: Yakguk
Platform: Manta
“With inflation and the cost of labor being on the rise,” Yesol laments, it gets harder to hire a hitman to deal with your annoying superiors at work. Add the recurring, haunting dream that something that happened in the high school baseball club he can’t fully remember, and he’s spiralling down. No amount of mental training could prepare him for the unexpected reunion with an ex-team member, Hanrim, and his ever-burning grudge against Yesol.
Boys’ Love and sports are truly a match made in heaven! Don’t hate me for picking a series that is scheduled to update once a month, but I’m sure after giving Curveball and Splitter a chance, you’ll understand the care and time that goes into it. — Merve Giray
Seconded!!! Curveball and Splitter is paced like music, each panel the perfect one needed to progress the story or finish the episode satisfyingly. It’s also a thoughtful and nuanced exploration of addiction and how self-destructive behaviors feed into each other. — Masha Zhdanova
Dark Guardian
Writer/Artist: SS
Platform: Manta
Luce, more commonly known as Lucifer, was about to strike a deal with God over whether Elijah’s pure soul would fall to ruin. But upon meeting Elijah, an orphaned boy who attends a boarding school, he knows the deal’s off. Elijah’s soul is one without blemish, that’s true, but the kid sees through his benefactor’s deception with a single glance. The kid’s witty comebacks entertain Luce, and they agree to meet every year. On Elijah’s 18th birthday, it’ll be time for God and Luce to claim their stakes on his soul.
Dark Guardian is a 10-chapter, black and white Boys’ Love webtoon that delves into salvation, love, selflessness, and eternity in such a short span. It’s breathtaking, both visually and narratively! — Merve Giray
Flying Saucer Video (18+)
Writer/Artist: Cam Marshall
Editor: Ari Yarwood
Publisher: Self-Published
Flying Saucer Video is set in the halcyon days of…2019? Yes, 2019, before the world shut down and we all woke up in purgatory. On a more serious note, Flying Saucer Video is about a closing video rental store and the employees’ relationships with each other. It’s unabashedly queer and messy in the way that only queer friend groups can be messy. A companion piece to sapphic work like Tamifull’s How Do We Relationship? Adorably drawn and hilarious. — E.B. Hutchins
Foreach
Writer:/Artist: Lum
Publisher: Self-Published
Foreach is a webcomic about four kids who play a game—wait, no, let me start over. In Foreach, the four main characters each use video games in different genres to escape the pressures of the worlds they inhabit. But when the borders between their worlds begin to fracture and warp, what’ll happen when they get to really live out their escapist fantasies?
Lum does some really innovative stuff with web formatting and text boxes to make each of the four worlds feel both distinctive and cohesive, and mixes the comic format with the video game premise in a very clever way. Also, their art style is really cute! — Masha Zhdanova
I Roved Out (18+)
Writer/Artist: Alexis Flower
Publisher: Self-Published
Sometimes sex is as silly and messy as fantasy stories, and I Roved Out exemplifies that. I Roved Out follows the story of two elves, Cinder and Maeryll’s reluctant journey to finding truth and love as a war begins to brew in the background instigated by antagonist Tartantula. This is erotic fantasy with a capital “E” with gorgeous visuals, hilarious gags and great heart. It was on my radar earlier this year after InCase’s Alfie (also great) went on hiatus and it was looking for a similar fix. Boy, have I found it. — E.B. Hutchins
The Keluarga Cable Ship Company
Writer/Artist: Mereida Fajardo
Platform: LDComics Online Fair
Most family reunions have some degree of haha awkward, old feelings that got put away are brought out again, the stuff we wish we had or hadn’t said seems as present as the conversation being had right now. Years on, a father and son still can’t see eye to eye, even if their divergent paths in life bring them to the same ship. Who maintains the Internet’s infrastructure at the bottom of the ocean? Family.
In Keluarga, a comic I got from the LDC fair in July, we see the father and son’s paths cross—and yet we don’t. It’s told as three vertical scrolling comics at the same time, in the form of parallel columns. One column is the son’s perspective, one the father’s, and one a memory, the last time they were on a ship together. The weaving of the story between the pillars was a delightful challenge. I don’t mean it was a struggle to understand; it made me experience reading comics in a new way. — Arpad Okay
Kill Me Now (18+)
Writer/Artist: cosmos
Translator: Sarah
Editor: Jane Woo
Platform: Tappytoon
Haegu isn’t one to fret, and she doesn’t blink when killing the hitman who has done the same to her parents—in front of the hitman’s little kid, no less. Now that Haegu has avenged her family and the daughter is left behind, she takes in the kid as her guardian, gifting her a name and a purpose to go on living: avenging her hitman dad, and killing Haegu in turn.
