When Webtoons Step Out of the Screen: A Visit to K-Comics Origin Los Angeles

The Korean Culture Center Los Angeles, in partnership with the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), is hosting the 2026 K-Comics Origin Los Angeles – Korean Webtoon Experience Exhibition from September 11 through October 17. The exhibition explores the 100-year history of Korean comics, the evolution of webtoons as a distinct format, and their growing role as a source of IP for Korean content.

The exhibition focuses on three internationally popular Korean webtoons: All of Us Are Dead, Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, and Solo Leveling. Visitors can encounter characters and scenes from the works in person and explore their worlds through interactive kiosks. The exhibition also showcases examples of webtoon IP being adapted into dramas, animation, and games, offering a look at how a single story can expand across different media and genres.

Webtoons are rarely presented as a formal exhibition rather than a pop-up event. With three of the most widely recognized Korean webtoon properties featured, including works adapted into multiple forms of media, I visited the exhibition with fairly high expectations.

Visitors first encounter a staircase leading to the second-floor exhibition space, with the Korean titles of the featured works already visible along the way. At the top is a brief introduction to the history of Korean comics, fitting the exhibition’s K-Comics Origin title, followed by displays dedicated to the three featured works.

As an experience-focused exhibition, the displays are broadly divided into two sections. One recreates locations and scenes from the webtoons as photo spots and interactive spaces, while the other takes an archival approach to showing how the original webtoons have expanded into other forms of media.

Examples include the classroom blackboard from All of Us Are Dead, the Oksu Station setting from Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, and life-size character displays from Solo Leveling.

There are also several interactive exhibits. Visitors can play a Solo Leveling game and speak Korean lines into a microphone to trigger corresponding video clips. One of the most memorable displays for me was a machine that allowed visitors to draw Solo Leveling character photo cards. As a fan of Sung Jinwoo, I tried several times until I got the character I wanted.

Although the exhibition space isn’t particularly large, it makes good use of what it has. The emphasis on participation rather than simply viewing the displays makes the experience more engaging. Given that admission is free, the exhibition also offers a lot for visitors to experience.

I saw visitors taking photos at the Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint photo spot, and they appeared to be enjoying themselves. In that sense, the exhibition succeeds in both introducing the global reach of Korean webtoons and giving fans a chance to interact with the properties they already love.

There are, however, a few areas where I wanted more.

Given the title K-Comics Origin, I would have liked to see a broader selection of webtoons alongside the three major properties. As a longtime webtoon reader and one of the few journalists in North America who regularly cover the Korean webtoon industry, I was also hoping to see more displays focused specifically on what makes webtoons unique as a medium.

Instead, much of the exhibition explains webtoons’ influence through their adaptations into animation, games, and live-action series. These properties have been successfully adapted across multiple forms of media for a reason: the strength of the original webtoons themselves.

Still, the exhibition could have been even stronger with displays exploring the production process of webtoons or other elements that highlight the medium’s appeal.

The Korean Culture Center Los Angeles and KOCCA’s 2026 K-Comics Origin Los Angeles – Korean Webtoon Experience Exhibition runs from September 11 through October 17 at the Korean Culture Center’s second-floor Art Gallery.
Admission is free. The exhibition is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays and from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays.