At New York Comic Con (NYCC), we had the honor of interviewing queer content creators Ro-taniah and ToniRenea about their Webtoon series. Their works explore themes that deeply resonate with millions of readers, particularly through their nuanced storytelling on mental health, identity, and self-discovery. Each series highlights challenges that many people face in their everyday lives, setting the stage for an insightful and meaningful conversation.
In this roundtable interview, we’ll be discussing themes of LGBTQ, Webtoon Creator life, and the passion behind their writing, among many other things! Portions of this interview has been lighted edited for clarity, as there will also be major spoilers ahead
Q: How do you both develop your characters, ensuring that the LGBTQ identities are well-rounded and not defined slowly by their sexuality or gender?
Ro-taniah: For me personally, I base a lot of the story and characters on myself, so each one of them has a little aspect of me in them, especially like Lucas and Maria in particular. I’m bisexual, they’re bisexual, so I just kind of take a little piece of my identity into them to just make them really authentic.
I also take other inspirations for, I have a very large group of queer friends. That’s pretty common for fellow queer folks. So that way, we’re not just basing it on stereotypes. We’re basing it on real-life people that are in our lives that kind of just bring those characters to life.
ToniRenea: I think for me, most of the main characters have been around so long in my life that they were characters before they even had sexualities and stuff. It kind of just came with them. It kind of naturally occurred. It wasn’t like from the beginning, I was like, “this character is trans, this character is gay”.
It’s more like, “oh, I suppose they fall into that category”. So, it’s kind of more of a natural thing for me. And of course, similar to what Ro said, some of them are based off of my own experiences and stuff. So, it does make it easier to kind of bring that into their story without it seeming kind of like a stereotype or just being boxed into a specific label.
Q: Since you’re both queer content creators, when you write queer characters, do you happen to have it be natural, just based on how the character is, or do you have a predetermined way that you want to have those characters be portrayed based on their identity?
Reporter: I know that sometimes when it comes from queer writers and queer creators, they usually have one of those stories where they just have it naturally happen as it goes along. And the character’s identity kind of gets shaped by the story and environment around them. Then there’s others, where they have a story that the characters already have a predetermined queer identity and they try to shape the narrative around that and try to work all that around the character.
Ro-taniah: I kind of have a combination of both. For Star Catcher, like Lucas, he already starts off where he’s bisexual with a male preference and everything like that. But with Thomas, he’s discovering that part of himself where he meets this guy and he’s like, “oh no, I don’t think I’m straight”. It was a very quick gay panic attempt.
Reporter: He starts questioning his identity. He’s like, “you guys are hot”.
Ro-taniah: Yeah! It’s just like you know you’re having that connection with someone where they’re just like, “these might be more than just normal friend feelings, right”? So that’s a lot of part of Thomas’ story especially in my upcoming season. We’re going to really dive into him.
He’s already accepted that part of himself. But going to where he’s coming to his parents where he’s unsure how they’re going to accept those emotions and those feelings and those you know, are they going to accept me? That sort of thing. So that’s kind of more of their journey. Some of the characters like ToniRenea, where I made the characters before I was like, “oh they’re going to be lesbian, oh they’re going to be bisexual”. I just made the characters and then it just felt right to make them have that particular sexuality, have that certain relationship with another character. So it just all flows together.
ToniRenea: Yeah, so I think for me I already really struggle with labels in general. I’ve never really been able to label myself because I’m always so confused, like, “do I fall into this or this”? It’s been like that with my characters too. So I think like, for example Osora, my main character, right now in this version of the story, his love interest is Aries. But in previous versions it shifted to Catalina and other characters.
I think for me, like even now, I do have such a hard time labeling them because I’m not good with them. I think that it’s more like readers read it and they say, “who identifies with that character and who can relate to that character”. If someone sees this character and is like, “oh this is a pansexual character”, I’m like, “yeah, sure, go with that”. That works. So for me it’s not like I have an idea, like I need to make a lesbian character, I need to make like a transmasc character. It’s more of, I suppose they fall into a category.
Ro-taniah: Yeah, a lot of people kind of went with the queer thing, but a lot of people clocked that Tommy was ADHD well before I even mentioned it or like, Lucas is autistic. They were like “this is enough, like I see myself in him so much” just because of how he acts without actually necessarily needing to put that label in the story where I’m like “yes, you’re autistic”. It’s just like, “no he’s just who he is and like those traits match up and if they see themselves into that character”, that’s what matters the most.
