An Interview with WEBTOON Creator and Deadpool Writer Ucheomaaa

Ucheomaaa (or more simply Uche) is one of the biggest names on WEBTOON, and for good reason. While Uche's fan-favorite series Vibe Check! has amassed a dedicated following of its own, the all-star creator is on the verge of helming the hotly-anticipated That Time Deadpool Fell Into WEBTOON... for Marvel Comics on the platform.

I recently had the opportunity to speak to Uche directly about his WEBTOON journey, creative process, and what the future looks like, which you can now read all about right here.

What can you tell me about your WEBTOON journey? And can you give me a little breakdown of how you came to the platform?

Yeah, absolutely. So I've been doing comics just in my life for a really long time. You know, probably since early elementary school, maybe around second grade. I've always loved just making comics, specifically comedy comics. So I love making like little jokes in comic form, and that just kind of continued throughout school and you know into college, and I would basically just draw silly things to make my friends laugh.

Started posting on Instagram around like maybe like 2014 just for fun, and then I'd say like around the pandemic, you know I was just doing random comics, creating characters, putting stuff out there, and Vibe Check! just spun out of that as kind of like its own comic strip gag series that I was doing on Instagram, and I kind of got to a point where I was posting it pretty regularly on Instagram, and I had a friend kind of convinced me to start posting stuff on WEBTOON Canvas, which seemed like a great idea since you know people loved reading comics on there.

And once I started uploading, it was discovered by a WEBTOON editor who wanted to turn it into a WEBTOON original series. So I agreed, and we just kind of developed the series for the WEBTOON platform. It was super cool to see it expand into what it is today.

And can you talk about the development process at all; going from a smaller series to a full-fledged WEBTOON original?

Yeah, it was a really interesting experience because I mean the big thing about it was that it was very and it always has been just very self-directed, very just flavor of the week, whatever I feel like doing, very random, just what I thought people might find funny week to week or you know just between comics. Developing it into a full series was different because it required a bit more thought into where I wanted the characters to go and what I wanted the plot to be.

A lot of it was just learning how to build a workflow around it and learning how to create things in a way that felt sustainable, so that I could kind of have it coming out regularly. But it was - I'd say I started having a lot more fun with it when I moved to WEBTOON because it felt like I had an excuse to take it a little bit more seriously and put a little bit more heart and like effort into what I was doing, and so the series really began to grow once it was, you know, in production for WEBTOON because I got to put a lot more thought into it.

Vibe Check! has a pretty deep and dedicated fan base that you've built up since the series premiered. How do you interact with your readers on and off the platform, and do the fans have any influence on the series trajectory at all?

That's a good question. I really love Vibe Check! readers, like the people who have been following the series for a long time. I often say they're like they're funnier than I am. They're also just really, really sweet, and there's some real philosophers in the comments section. You know, people who really like to delve deep into like the themes and the characters.

I'm really grateful for that. Interacting with them is-it can be a challenge. I'm somebody where I'm a little bit on the more introverted side, so I'm not always quick to have a bunch of conversations with everybody, despite how much I'd like to. But I really do like I read all of the comments and I respond to DMs when I can, and I love fan art, and so I love just like getting to talk to people and just, you know, see what they have to say about the series or just random stuff in general.

A lot of times, I'll do like those question-and-answer things on Instagram. So I'll have people send in questions and then I'll answer them either seriously or like completely unseriously. And people get to kind of you know showcase their senses of humor and and talk about what they like about the series, and that's always really fun for me because a big part of why I do what I do is because I love connecting with people through like art storytelling. So having commenters who are like actually invested and genuinely have things to say and have parts of the series that are being was kind of like one of the more rewarding parts of being on the platform and in like being a comic creator in general, so you know that's always a big motivator for me.

So, the series has gotten some pretty serious recognition - You were nominated for a Ringo Award. What was that experience like for you as an independent creator, and are there any major industry achievements that you are keeping in mind or potentially looking at as something you would like to claim for yourself?

