DC Comics has launched DC GO, a new collection of vertical-scroll webtoons on its digital subscription service, DC Universe Infinite (DCUI). The line includes new webtoons featuring DC characters and existing comics reformatted for continuous-scroll reading. The initial lineup includes four titles: the original series Harley Quinn in Paradise, Nothing Butt Nightwing, and Renaissance of Raven and the reformatted classic Batman: Hush.
This is DC’s second foray into the world of vertical-scroll comics, which are designed for reading on small screens. In 2021, the company inked a deal with the Webtoon platform that has resulted in four series so far: Batman: Wayne Family Adventures, Vixen: NYC, Zatanna and the Ripper, and Red Hood: Outlaws. All four series featured DC characters in stories geared for new readers, and all are being published as print collections as well as digitally.
The webtoon initiatives are part of a wider DC pitch for new readers that includes DC Compact Comics, affordable paperback editions of popular standalone story arcs, and DC Finest, larger trade collections that focus on particular characters and genres. “We try to fish where the fish are,” Katie Kubert, global publishing innovation group editor at DC, told PW, “meaning we create products for fans that don't know they're fans yet, or fans that don't read comic books yet.”
The DC titles on the Webtoon platform were conceived, and their creators selected, by Webtoon. And while the partnership with Webtoon continues, DC GO shifts the creation of the comics to DC.
“We would review them, but Webtoon was behind the steering wheel,” Kubert said. “DC Go is DC behind the steering wheel. It's us taking the vertical scroll and applying it to our comics for our readers in both new content and reformatted content.”
That said, the comics share some DNA. All three of the creative teams for DC GO’s launch titles include creators who worked on the Webtoon titles, and the print editions of the DC GO comics will have the same format as the collected editions of the Webtoon comics. Another similarity: Like the comics on Webtoon, DC GO comics stand on their own.
“The comics are not in continuity, so you don't have to be reading our main line,” Kubert said. “But they keep the core of who the characters are.”
Webtoon readers, Kubert said, are chiefly women in their 20s and 30s, and they tend to be fans of such genres as mystery, fantasy, and comedy—and especially romance. “Romance is huge,” Kubert added. “We want to dial in big on romance in ways that you don't see a whole lot in our core titles. Romance is a part of all of our stories, but we wanted to highlight it in ways that maybe you don't see as much in the core line.”
In terms of the older comics being reformatted for DC GO, Kubert said that the comics publisher is “trying to find things that would read well for new readers or lapsed readers, or readers who have never read a vertical comic before but like DC Comics.” Hush, by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, is a standalone Batman story with a large cast of characters, including Tim Drake and Poison Ivy. “It’s a really great introduction for our characters,” Kubert said.
At launch, DC GO is currently only available via DCUI, but Kubert hopes to expand to other platforms. And just as the Webtoon comics introduced many vertical-scroll readers to DC comics, she anticipates that the DC GO comics will introduce some DCUI readers to the joys of vertical scrolling: “We're hoping that if you're a long time DCUI reader, you've never read a vertical comic before, and you see these, maybe you’ll wind up really enjoying them.”
