By Justin Guerrero and Masha Zhdanova
WEBTOON has once again made its presence unavoidable during New York Comic Con 2026. In addition to having a significant emphasis on Fog Land, they also brought several notable WEBTOON Original creators and artists for the various programming and fan meetup events.
Two of these creators are SubZero creator and artist Junepurrr, as well as Lost in Translation and Cuffing Cupid‘s creator Jjolee. K-Comics Beat was thrilled to have the opportunity to partake in a roundtable interview with the two creators alongside several other reporters.
From the creation process behind these stories, horses and dragons, to old fandoms and popular ships, the two took their time to discuss various topics tied to their creative journey, offering a interview worthy for everyone from fans of their series to those curious about the creation process behind these WEBTOON Originals.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
CRYSTAL BELL: With SubZero ending, you’ve spent years with these characters. How does it feel to reach such a conclusion to a big part of your life?
JUNEPURR: Basically I have been working on this series for technically ten years even though when I first started in 2016, I always told my life story to everyone that I was working in accounting and had an internship, and I began to work on this while also doing my day job. When WEBTOON featured it, I was basically like, “I can quit my job now!” but I couldn’t yet.
I did try to do both at the same time but eventually I was like, this is my calling, this is what I wanted to do. I quit and I’ve just been doing this ever since. I was so grateful to see how everything panned out. I can’t go back to public accounting.
I think overall I definitely think it is a story that has changed my life. These characters, they’re like my hallucinations, right? But they basically speak to me. I always think of myself as a medium telling their story.
But eventually I got to a point where I think the characters have no longer anything else to tell me. Their story is literally over. I think it’s time to just let them live their lives and stop torturing them with everything that I throw at them.
Yes, I definitely think wrapping up the last episode, I obviously cried, as you do. But I am also relieved as I’ve been going at this pace for over a decade at this point and that I have other stories that I want to tell.
But I’ve also put off a lot of things in my personal life, and now that it’s done, there is this huge weight lifted off my back, and I feel like I’ve also climbed Mount Everest.
JEB: What inspired your comic strip initially?
JUNEPURRR: So when I was doing the accounting internship, I was watching a lot of Asian dramas. I really liked Empress of China, so I wanted to make a story with this as an inspiration, and I really liked drawing animals. I started off drawing horses, dragons, and so I wanted to work on something that would be challenging, you know, high fantasy, fancy garments and stuff like that.
With these dramas, a lot of the royalty is represented by dragons, so… what if they are just dragons? So that is what inspired me. There is also dragon designs that are inspired by the Spirited Away dragons, and I was also a huge Zutara shipper growing up so I was like, what if I put a little bit of Zutara in there? So that’s how it kind of came to be.
MASHA ZHDANOVA: Has there been any moments or ideas from the inception of SubZero‘s development that you feel confident you have finally been able to bring to life in the story? Are there any moments or ideas you had to leave on the cutting room floor?
JUNEPURRR: I think with the way the weekly deadlines are, there were definitely ideas that I said, “That would be really cool,” that I could do, but the problem is, I only have a week to do it. I’m going to kill my assistants in the process and then myself if I do it in a week.
So oftentimes I tend to like scrap certain ideas that are very cool. For example at point I had a big bad guy in the story. Spoiler: he’s like a cross of the two dragons, right? The original design was that he was a chimera, he’s half blue, half red, and his scales are really cool.
But that’s not feasible for me to do within a week, so I just made him purple and it works for me! I think it ended up being pretty cool, but it’s examples like that where I think the limitations of what I can do in a week tend to limit me.
But there are times where also specifically when there’s episodes that involve music, I try to coordinate all of these things between the music person, my assistants, and stuff, and to me it’s amazing when it’s able to wrap up within a week because I send everyone my garbage sketches, and somehow they’re able to just, you know, put it together based on what I said. So the final results ends up being everyone’s best work, and when you see it in the full strip with the music, with everything. I’m asking, “How did we do this?”
But yeah, I think that’s what I can say has been the most rewarding part of it.
ANNA: To the both of you, was it hard to transition to the vertical scroll format, or was it something that you both were used to? How was that transition like?
