WEBTOON has partnered with Atlantic Records musicians Hayley Kiyoko, Ava Max, and MAY-A to produce a new webcomic miniseries – Love Stories. The comic is an upcoming anthology, featuring three episodes inspired by the pop stars. The series comes just in time to celebrate Pride month, and has a focus on the LGBTQ+ community.
The songs inspiring the episodes and the creative teams of each have been revealed. Hayley Kiyoko’s song forever featuring Johnny Rain inspired an episode created by Color_LES and Galatea. Ava Max’s episode was inspired by Sleepwalker and created by Hannah Patten. MAY-A’s episode takes inspiration from her upcoming single, Something Familiar and was created by Mai Hirschfeld.
WEBTOON’s Love Stories Focuses on Love Through Music
Webcomic readers may recognize the creative teams behind the upcoming series, as many have had some hits on the platform. Color_LES created Mage & Demon Queen, a three-season comedy as of December 2022, which had several million subscribers and over 300 million views. Hannah Patten created the fantasy series Forever After which is still ongoing with ninety-four episodes at present. Mai Hirschfeld is likely known most for the romantic drama series The Four of Them which concluded in November 2022 after four seasons. It was previously a Canvas series.
Hayley Kiyoko, Ava Max & MAY-A Share Their Thoughts on New Series
Hayley Kiyoko says:
Pride month is all about celebrating and learning to love yourself. A big part of why I’m excited to collaborate with WEBTOON is the opportunity to hopefully inspire people around the world to love themselves in a new way, bringing hope to people who are at different points in their Pride journey.
MAY-A adds:
I have such a soft spot for telling and sharing queer stories, so being able to see my own inspire a webcomic on WEBTOON is so sick. I hope it helps others within the LGBTQ+ community feel seen.
Ava Max, known for her hit song Sweet But Psycho says:
It’s incredibly meaningful when fans reach out and say that they can relate to my music. Pride is a time for everyone to come together, to relate to each other and find community in the shared experience of love. With our WEBTOON Pride Month collaboration, I’m excited to celebrate Pride, the LGBTQ+ community, and the beauty of queer love.
WEBTOON’s VP of Content, David Lee, expressed further excitement about the collaboration:
Providing a platform for creators to tell authentic, personal stories has been at the heart of WEBTOON’s mission since day one. WEBTOON is home to amazing stories and voices from the across LGBTQ+ community, where artists are bringing new diversity and perspective to comics with their work. We’re incredibly proud to have our creators collaborate with these iconic recording artists to celebrate and elevate the LGBTQ+ community in a new medium during Pride Month.
WEBTOON has had numerous partnerships over the last few years, resulting in some incredible collaborations. These have included Archie Comics, Marvel, DC, Assassin’s Creed, PUBG, and Valorant. This also isn’t the first time the company is partnering with a music group, as the publisher previously partnered with HYBE to produce webcomics inspired in collaboration with K-Pop groups BTS, TXT, and ENHYPEN. Now, a new group of popstars will bring webcomic fans three Pride-centric episodes this month.
Each of the comics is set to have an all-star lineup in both inspiration and comic creation with different – and very enjoyable – art styles. Each episode will release over the course of three weeks, on Mondays. Fans of WEBTOON’s series can check out this new series collaboration from Hayley Kiyoko, Ava Max, and MAY-A when the first episode of Love Stories releases June 12.