In Magic From The Margins, Latonya “Penn” Pennington explores sci-fi fantasy webtoons and Tapas comics by marginalized creators. For the twentieth entry, they’re checking out Daybreak.
Daybreak
Creator: Moosopp
Writer: Moosopp
Artist: Moosopp
Editors: Bre Boswell and Nico H
Genre: Slice-of-Life
Platform: WEBTOON
Rating: Teen
When I first saw Daybreak, I saw it in a collected graphic novel form at an indie bookstore. The cover with two Black gay boys and its anime influenced art caught my eye, but I couldn’t bring myself to buy it. I decided to read it on the WEBTOON app first, but I forgot the name for a while until recently.
Daybreak tells the story of two different Black gay people, nonbinary student Cog and the gregarious Marcus. Marcus has a crush on Cog, but the latter remains oblivious. As a result, Marcus starts to show his appreciation for Cog in subtle and not-so-subtle ways like cooking him lunch and flirting a little. As Cog and Marcus grow closer, Cog finds himself becoming flustered around Marcus without knowing why.
As mentioned earlier, the art style has a very obvious shoujo manga influence that reminds me a lot of Sharean Morishita‘s webcomic Love Love Fighting! (which also features a Black protagonist). Whereas Morishita’s art was done in black-and-white, Moosopp’s use of color makes the characters’ personalities pop. This can especially be seen in moments when the characters are drawn in chibi form or when their eyes get unnaturally big with excitement.
Moreover, the characters themselves are really interesting. Marcus is pretty exuberant and friendly, to the point where he encourages Cog to pursue his dream of acting. While Cog is more reserved personality wise, this makes his moments of joy, fluster and assertiveness with Marcus worthwhile. A particularly noteworthy moment is when Cog stands up to his friends for Marcus when they try and pressure Marcus to joining the drama club.
In addition to the main characters, there are also secondary characters who caught my eye. In particular, both Marcus’ and Cog’ families are delightful. Marcus’ has a younger brother who loves his cooking, while Cog has a loving Nana and Dad who is also nosy about his love life. I also loved how well all the Black characters were drawn with different hair textures and skin types; one cute secondary female character had vitiligo.
All in all, Daybreak is a sweet and funny slow gay romance that will appeal to shoujo manga fans. In addition to reading it on WEBTOON, it is also available in graphic novel format anywhere comic books are sold.
Daybreak is currently available to read on WEBTOON and in graphic novel form from WEBTOON Unscrolled.
Keep up with every entry in K-Comics Beat’s Magic From The Margins column by clicking here.