JJOLEE: I read webtoons long before I started one. One of the earlier ones that I’ve read is Lookism, I kind of just drew inspiration from that. I think I like the long scroll format a lot better because it’s like you can work like, with the pacing of how they put panels and structure.
So I would like to say that I prefer it. It is really fun to also experiment with how panels are set up to.
JUNEPURRR: So originally when I started I was trying to copy the mangakas, right? So I was trying to make manga pages and I realized very quickly with manga, asides from learning how to draw, I have to learn how to panel, which I think is a separate art form in its own way and I think that’s why I started 5 or 6 other comic projects before this that was in that format. I realized I just can’t do it because I get 5 pages in and it’s just too much to learn at one point.
So I think the WEBTOON format is actually quite easy and since it’s a long scroll everything can be like a rectangle, right? My editors have talked about this too; it’s easier to create because you’re turning your brain off in terms of the paneling and you just focus on the subject.
I do think the WEBTOON format is really cool because some people struggle with it, but I think if you view it as not as a page but as a camera pan. That way you can do some really cool panels with the scroll where you can see the camera moving down, and you can add music, and you can add gifs and stuff.
So that’s why I feel like the WEBTOON format is more freeing for me. I actually prefer it. Whenever we have to format for books and stuff like that, I actually struggle a lot with that. It’s like too much that I’m trying to fit into the page and again; I feel like paneling is a separate art form in of itself which I don’t know anything about.
BELL: So I want to tall about fandom. You’ve mentioned Zutara a little bit. seems like a formative fandom, all of your stories have creative quite intense fandoms, so what were your most formative fandoms that laid the foundations for your careers?
JJOLEE: So when i first made Lost in Translation, I was in the K-pop fandom and I was also a big fan of Day6. I think that helped with Lost in Translation‘s world-building, as I was trying to format or replicate like how K-pop fans and groups were marketing themselves. So I was like I’ll make it the same way how Mayhem in Lost in Translation market themselves.
It was really cool, I think that being a fan myself really–I wouldn’t say it helped but like, I really appreciate that being a Day6 fan, like of course how Jay was able to voice one of my characters and I was really grateful for that! And everyone that helped build their voices and contributed to their stories as well. That was the first fandom that I was in and after Cuffing Cupid I’ve gotten into more gaming. I’m more of a League fan now which I don’t know if it translates well into Cuffing Cupid but I think it did influence my new art style.
JUNEPURRR: I think it’s funny because I was also a huge K-pop fan I would stan EXO. I started drawing again with K-pop. I was fan arting the boys, that was something I would be doing for years that there were also artists I would be looking up to who were also fan arting them.
But I think eventually I realized that everything that I was doing, I was giving it to the fandom. I was never really building anything for myself, and also EXO broke up. It was complicated, their leader left, things happened and so that’s when I was finally like, “maybe I should go back to my roots as a Zutara fan.”
I used to read fan fiction and stuff like that, I would used to go on DeviantArt and I would see like all the ship art and stuff. But I also loved comics so I wanted to make something for myself.
So I tried to use that as my jumping board and I wanted to make something very simple, enemies to lovers but dragons. That was the whole premise and I would end it at episode 50, which obviously didn’t end up happening.
I think that’s my experience with fandoms for the most part. But I do think that fan culture can be really powerful.
JEB: So what has been your overall experience with WEBTOON and what do you hope people can take away from reading on there?
JUNEPURRR: Once again, WEBTOON has changed my life. I don’t think there is anything else that I would rather be doing even though people would tell me, “there’s no way that I could work that hard.”
I think obviously it can be quite taxing both physically and mentally and a quite laborious job, and I’ve had people tell me that they would never sacrifice sleep or anything. But for me, I am one of those people who would be like, “I need art to like breathe,” right?
For me it doesn’t matter, it’s always worth it and I don’t know what else I would be doing if it wasn’t for this.
JJOLEE: Before all of this, I was a pharmacy technician so I wasn’t really drawing much. Lost in Translation was what got me back into doing art and stuff like that.
It was once supposed to be 20 episodes but then I saw creators actually winging it, and so I was like, “uh, maybe I don’t want to end up like this.” Because I wasn’t really good at doing it, so it was also okay for me to vent a little bit.
With doing WEBTOON it was a really big part of my life now, I created Lost in Translation and now Cuffing Cupid, but I still see readers come up to me like, “I used to read that.” and part of me was growing up with them too like I was connected with them.