The series wrapped up recently and I’m only 1/4 into the story. However, this is my last chance to add Kill Me Now to a Best Comics of the Year list and no way I’m missing it. It is a strikingly violent and long read, but it’s a rare, rewarding gem. — Merve Giray
Lisa & Cerise
Writer/Artist: Marie Derambure
Platform: ShortBox Comics Fair
Marie Derambure was half of the creative team for my favorite graphic novel from this year, Basket, so when I saw that she had something at this year’s annual SBCF it was one of the first things I jumped on. It was all of the indie art brut execution, shojo friend group slice-o-life story that I was expecting, with an emo yuri subplot about facing the depression and grief caused by terminal illness that I was not.
A posthumous package delivery is what finally gets our emotionally destroyed protagonist to leave the house and go to, sigh, a party. The circle of kids around her are so real, and how they are drawn is not. There is a sketchbook softness to the drawing that lets you see every single mark made. And yet there is a precision, a thoughtfulness, that shows a designer’s mindful planning at odds with the idea of the art being unfinished and raw. I was left raw, teary and sniffling, vibrating with hope. — Arpad Okay
Miss Pendleton
Originally Created By: Yu Hyemin
Artist: kkomak
Platform: Webtoon
Laura Pendleton, a clever and esteemed matchmaker of the London scene, can’t turn down a close friend’s request to acclimate a newcomer into society. Ian Dalton, despite his best friend and sister’s good intentions, is adamant about remaining the taciturn, unapproachable man he is during the balls he attends, let alone finding a good match with the prospect of marriage. Immovable object meets the unstoppable force!
I have highlighted Miss Pendleton on our recommendation corner before, but who’s gonna stop me? This historical romance webtoon is still the highlight of my Saturdays and one of the few new series that’s got me hooked! I hope you’ll give this series a chance and let Laura charm you as well. — Merve Giray
Return of the Runebound Professor
Original Story: Actus
Adapted by: Daniel Krauss
Writer: Sauerkrauss
Artist: Laurel Pursuit
Assisted by: Aethon
Platform: Webtoon
Last year, I fell neck-deep into the LitRPG audiobook rabbit hole. Return of the Runebound Professor started as a casual listen that quickly escalated into buying unfinished Kindle volumes, binging free Royal Road chapters, and eventually subscribing to the author’s Patreon! That spiral says everything about why this story works!
Runebound exemplifies the best of progression fantasy: dense but readable world-building, clearly crafted magic systems, and mechanics that invite readers to actively speculate on where growth is heading. It’s structured enough to feel intentional, but open enough that readers can imagine building their own abilities within the system. Most importantly, the pacing never collapses under its own ambition.
The Webtoon adaptation solidly carves its niche while respecting the source! Season 1 smartly concluded this summer near the start of Book Two, preserving narrative momentum while giving new readers a satisfying arc. The vertical-scroll format is used with intent, especially in action choreography, where motion and timing feel native to the medium rather than constrained by it. The inclusion of original music in select episodes is an inspired touch, made even more resonant by the protagonist’s past life as a music teacher—an identity that meaningfully shapes how he understands and interacts with magic itself. — Marion Peña
Sunset Phoenix
Writer, Artist, Colors, Lettering: NeverDraws (Chelsea Goerzen)
Edited by: Kristine Kim
Platform: Webtoon
On an island ruled by an organized crime cartel run by five color-coded immortal Phoenixes, Emilia is a blue spy in the red mob—until the Red Phoenix is dead and Emilia’s hands are covered in her blood. Fortunately, Valentine, the Blue Phoenix, is ready to help! So begins a twisty, supernatural murder mystery, beautifully drawn and crisply written. 2025 saw Season 2 of this series untangle the mystery further while introducing even more exciting complications… and dialing up the romantic tension from Season 1! Must-read for fans of action thrillers and women. — Masha Zhdanova
Superfish
Writer/Artist: Peglo
Editor: Eunice Baik
Platform: Webtoon
To the Stars and Back creator Peglo returns with Superfish, in which skeptic DJ accidentally magically bonds to a powerful witch’s core during a night out with friends—making him a magnet for dangerous, supernatural creatures of all stripes. Superfish reluctantly takes on the role of DJ’s protector while the two figure out how to break the attachment, which is easier said than done when they can barely get along.
