By Lady Lillith
Over the years I have found some great and interesting comics
on the web but nothing like this interactive story. Created in 2011, a Korean horror
comic was posted online and it spread like wildfire. It scared me so much I
still have a hard time looking at it without feeling my heart beat just a
little bit faster. I’ve seen postings of
it recently and it has made me go back and enjoy this treasure all over again. This
wonderful comic is called the “Bongcheong Dong Ghost”. It was written and
illustrated by a Korean web cartoonist Ho-Rang and was submitted to the Naver
Webtoon’s 2011 mystery short contest.
Since its publication, the urban legend comic has become
infamous on the web, mostly for its inclusion of partially animated sequences
and audio segments using javascript triggers. It is impossible to not activate
these triggers and even though I know they’re there…they get me EVERY TIME.
The story of this comic follows a Korean schoolgirl who is
coming home from an after-school study hall at 11:20 pm. As she approaches her
apartment complex, she meets a ghost of a woman asking for her baby. She tries
to trick the ghost and run away, but it only enrages the ghost.
Overall Bongcheong Dong Ghost is a creative interactive
story that has had many people of all ages cowering and screaming with just a
scrolling of its screen. Many have posted reaction videos which are fun to
watch. (i.e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vI0Wmxc2cY
)
Check out the comic here: http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail.nhn?titleId=350217&no=31 (be sure to translate the page to English and
keep your volume up!)
Update: There is
a second comic!
Upon writing this blog, I have come to find that the
creating of the Bongcheong Dong Ghost has made a second interactive comic
called the “Ok-su Station Ghost”.
Not as good as the first comic, the Ok-station ghost lacks
the suspense and intensity of the Bongcheong Dong Ghost. The story shows a
young man at a train station waiting for the next train when he sees a young
woman walking back and forth moaning. He thinks this is odd and decides to talk
about it online with other users saying she must be drunk. They want him to
take a photo and when he is about to, she isn’t there.
With only one jump scare (that really isn’t scary at all),
the Ok-su Station Ghost just didn’t hold the same horror presence as the
previous comic had. With that being said, I do hope the creator of these comics
comes out with another one that is as enticing as the first. He does a great
job in animation and activating javascript triggers, he just needs to keep up
with the horror elements.