You know, funnily enough, the Ringo thing was really out of left field for me. I hadn't, admittedly, been someone who really kept up with nominations. Besides, you know when somebody would post that they've been nominated, and I'd be really excited, or I'd go support that, but I didn't really know that it was something that I'd been nominated for until like a little bit after.

Somebody was like, "Hey, congrats on the Ringo nom,” and I was like, "I did not hear about that.” So I had to kind of do some digging and find that out. But I was really honored once I saw. Like I was, I was really surprised.

And you know, in terms of other industry awards or accolades, I don't typically think - I don't really consider those when I'm working. If I'm being honest, I think a lot of times those things are nice, but I think that ultimately it comes down to just what are you putting into your work. You know, what you put into it, you get out of it, and if people see value in it after it comes out and after you know all is said and done, and they see that it's something that they want to support or push or like give an award to that's something that will always be an honor to me.

Obviously, because you know you want people to see your work and feel something and you know see it as worthwhile or valuable. But when I'm working on it, I don't really think too much about how it will be received or how it will be recognized so much as it is like I want it to feel authentic to the world and the story, but, yeah, I just really love making things as best as I can. And the recognition is nice, but I wouldn't say that I have like a vision board of things I'd like to achieve per se, but you know, to each their own, I suppose I'm still I'm still kind of like scoping the landscape for things that I'd like you know like to be involved in, but for right now I just I just love making stuff as well.

Okay, and in that regard, you do some animating and directing beyond Vibe Check!. Have any of those other projects influenced the series at all, or is there anything that you have picked up developing Vibe Check! into a WEBTOON Original that you feel like informs your other work outside of the series?

Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. I think one of my favorite things about working on multiple things is that it all kind of informs each other. Like they all are connected. I learn from one project and bring what I learned from that project into another project, even if they're kind of two different types of media. So, one thing I love about you know animating in regard to my comic work is that animation requires you to sit and draw frames over and over and over and over again.

When you do like 2D animation and you do somewhat traditional animation where it's frame by frame, a lot of times you do have to have the endurance of like drawing a lot, drawing the same characters over and over and over again, and those skills are also necessary for doing a comic. And I would say that drawing my characters over and over for Vibe Check! really taught me how to do different compositions, different angles. It helps me learn illustration in different ways, and those are all skills that transfer to animation.

But then with animation, because I'm doing so much drawing repeatedly, I kind of sharpen certain skills and I can bring those back into Vibe Check!. So the art styles across like animation and comics, at least for me, you can kind of see a bit of progression where one area kind of gets a little bit better and then another area gets a little bit better or at least gets a little sharper, closer to what I want. And so, Vibe Check! as a series, the style has gotten a lot more defined and a little bit more stylistic. And I'd say my animation has gotten a little wackier because you know I get so used to drawing a lot of wacky stuff for Vibe Check!.

So it kind of like it bleeds into itself in a really fun way, and I would say that you know I'm just really grateful for both elements, because like I mean I'm working on a video now, and it's a lot of character animation, and I'm getting to bring in this isn't really a spoiler, but I have like my character cameo sometimes in videos that I'm doing, and so like having a character design where I can take them from, you know, a comic and then drop them into an animation and vice versa is really fun for me because it feels like expanding like a creative world of characters and of interesting stuff. So it's all fun to kind of put together and learn from, but they definitely inform each other.

And are there any upcoming projects beyond Vibe Check! that you're working on right now that you can tease or plug at this time?

Yes, yes. So I'm currently working on two music videos that should be dropping before the end of the year. Very excited about those, and I've been working with Kyle Exum, who's a YouTuber, and I've been doing some video work with him, and that's been fun.

And then I recently announced that I'm doing a writing project with Marvel and WEBTOON, which is very exciting. And I can't say too much about it, but I've been very, very pumped to work on that. And so, you know, I've just been very busy, which you know is fun for me. I like getting to branch out and do different things. But yeah, a lot of things on the horizon that I'm really excited to put out there and talk about.