Reporter: So basically it’s clear from where you’re describing that you have your characters be developed, as the story goes on and by the events that go around rather than have everything be pre-determined.
ToniRenea: Yes, and also there’s so many versions. I think there’s so many different versions over the past 15 years of my characters that it’s like, it’s sort of just the lore builds itself and then it ends up where it’s at right now. It’s like these characters have been around so long, I’ve just never once created them with the intention of like, “I need to make a representation of this, this, and this”. Naturally I guess people find representation. I think that’s great and whatever labels people put on, I’m like, “yeah, I can see that”. I’m just personally really bad at deciding those labels ahead of time, so I let other people kind of do it and I’m like “that’s fitting, yeah, that works”.
Ro-taniah: Yeah, and one thing like, Lucas too, later in their story is that they’re going to come out as non-binary. Like on the non-binary spectrum: he, they, demi boy, that sort of thing. That was not my original intention at all, but the more that I wrote, it’s like that just felt the most natural where I’m like, “this feels good to put that as a character trait for them because that just feels right for them”. But that’s not something that I immediately put out there, it’s just something that we’re all going to discover together as we read through the story.
ToniRenea: They’re kind of just like real people.
Ro-taniah: Yeah, that’s really what it is, we never really know what’s going on and it’s just the whole point of a lot of our stories is kind of learn to accept yourself and be yourself and you’re just learning and growing as you go.
Q: What is it about the Webtoons format that appeals to you and how does it affect the way you write your story?
Ro-taniah: I like the scroll format just because I don’t really like drawing in traditional page format. It just confuses me so much and having something easy access on your phone because with the way that social media is, you’re always scrolling. So just having a comic you can just scroll through is super easy to digest.
At least for me, and you can get some really cool dynamic shots with scroll format. You can get really good surprises with cliffhangers that way, versus you just seeing it when you first open a comic book page. Some of the pages are so beautiful, but you can easily see where it’s going to end versus the comic format.
When I first started with WEBTOON, I got reeled in by all those ads for the Olympics, so for a while I’m like, “oh I really like this, I really like it, it’s really easy, I can actually read it”. I don’t have to like, you know, zoom in to make things bigger and the independent platform on Canvas or Webtoon just made it so easy to post there that it helped develop my skills. And then transitioning over to originals, it’s really helped me grow as an artist and author that way.
ToniRenea: I think for me, when I first posted Osora on Canvas before it was an original, it actually was the traditional comic format because I loved manga growing up and that’s just what I knew.
I was like, “no I don’t like scroll format”, but like now that I’ve switched over to it, when I became an original I switched to doing scroll. I realized you can put so much more detail into it because I don’t have to zoom in anymore and do these tiny little panels. I like that with the scroll format, you make the picture so much longer and you can do so much more with it. I feel like, versus the panels, you can always kind of see what’s happening in the next panel.
I’m one of those people that reads something, I’ll look down at the last one, I’m like “oh wait, I spoiled myself”. I think it’s a really intuitive way of reading, on your phone too because anyone who reads manga, you get to zoom in and go to the next page.
Ro-taniah: That’s exactly what I was having issues with!
ToniRenea: I’ve grown to really like it a lot better, when originally I wasn’t like that.
Ro-taniah: Your panels can just breathe so much you can really focus on that one panel versus having like 7 to 8 on one page, you can just enjoy each one at a time.
Q: Has there been any cliffhangers for any episodes that have been your favorite and you’re like, “oh I can’t wait for my readers to read this”.
Ro-taniah: We’re both really bad at cliffhangers and all of our comment sections are screaming at us constantly for them. But I feel like that’s kind of what you need to do as a comic creator. Just like you would in a traditional format, you want to have that page turner and you want to know where you can get to the next episode.
I think one of my favorite cliffhangers that I did was right before Lucas and Thomas’ first kiss. It was the second time I baited them into a kiss where I showed them from a wrong angle or the other angle where you can’t see their profiles, so that one was really good.
People were like “I’ve been fooled once, I don’t want to be fooled again”, but I do have some cliffhangers in season two that are coming up that are very mean and I am not sorry in advance. It’s gonna be messy, but it’s gonna be good. It’s just I’m expecting a lot of riot in my comics.
Q: How far out in advance are you planning out a story and how much do you change based on reader response?