ZHDANOVA: Having created two series and also working on Onimusha: Way of the Sword, how do you mentally prepare yourself to prevent burnout and handle the workload from working multiple series? Were there any which were easier to work on?
JJOLEE: Oh my Gosh! It was not easy! But I guess it was just like, I just got to do it type of thing.
I think WEBTOON trained me to have to be able to persevere type of thing. I did Lost in Translation back in 2016-2017 and then I wanted to do another series.
With Onimusha, I’ve always liked Resident Evil and Capcom stuff so I had to do that. Who is going to turn down that? Then I saw the characters and I thought I can actually do this.
It was a really amazing experience to work on them, but it was really difficult because I have never done action things, like Cuffing Cupid is romance and Lost in Translation is just drama. It was actually fun to experiment with paneling in that.
ANNA: With having Onimusha and also Cuffing Cupid and Lost in Translation, is it hard to go back and forth between the action, romance and drama stories?
JJOLEE: I definitely had to dig into my brain with how would I format something that I really have never done before. But I do a lot of League of Legends illustrations and stuff like that, I think that kind of helped me when going into Onimusha just a little bit because League is a very action heavy game.
It wasn’t too difficult but it was one of things where I had to really figure out how can I show this in a way where it makes sense and also creatively as well. I don’t know if that ever came through but it seemed like it was fine. Whenever I showed the episode it seemed like they liked it so I’m just going to take that.
JUNEPURRR: I only have experience drawing one series, when I did pick it up I tried to have action in romance. Sometimes I do think that I prefer romance, I don’t like drawing the gushy dialogue for some reason even though it’s a romance story.
I think that referencing other media is always good. I always read other webtoons to see how they do action. I don’t have that much experience.
BELL: I read a lot about the internet, and I know things on it move very fast and our attention spans are just hanging on by a thread. What’s the key to building a story and over ten years that people are coming back to week-after-week and holding their attention?
JUNEPURRR: When we started it was a different time, but slower. I do remember when Vine was thing, it was like before Tik Tok. I now feel like everything is reels, reels, reels. Before that people were able to take their time a little bit.
I do feel like overall being able to make an engaging first few chapters is really… I would always say the first few chapters are the most important. Sometimes editors would press you really hard to make the first few chapters really good, because you have to grab people’s attention and obviously, I think cliffhangers help. I think cliffhangers are a part of what makes webtoons, webtoons. They are these episodic story-lines and I do think there is a little bit of addiction that comes with a drip-fed story.
But you know what’s interesting when I think about it is do you know the Three Musketeers? Originally when it started, it was a newspaper chapter-by-chapter, they would release a chapter in the newspaper. It wasn’t like a book that came out at once, it was a serialized thing that they would just print in newspapers back when they had the printing press. People were obsessed with it. Alexander Dumas, that’s the author, he was just writing it chapter by chapter.
I feel like in a way, it is the same as WEBTOON. I feel like it’s always something that people have been reading. It’s like you’re watching an episode of TV a week, you’re getting an episode from the creator a week.
I do feel like that format is just very addicting to people, and people want to know what happens next. I do feel like we also live in a binge culture where Netflix did the whole binge everything at once, I do love binging things too but you feel like people are able to engage with the stories far more when they’re given time to breathe. Let people ponder and talk about the episode, I think that is what builds a fandom.
JJOLEE: With my approach of it is I want to make the story that I want to read. That was more important to me than retaining an audience. It just happened that Lost in Translation was able to do that for me.
I don’t know about Cuffing Cupid, but I am just trying my best. I’m actually just approaching it as what kind of story do I want to see in the end for sure.
ZHDANOVA: Since SubZero is wrapping up, is there any other stories you have in mind? Or do you want to take a break first?
JUNEPURRR: I actually am starting up on something. I think as creators I always “cheat” on my stories with another story. I feel like the husband, you know? Cheating on my wife.
I do have two stories that I’ve started and I do show people little previews of it. One is still a romance comic with a chess theme to it. The other comic that I really want to do, and I think it is a very niche subject, is what I like to call my Horse Shonen, where I really like horses.
