All of Us Are Dead Creator Dong-geun Joo Talks Zombies, Adaptations, and His Global Fans
Dong-geun Joo, the creator of the popular webtoon All of Us Are Dead, visited Los Angeles to participate in an event at the Korean Culture Center Los Angeles celebrating Korean webtoons on September 11.
Joo made his debut in 2009 with All of Us Are Dead, which was serialized in Korea until 2011 and quickly gained popularity. The series stood out for making zombies its central theme at a time when zombie stories were relatively uncommon in Korea. It was later adapted into the hit Netflix live-action series of the same name.
Thanks to the success of All of Us Are Dead, Joo has traveled to eight countries to meet fans. After his Los Angeles appearance, he said he would be heading directly to Mexico.
Joo spoke with Anime News Network about his debut, the influences behind his work, the Netflix adaptation, and his latest series, Adonai.
Wonhee Cho (ANN): Why did you choose zombies for your debut?
Dong-geun Joo: I thought that if I was going to draw something, I should draw what I liked the most. The first thing that came to mind was a zombie story.
I've always been a huge fan of zombie movies. When I was in college, two of the movies I enjoyed the most were Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later. So creating a story about zombies felt very natural to me.
Were you influenced by Japanese manga or anime?
Joo: There weren't that many zombie stories in Japan at the time, so I wasn't directly influenced by them.
I'm a fan of horror and thriller stories in general, not just zombies. I grew up reading Japanese manga, including Junji Ito's works, so I think those works probably influenced me subconsciously.
Personally, I think creators have to be careful about being influenced by other works. When I was working on All of Us Are Dead, The Walking Dead was the most popular zombie series around. I really wanted to watch it, but I deliberately avoided it because I was afraid it would influence my work. I eventually watched it and loved it. (laughs)
Why did you choose a school as the setting for All of Us Are Dead?
Joo: When I started drawing it, I had only recently graduated from high school. I simply wanted to draw a world that I knew best.
I also think of a school as a miniature version of society. So many different kinds of characters gather in one place, and I thought there would be a lot of stories I could tell.
How involved were you in the live-action adaptation?
Joo: Director Jae-kyoo Lee, who contacted me about adapting All of Us Are Dead, was already a huge star in the industry at the time. I considered the live-action series to be a separate creative work from my webtoon, so I didn't get very involved.
The director even gave me the script, but I never opened it. Rather than reading the script and imagining what it would look like, I wanted to see it as a finished piece of video.
As a creator, I respect Lee, so I was more interested in seeing how he would reinterpret my work.
When a live-action series or film is based on a manga or webtoon, fans are always very interested in how closely the adaptation follows the original. But from the original creator's perspective, it's sometimes more interesting when the adaptation differs from the source material.
People who discover the story through the live-action series may become curious about how it differs from the webtoon and seek out the original. I think that's a positive thing.
All of Us Are Dead has brought you fans around the world. Is there a memorable fan encounter?
Joo: Thanks to All of Us Are Dead, I've been able to visit eight countries. I'm grateful that so many fans came to meet me wherever I went.
Recently, I've also started to feel that the webtoon platform itself has grown significantly.
In the past, most fans would tell me that they had watched the live-action series first and then found the webtoon. But since last year, I've met many more people who tell me, "I read the original webtoon first. I'm a fan of the original."
Is there another one of your works you would recommend?
Joo: All of my works are like children to me.
But if I had to recommend one, I'd choose my most recent work, Adonai. It deals with a cult and aliens. It's similar to the Netflix series 3 Body Problem.
Readers had very divided opinions about the ending, so I'm curious to see how English-speaking readers would respond to it.
There isn't an official English translation yet, but I hope to meet readers overseas soon.
discuss this in the forum |
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.