Ro-taniah: I have so many episodes of Buffer. With season one, I wrote all of season one because I wasn’t sure if I was going to get renewed or not. But with season two since I am well established and I know I’m gonna get renewed, I’m slowly building season one. Right now, I’m gonna have like 20 plus episodes of Buffer.
I don’t really let the comments dictate how the story is going, but if they like how I represent something I’ll add a little bit more of it later, if they like how I handle it. They really love how I handle mental health and how I draw it. I’m gonna make sure I continue on, but when it comes to character interaction or certain plot points, it’s in my head and I appreciate the feedback, but this is my story.
ToniRenea: I think it’s similar for me, I mean the entire story has been written out in my head for close to 10 years now. I also don’t let the comments dictate the overall story. But for example, if it’s like the side characters and stuff, if people are like “oh I love this episode because I got to learn more about this”. I’m like “oh people actually care”.
Ro-taniah: SAME! Haha
ToniRenea: I always get the comments like “oh we want more of the girls or we want more of a certain artist” and it’s like “yes I’m glad that you like the character as much”. But I don’t really let it impact the actual story because it’s just I want to be true to myself and true to the plotline and stuff. So kinda like Ro said, “I will take the feedback and consider it in certain aspects” and for me by the way, I don’t have a very long buffer, mine is like an episode.
Ro-taniah: Two different people, hahaha.
Ro-taniah: I will say though. Star Catcher is actually like an alternate universe of my main series Star Children where Lucas and Thomas are just side characters. But my fans loved Lucas and Thomas so much, they wanted them to get together. They wanted to see more of them, but I’m like, “it doesn’t really follow the plot”. That’s when I made Star Catcher on Canvas. I was like, “fine you guys want more”? Doesn’t fit, let me just do a college setting and then a couple months later, I got my original offer and I’m like “of course they want the BL. They don’t want my fantasy sci-fi, they want the BL”, but it’s fine.
It’s taken me very far and I’m very happy with the opportunity, especially just to be able to develop those characters so much more authentically than what I probably would have had, if I had just written my original story.
Q: As you’ve written more and more, what do you know now that you wish you knew when you started?
Ro-taniah: Plan ahead! When I first ever started drawing comics, I was working two full-time jobs. I was also a fulltime art student just trying to put myself through it and then I was reading Webtoons in my very limited time. I’m like “I’m gonna make a comic”, but I didn’t know what I was doing at all, in terms of how to make a comic like the formatting, the texting, anything like that.
I wasn’t really sure what the story was going to be. now that I’m well more established, I feel like I’m at least a semi-professional at this time. I’m thinking of block points ahead and the character arcs like, this is where they are, this is where I want to be, and this is how we want to do it.
Before it was just kind of like I was, “I’m a very character driven writer, so I was just kind of letting it go with the flow”, which I still kind of do but it’s much more thoughtful now. So if I were to go back to my previous self, I’d be like “please just think about it a little bit more and just have a little bit more buffer. Like maybe draw a couple more episodes before you just, don’t post it as soon as you draw it. Like maybe just do some group reading please. Just kind of go from there
ToniRenea: I think for me like the biggest thing that held me back in general when I first started even in the beginning of originals too. I would get very focused on things where I would go back and read something from a year ago and be like “oh my god I hate how I drew his head. I hate how I drew him”. I would keep going back and this is every version of Osora.
I swear it took me so long to even post Osora to begin with, but like I would just always go back to redraw things and redo full chapters. Like not redo, but go over and fix a lot of things. It would just take so much time that I could have been working on the chapter and I realized, based on what the fans had told me that they don’t mind.
They like seeing the art progress and a change in it. So like really trying to let go of that perfectionism piece that was holding me back and I’ve gotten a lot better at it, but I think that’s something that I see a lot in other comic artists and those that are aspiring to be.
They’re like “oh it’s just not good enough, it’s not perfect”. I have to go back and add this because when you’re a comic artist, you progress really fast because you’re constantly drawing so many things. It’s like impossible to keep the exact same level of skill across. Like if you read any manga series, most of the time you’ll be able to see that at like the beginning and the end, there’s a pretty big difference in the art style.
Ro-taniah: Yeah, because as you draw, you will with drawing comics you’re drawing things that you traditionally wouldn’t think of because you’re putting these characters in situations. Your art’s gonna progress so just like ToniRenea said, “don’t be perfect, learning to not be perfect is okay, putting it out there and just learning from the experience is probably the most important thing”.
