TGON Meets WEBTOON Creator, ROSEOAK, at SDCC 2026

In October 2025, I attended the major annual gathering for artists in the entertainment industry, LightBox Expo, and connected with top WEBTOON Original creators attending as panelists. Among the panelists I connected with and interviewed at LBX was animator, storyboard artist, and comic creator ROSEOAK. In this initial interview with ROSEOAK, we delved into the origins of her first WEBTOON Original and how it was rewritten with deep research and empathy, offering authentic representation of different disabilities and resonating with thousands of online readers.

ROSEOAK is best known right now for her sweet, slice-of-life high school romance and WEBTOON Original series, Not So Silent. Originally self-published by ROSEOAK on WEBTOON CANVAS, Not So Silent was greenlit as a WEBTOON Original and launched in May 2024 as a Boys Love webcomic which explores the trials of adolescence, neurodivergence, queerness, empathy, and the very real challenges of invisible disabilities. NoS also explores the complications of learning to love and accept yourself while falling in love with someone else.

Currently in its second season and FREE to read on WEBTOON, NoS follows overachiever and people-pleaser Lewis Walker and the expressive and spontaneous Fern Montalvo as they meet and embark on a journey of self-discovery, self-acceptance, and self-love while getting to know each other and navigating high school. To communicate better with Fern, who is deaf, Lewis, who is autistic, becomes determined to improve his fluency in American Sign Language. In doing so, Lewis gradually comes to see the trials those with disabilities face daily. In a nutshell, “Not So Silent deals with romance between two very unlikely characters who happen to cross paths, with a big communication barrier between them,” as ROSEOAK put it best. 

With humor, awkwardly sweet interactions, language barriers, and relatable high school struggles, Not So Silent is a friends-to-lovers story that would greatly appeal to fans of Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper, Kevin Panetta’s Bloom, and low-stakes queer love stories. It is a contemporary comfort comic well-suited for readers who want a feel-good romance with authentic representation of queerness and disability. And for readers looking for a love story with supernatural elements, morally grey main characters, passion, and themes embracing nonconformity, then you will want to learn more about ROSEOAK’s next Original series with WEBTOON!

This year, comic creator ROSEOAK returned as a panelist for WEBTOON, and I had the pleasure of reconnecting with her on-site at San Diego Comic-Con 2026. In this SDCC exclusive interview, ROSEOAK discusses her latest WEBTOON Original series and passion project, Love, Theodora, which is set to launch this winter. Whereas Not So Silent is a contemporary queer slice-of-life story featuring two male protagonists, Love, Theodora will be a supernatural sapphic love story between a formidable vampire and a human woman escaping the confines of an arranged marriage. Keep reading to learn how ROSEOAK has approached writing girls’ love versus boys’ love, rewriting a passion project, and attending the largest comic convention in the United States as a panelist.

How does it feel to have, not just one but TWO Originals on WEBTOON?

It’s definitely a little overwhelming. It’s really cool because I’m stepping out of the slice-of-life high school setting and jumping into dark Gothic romance. They’re two different worlds, but it’s refreshing for my brain, and I’m really excited to expand on two different worlds for two different comics. So I’m ready and excited.

Between Not So Silent and Love, Theodora, which would you argue is your favorite and why?

That’s a tough question. I’m going to say Love, Theodora right now — for reasons I hope will become clear. Not So Silent was kind of a love letter to my high school self, and Love, Theodora currently is my passion and interest. Not So Silent will always be special to me, but I’m picking Love, Theodora as the favorite right now because it’s everything I’m interested in at the moment — a story I’ve wanted to write for so long. And I’m finally getting around to it.

You’re going from writing what’s essentially a boys’ love comic to a girls’ love comic. Do you approach the writing, the love stories, and the dynamics any differently between the two — how do you apply things differently when writing BL versus GL?

The biggest difference is that the boys’ love I’ve written is more of a “soft love” — it transcends the whole “this is just BL” concept. I see it almost like a soulmates AU, and I always end up drawing my characters a little androgynous — that’s just how I roll.

In the girls’ love genre, I think vampirism is a good theme because it’s inherently sapphic. I’m going from that soft high school romance to two women in a fantasy world dealing with the struggles women deal with in reality, which is also where the theme of witches comes in.

The idea of vampirism as an inherently sapphic trope — the idea of being so in love with someone, with the dynamic of “your essence keeps me alive,” and having these hateful, evil societal norms. Then, you have these women who are dark and extremely flawed. I want to show how flawed a character can be, but also how beautiful, and how terrifying women can be. I want that — but I also want a happy ending. 

I don’t want doomed yuri. I want them to have love, but I want the women to be beautiful and scary — the idea that women can be terrifying when pushed to the brink, and when GL is involved, they become so carnally in love with each other. It’s very soft, but in a carnal way, if that makes sense. Same core feeling, but the way the couples show their love is very different.

With Love, Theodora, greenlit to be an Original and set to launch later this year, how have you felt revamping your latest passion project?

It’s so fun — if people have read the CANVAS version, it’s really just sketches and monotone colors. But this new one is going to be all color. It’ll be like watching a black-and-white film and then seeing the new version in Technicolor. We’re refining the outfits, the characters, the arcs. The CANVAS version is the bones of the new one, but the new one will have a more connected plot and more connected characters. It’s fun to fully bring it to life and get more help on it — there are more hands on this project, and some familiar names in the credits from Not So Silent are working on this one too.

Here at San Diego Comic-Con, you must encounter plenty of fans familiar with your work. Have you had a favorite fan interaction so far?

It’s a little hard to run into fans sometimes when you’re on the move certain days, but I’ve had some really fun little gifts. Punko and I both got a little drawing. There were a couple people yesterday after the panel I did — one gave me a little drawing of Not So Silent, and another asked if I could sign something. I always bring extra prints and stickers of Not So Silent just in case someone gives me something or comes to say hi — I love giving people that. I don’t really have one favorite, but it’s always fun meeting people and seeing the faces behind the audience.

Last time I saw you, you were a panelist at LightBox Expo 2025. As a creator, fan, and panelist, how does it feel to be here at Comic-Con 2026? What does Comic-Con mean to you?

I think I have a pretty niche answer. The panel I was on yesterday had a lot of big names in Wattpad right now. As kind of an overall metaphor for the experience — I used to write on Wattpad in high school, and now I’m paneling with big Wattpad names. It’s very full circle, realizing you’ve been invited to something like this, paneling with super talented people. It feels a little surreal, because there’s always a part of you that still feels like the fan coming to see the people — it never really sinks in that you’re the person fans are coming to see. That’s always going to take some getting used to. I think that’s what it’s been meaning to me lately — showing that the work you put in is paying off. You get to be around insanely talented coworkers and colleagues, and see the wheels behind the machine. It’s really cool.

Right now, Not So Silent is updating weekly, and Love, Theodora is anticipated to launch this winter! Stay tuned for more WEBTOON and webcomic-related news! Tell us in the comments if there’s a specific WEBTOON creator you want me to interview next! And keep on reading!