The first thing that comes to your mind in summer is indeed the sea. But the sea also has an image of fear. Deep seas, whose depths cannot be determined by one's eyes, have a creepy impression as they go deeper. Perhaps because of that, there are many novels that adopt the sea as a reflection of fear. Even with it's double face, the sea is too familiar to us. There are many webtoons about the sea, but I have picked three of them.

 

1. DEEP/ Tae- Heon Kim, TOWOO/ LINE Webtoon  

 

What would it be like if the dead come back to life? Though their death was never doubted, the dead people resurrect in the appearance of themselves when they were living, without decaying, or corrupting. But a secret plot is hidden behind their resurrection. The Webtoon DEEP, which explains why the dead should have come back to life, reveals the greater context of marine pollution along with the stories of individual characters.

 

The story that gives creeps even if ghosts don't come out, is well organized in it's segments, like a film. In fact, the realistic drawing style makes the story even more immersive and further raises the quality of the webtoon itself.

 

2. When You Reach 3000m Down The Water/ Man-Ho Kim/ DAUM Webtoon

 

If you ask what's under the sea, those who are captivated in fairy tales would answer that mermaids are living there. There is a webtoon that tells about mermaids dwelling in the sea just as the Disney's fairy tale has portrayed. It was the past, the story of a man who lost his brother.

 

The story unfolded by a lifetime fisherman is calm, yet, retains full of anger and has magnificent expressions just like a piece of fiction. The story that is unraveled by building on the revenge regarding a testimony that nobody would listen to, remind us of the unexplored fears of the sea as well as arousing the curiosity about the sea itself.

 

3. The Girl Walking The Waves/ A-ra Ko, Na-Woo Han/ DAUM Webtoon

 

The sea is not only the entity that has to be feared for. There is also an image of healing in the sea. After her dreamlike marriage, she soon gets divorced. Then, she finds herself at an unfamiliar beach and the people who she meets there are smiling as if their respective life is so happy.

 

She thinks of herself as an adult. But maybe she is still immature. Within the story that flows peacefully, not in so much flashy manner, the webtoon's colors, drawing style and narrative make us imagine about romantic images of the sea. At the same time, we are healed by the sea just like the protagonist in her emotional story.