Dong-geun Joo, the South Korean comic author behind the zombie series All of Us Are Dead, visited Los Angeles on September 11 to celebrate Korean webtoons at the Korean Culture Center Los Angeles. During an interview with Wonhee Cho of Anime News Network, Joo explained how his love for zombie cinema shaped his first major project and why he avoided popular television shows while drafting the comic. The writer also discussed his hands-off approach to the live-action Netflix series and his upcoming stop in Mexico [1].
Dong-geun Joo Details the Cinematic Roots of His Zombie Debut
Dong-geun Joo made his professional debut with All of Us Are Dead in 2009, serializing the comic until 2011 in South Korea at a time when zombie narratives were still uncommon in the country’s comic industry. He didn’t want to chase unfamiliar trends for his first full project, choosing instead to focus on the storytelling themes that interested him most during his everyday life. “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,” he said [1].
His interest in the undead grew significantly during his college years, when films such as Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later convinced him that horror premises could carry strong character drama, establishing his creative enthusiasm for the genre so that building a comic around an outbreak felt like a natural step rather than an artificial career calculation. He was also a general fan of thrillers and dark fiction, having grown up reading Japanese horror manga such as the works of Junji Ito. Dong-geun Joo loved both films. He clarified that those manga books acted as a subconscious background influence rather than a direct blueprint for his pages, giving his artistic perspective a broader horror foundation [1].
Horror comics in South Korea faced a different creative environment back then because stories about zombies didn’t have a large domestic following. Dan Whitfield reported for OtakuKart that Dong-geun Joo’s debut succeeded because it fused tense monster survival with realistic student arguments [2].
Avoiding The Walking Dead to Protect Original Storytelling
While Dong-geun Joo was serializing All of Us Are Dead, the television adaptation of The Walking Dead grew into an international hit that dominated zombie pop culture conversations worldwide, prompting the creator to make a firm personal decision to keep the show off his screen until his own serial was far enough along to prevent outside creative drift. He worried that even casual viewing wasn’t safe for his creative process, fearing it could alter how he framed scenes or paced his ongoing survival arcs [1].
“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,” Joo said with a laugh during his Los Angeles discussion. He didn’t regret the self-imposed restriction, noting that visual authors have to protect their original concepts when major international franchises are everywhere in the public eye [1].
Why is creative insulation so important for young artists? In Dong-geun Joo’s view, absorbing ideas from dominant media happens so fast that creators borrow narrative solutions without noticing it. Once his serial concluded its Korean run in 2011, he finally sat down with the hit American series [2].
High School Setting as a Miniature Model of Society
Setting a terrifying zombie outbreak inside a high school came from Dong-geun Joo’s desire to write about a social world he had experienced firsthand. That began in 2009. When he started drawing the webtoon, he had only recently graduated from high school, so the emotional dynamics of classrooms and the pressures of teenage life were fresh in his memory. “When I started drawing it, I had only recently graduated from high school. I simply wanted to draw a world that I knew best,” he explained to Wonhee Cho [1].
Beyond familiarity, Dong-geun Joo viewed a high school as a miniature version of human society where diverse personalities and backgrounds are forced to share a confined space. When normal classroom order collapses during a disaster, students have to navigate fear, betrayal, and survival without adult assistance. That pressure cooker setup allowed the webtoon to balance gory zombie horror with intense interpersonal conflict, proving that character interactions mattered just as much as monster attacks [2].
Character-focused storytelling isn’t limited to one genre, and it continues to thrive as comics branch into new formats. For instance, when the Destroy All Humans manga lined up a spinoff miniseries, publishers relied on familiar school settings to explore fresh humor and character bonds. In Joo’s webtoon, however, the campus environment was a testing ground for morality under extreme danger, giving each survivor distinct stakes [2].
Dong-geun Joo Kept His Distance from the Netflix Series
When Director Lee Jae-kyoo approached Dong-geun Joo about adapting All of Us Are Dead into a live-action series for Netflix, the filmmaker was already a major star in the Korean television industry, leading Joo to deliberately step back so the production could develop its own creative identity without interference from the original author. He respected Lee’s vision and felt that an experienced director deserved full artistic freedom to interpret the source material [1].
In fact, Dong-geun Joo didn’t even open the physical production scripts during development. Lee had direct control. “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,” Joo explained [1].
Many comic fans expect screen adaptations to reproduce every panel with fidelity (matching every single scene exactly), but Dong-geun Joo argues that creative divergence is often beneficial for both mediums. When a live-action series alters certain storylines, it’s common for curious viewers to track down the original webtoon to see where the narrative diverged. Dan Whitfield pointed out in OtakuKart that this healthy contrast helps preserve the distinct identity of both the television drama and the original comic [2].
International Readers Discover the Original Webtoon
The global popularity of the Netflix series has carried Dong-geun Joo to eight countries to meet fans of his work. While early promotional tours mostly introduced him to people who watched the streaming adaptation first, he has noticed an encouraging shift during his recent travels. “In the past, most fans would tell me that they had watched the live-action series first and then found the webtoon,” Joo said. More recently, however, readers increasingly approach him as fans of the comic itself, explaining that they started with the original webtoon before ever watching the television adaptation [1].
Following his appearance in Los Angeles celebrating Korean webtoons, Dong-geun Joo planned to travel directly to Mexico to engage with readers across Latin America. Mexico was next. When asked which of his other stories he would recommend to readers, he pointed to his newer project, Adonai. “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,” he said [1].
Because Adonai doesn’t have an official English translation yet, Dong-geun Joo remains curious about how international audiences will react to its controversial conclusion. Readers in South Korea expressed divided opinions about its ending, drawing comparisons to science fiction stories that combine alien encounters with dangerous religious factions. The creator’s journey from a college horror fan in 2009 to an internationally recognized comic author illustrates how South Korean digital storytelling has expanded worldwide. Rather than chasing every popular entertainment trend, Dong-geun Joo proved that trusting personal storytelling instincts can turn a localized high school horror tale into a global phenomenon [1].
- ONLINE NEWS Cho, W. (2026, October 9). All of Us Are Dead Creator Dong-geun Joo Talks Zombies, Adaptations, and His Global Fans. Anime News Network. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Whitfield, D. (2026, October 10). All of Us Are Dead Creator Dong-geun Joo Says He Avoided Watching The Walking Dead While Creating His Zombie Webtoon. OtakuKart. [Article Link]