ToniRenea: Yeah, I agree.
Q: How would you say the transition from Canvas to original has changed your like art and how would you say like editorial feedback that you’re getting as an original creator helped you?
Ro-taniah: I will say that my editor, I absolutely love her, she is a really big fan and supporter of my work. So just having someone who’s so authentically genuinely excited about what I’m doing helped me out a lot with, like the imposter syndrome and stuff. But she gave me a lot of feedback of things that I never really thought of like, you know, doing more variations of like how my panels look: like the size of them and just kind of spicing up a little bit or just how rearranging certain panels will have a way different impact than what I originally wrote it as. So I’m a lot more thoughtful about that.
A lot of the initial feedback that she gave me at the very beginning of Star Catcher, I still apply it today and I feel like it’s just made me overall a really stronger artist. And now that when I’m working on my new series as well since this story’s gonna be a lot more plot heavy, which I’m not exactly used to, she’s really helped me lay those stepping stones that I need to make sure I’m getting that right across.
ToniRenea: I think for me, I already mentioned this, but for me, the switching from the comic format to scroll format was kind of a hard transition because I wasn’t used to it. So my editors really helped me to like, “make this panel bigger, make this panel a really important shot” because I was so used to making really small ones to make them fit in like one page. So it took me a bit to get used to that and I really did like the change and I’m glad they helped me with that.
They would suggest things like, “oh, why don’t you try switching to doing this, like a side profile, like a different angle that you wouldn’t think about”. It really does add to the story when you’re doing stuff like that. I also, they taught me about that rule, I forget what it’s like, the 180 rule I think, where you have to keep them on the same sides so you don’t confuse rules.
Ro-taniah: That was one thing where you always want to keep your character on like one side of the screen. Like if your character is walking on the left, you want to keep them and their panels on the left and like the other one on the right. It just makes it so much easier to be, to kind of convey that facial awareness for your readers that way they don’t get confused. I still catch myself while I draw it. I’m like, “no, no, no, I got to redraw this panel that way it makes more sense”.
ToniRenea: I used to do that all the time. It does help though because there are these people like, especially with the word bubble that’s kind of off screen you don’t see what they’re saying. They can be like “who’s talking right now”? So that really did help me kind of get better with the coherency.
Q: Do you have any advice for public libraries and schools looking to obtain LGBTQ Manga for their collections?
Ro-taniah: I’m not exactly sure. There’s a lot of different comics that have a lot of differences. I’m not really sure because when you become a creator, it becomes really hard to read other stories because you’re so absorbed into your own. I mean, usually looking at the descriptions of a series would be really great on the landing page, and be a really great way to find what a story is about.
For mine, it’s going to talk really heavily about mental health. It’s obviously an LGBTQ queer comic. But it’s also dealing with mental health, so those two topics are about a really sensitive group. That could be a really good topic about helping queer youth and then with Osora you’re talking a lot about gender identity and with the queer group as well.
So those could kind of merge together in a way. I would probably just, like reading through, kind of going to see the descriptions as best as possible. Maybe talking to some of the other editors on WEBTOON to kind of see which series that they do, kind of going from there to see what would fit the best category.
But I’m not exactly sure, if there’s a resource that kind of arises. The newest update on WEBTOON has a lot of new categories such as coming of age, BL, LGBTQ that sort of stuff, so that could be a good way to start. Just looking at the categories that they’ve updated and kind of going from there.
ToniRenea: Yeah.
Q: Speaking of books, are you guys interested in your comics being turned into another format like a book, movie or something?
Ro-taniah: Yes! That would be literally, like even just this experience right now at New York Comic Con! We just did a signing earlier today. It was like so out of this world experience with like how long our line was, we had so many fans so excited to meet us.
My goal ever since I was a little girl was to make comic books. So I would really love a printed version of my series. I would love to see like maybe an animation or even a live adaptation or on Netflix. Those were like blue sky thinking, but like you know, starting small with merchandise right now.
I just did like a huge plushie launch that was super fun, so it’s just surreal seeing your characters in different formats. Both our series did the video episodes where it’s the short format videos. They take our episode files and animate them with voice acting and background noise. It’s been really fun seeing that even though I kind of cringed a little bit in my own work. But seeing the fan reaction has been really fantastic. It’s kind of in between cartoon and comic and kind of see like what it could almost be like.