I really like Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, I really want to do a horse story with a talking horse as a main character, and I want it to be action, I want it to be my way–done my way. I’ve had people suggest to do it like Umamusume, where it’s like horse girls, but i’m like, “You don’t get it. That’s not the vision.” They are actually horses.
That’s something that I definitely do want to experiment with as I feel like you don’t see that very often. But recently I think there has been a rooster anime. If they can make a manga about chickens, why can’t they make a manga or a manwha about horses? That’s kind of where I’m at.
ANNA: What’s it like to see the growth of fan art or cosplays from your own creations?
JJOLEE: I tend to almost cry in front of my fans. But that is one of the main reasons why I do conventions, is to meet people. It’s really nice to have them come by and be like, “I didn’t know you were here.” I’ve even gotten gifts and stuff like that from them it really makes me cry thinking about it.
I think that’s one of the main reasons why I keep continuing to do conventions even though I have a busy schedule, cause I get to touch base and see my readers. It’s different when you’re reading a comment, then seeing them in person, and them telling you how much you meant to them. I might have to stop here ’cause I don’t want to be crying.
JUNEPURRR: I’m always surprised because whenever I see people cosplaying and stuff like that, because again, these are drawings that I have made, I kind of make them up. I say, “This is impossible clothing, no one would ever wear this as it looks good on paper.” And then suddenly I would see pictures of people on Instagram, I think there are two cosplayers that I’ve seen who are abroad. They don’t even come to America, right? But they always make these crazy SubZero cosplays, and I’m like, “What are you guys doing over there? How are you guys doing this stuff? Making this stuff?”
I’ve never met them in person, sadly, but I did have someone who was like, “I know them. They came to buy a bunch of stuff from me.” I think it was really cool to know how these people seek me out. I’m always amazed by the amount of craftsmanship and the effort that they’ve been able to put into these costumes and stuff like that. Because again, this is really complicated stuff which is easy for me to do… Easy-ish, but I’m just drawing it, right?
I’ve also seen things such as my characters having these faded dragon tattoos, and I’ve had people ask me all of the time, “Can I get references of the tattoos.” I never send them anything because I’m not a tattoo artist. So I’m always worried since it’s this massive tattoo which I’m not responsible for.
I don’t know what they’re going to put on their body, so I’m worried that I’ll be giving them something that’s not really tattoo-able because again, these are 2D characters and it looks good on a drawing but I don’t know if it will look on a human body.
But I do see people with tattoos that are inspired by my story, and I still get messages from all the time of people asking me for tattoo references. It’s really nice, but it does stress me out because I don’t want to be responsible for–I don’t think they realize that I’m not a tattoo artist and that I don’t know what it’s going to look like on the body.
It does vary with how the weight of the line is very important. I just don’t want it to look bad. I just don’t want someone to plaster another drawing onto their body, right?
ZHDANOVA: This is a cliche, but it’s my favorite. Do you have any advice for people who want to make their webtoons? What is something that you’d go back in time to tell your past self before starting a webtoon?
JJOLEE: Honestly the hardest step is the first step. I know we’ve all been there where we think we aren’t good enough to start a series. But I think if you keep that mindset, you’re going to keep moving the goalpost of when is the right time to do it. When am I good enough? So I think right now is the best time to do it if you want to do it. But that’s the hardest step. Once you make that first step, the rest of the steps just go by.
JUNEPURRR: I think that’s really good advice though I also moved the goalpost a lot. I had 10 failed comic series before this and I think my other, just do it sounds really cliche but Nike said it, so just do it. Just start, right? It doesn’t matter. It’s going to be bad in the beginning, I want people to know it’s not supposed to be easy. If it’s easy, then everyone would be doing it. I think what I want people to know is you have to know a lot about a lot of different things, like a jack-of-all trades kind of person. You have to know architectural software to do backgrounds, you have to know how to do art software, how to do storyboards, but you don’t have to excel at all of it. Just putting them all together.
My other piece of advice would be to just have an ending in mind. Because, again, I have all of these great ideas, right? But I don’t have an ending or a moral in mind, and then I end up getting stuck in the middle. So I would say even if you have a moral to take away from your story, like, love conquers all, right? I think it helps guide you as a writer in where to take your story.
Stay tuned to K-Comics Beat for more news from NYCC ’26!