I loved Peglo’s first series and was thrilled to see Superfish launch, especially when I learned the premise. This forced proximity fantasy comic plays into the absurd in the best way, without ignoring the real stakes of the situation at hand. The magic system is dynamic in both concept and visual effects, and the stylish flair of each panel is impossible not to love. The UST between DJ and Superfish is also utterly, utterly divine. Although this series is only a few episodes in, it’s already become a favorite. — Samantha Puc
Tiger Girls
Writer: Felicia Low-Jimenez
Artist: Claire Low
Platform: Difference Engine
“To be born a girl in the Year of the Tiger is a death sentence.” After women rebelled against such significant oppression that they weren’t even allowed to “sweat while in motion while in public” during a Year of the Tiger, so-called Tiger Girls became bad luck omens and were killed out of fear. On hidden islands, the ones who manage to escape train for impending attacks from the mainland, with some learning to fight and others—like Suling—keeping impeccable records and studying every inch of their history.
Suling longs to be on the front lines with her friend, Nadia. But when a stranger arrives at their hidden location, she realizes her skills are among the Tiger Girls’ most important tools for survival.
This Singaporean comic is short fast-paced and powerful. Felicia Low-Jimenez’s writing is clear without being overly expository, inviting readers to come to conclusions alongside the characters. This ratchets up the tension significantly, particularly in tandem with Claire Low’s detailed art. Character expressions are a major focal point, with small montage scenes visually representing moments of realization (and, often, dawning horror). Brilliant concept and execution. The print version was released earlier this year. — Samantha Puc
Time Will Devour His Children
Writer/Artist: Otava Heikkilä
Platform: itch.io
Two former sorcerers trained under their now rogue master years ago and went their separate ways. One conformed to society and the other didn’t. It seems like a typical set up for fantasy story, until you notice the punches that don’t get pulled. In a deeply gender segregated order, two transmasculine sorcerers find their mentor. Heikkila’s repeated themes of respectability and gender pop up again and again and Time Will Devour His Children delivers the same visceral gut punch that The Second Safest Mountain gave me the year prior. — E.B. Hutchins
trAPPed
Writers: Suparna Sharma and Natalie Obiko Pearson
Artist: Anand RK
Colors: Nisha Singh
Lettering: Aditya Bidikar
Translation: Zeeshan Hasan Akhtar
Publisher: Bloomberg
A horror comic about being scammed by someone claiming to be the government that utilizes the infinite scroll to its advantage. There are some truly horrifying images and startling reveals, with specific credit to Nisha Singh’s colors, her use of digital distortion, and how the blue of the screen infects our tragic heroine’s journey into despair. Which is saying quite a bit considering the artist and letterer in the comic.
At its heart, trAPPed is a story about how the Internet can isolate us from those we hold dear. A dystopian horror story that’s sadly all too real. And with a gut punch of a final line that’s sure to sit with you for quite some time. — Sean Dillon
Unnie, I Like You!
Writer/Artist: Jeongussi
Platform: Webtoon
This slice-of-life Girls Love manhwa with a twist follows wealthy graduate student Park Chanmi, who remembers every painful moment of her past life—particularly the loss of her true love, Hanbyeol. When she finds Hanbyeol in her new timeline, unfortunately, she doesn’t share Chanmi’s memories. To make things even more complicated, she’s a professor at Chanmi’s university… meaning any kind of relationship between them would be wildly inappropriate.
Unnie, I Love You! uses so many of my favorite tropes, but executes them in ways that feel fresh and interesting. Jeongussi’s art is gorgeous, particularly when it comes to color and composition. There’s plenty of humor to balance out the gutting backstories of the protagonists, and the world-building is lush and full without being over-the-top. It’s phenomenal. — Samantha Puc
Don’t miss all of our Best of 2025 lists:
Anime | Comics & Graphic Novels | Kids Comics | Manga & Manhwa | Movies | TV Series | Video Games | Webtoons & Webcomics
And in case you missed it, here are the 10 Best Webtoons of 2024.