Osora and Star Catcher shorts
Q: Has there been any characters in your Webtoons that you’ve been kind of amazed to have seen evolve from their first inception to where they are now in the story?
Ro-taniah: Oh yeah for sure cause like for example, when I made Lucas, he was a wizard OC (Original Character) that I made for a role play with my friend in high school. Like I made him, to ship with my friend’s OC (Original Character).
Reporter: Those are always the best OCs (Original Characters)!
Ro-taniah: Yeah for sure! My character Txeru, like in my main series (Star Children) he is like the space alien, which turned out to be like this cool god of void and stuff like that. But in Star Catcher, he’s just vibing. He’s full on like, the black hat boyfriend just being chill. It’s really interesting to put your characters through like different situations, but also just kind of seeing how they’re growing. My characters grew up a lot. (Haha)
ToniRenah: Yeah me too! I think there’s some things that I intended for it to be like. For example, in the beginning of the story, all of my characters are very flawed. I like to show those flaws and kind of like to build on them and show their progression throughout the story.
I think it’s a lot of fun to like, kind of watch that happen and I know a lot of people like to see. Like a lot of my comments are like, “it’s cool to see a character that’s so flawed, but also has some of your unique qualities”. It makes you feel like a real person. You know what I’m saying? Because all of us are, we all have our flaws and stuff, so I think it’s a lot of fun. Not only in the story but in real life. To see how much the characters have changed since I first made them, it makes it feel like I said, “they’re like real people in our heads”.
Ro-taniah: They’re babies. They’re like legitimately our little, like I call them my sons and my babies. Haha. Yeah especially when you put so much of yourself into them and you kind of just see them growing as you develop them. It’s just a nice little heartwarming thing.
ToniRenea: I like to have, like each of my main characters have one aspect (at least) that’s based off of needs. Like one of them has issues like their sex or gender and then one issue has like with their body. Just more things and stuff and then one will have issues like you know, their self worth with men, being a woman in that society and stuff. So I always base it off of like experience. Even if it’s just a little bit based off of it, I take that to kind of help build their growth as a character because it makes it feel more authentic.
Q: Any advice for aspiring creators?
Ro-taniah: Yeah! Something similar we were talking about earlier is like, you want to shine perfectionism, but don’t. You just kind of do it. Come out with a plan and stuff. But I think the main thing is, this should be fun for you. Like if you want to pursue this as a profession that is fantastic, but definitely there needs to be a passion behind it.
For Star Catcher, even if I wasn’t making an income out of it, I would still be writing comics. I was working a full time corporate job while working on three canvas series before I got the offer for Star Catcher, where I was like, “maybe I can make this a full time job”. I just love the game, I have so many stories in my head and I want to put them out there because I just love drawing anytime. Even when I’m not drawing my comic, I’m still drawing my comic in some other way, so just be passionate about it. You’re going to learn, you’re going to grow and just have fun with it.
ToniRenea: Yeah, I think the same thing. I think like I said earlier, just embrace the imperfections but also just like Ro-taniah said, “it has to be something you’re passionate about”. I don’t think this is a career path you can go down if you’re not passionate. I’ve had some friends who see that I’m making money and they’re like “oh my god, do you think I could do that? What would be a really popular comic”? I’m like, “well listen the amount of work you got to put into this, you can’t do it if you’re not super obsessed”.
Ro-taniah: It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of long nights. It’s a lot like 80 hour work weeks. Some days, if you’re meeting deadlines.
ToniRenea: It looks like so much fun. It’s like oh my god, you love doing that. It’s so easy just making money, but yes it is easy in a way because it’s like I love to do it. But it’s also so much work that you have to love it. If you don’t love it, it’s like you’re going to be miserable.
Ro-taniah: Yeah for sure. Some people will work themselves to death over comics. It’s definitely not for the weak, but if you’re passionate about it, go for it.
Conclusion
What were some of your favorite moments from the webtoons? If you haven’t already, follow their WEBTOON accounts ToniRenea and Ro-taniah for the latest updates. We would like to thank WEBTOON for arranging this exhilarating interview with Ro-taniah and ToniRenea!
Star Catcher returned with a second season on November 21, while Osora updates every Wednesday at 8:00 PM Central Standard Time (CST).
Images: Star Catcher, Osora
© Ro-taniah, ToniRenea
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