At San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) 2026, Webtoon returned with a full slate of panels and a roster of talented creators. Among those creators was Punko, the creator of Stagtown and Cinderella Boy.
In an interview with Temple of Geek, Punko shares insights into her twenty-year journey in the publishing industry, transitioning from print comics to Webtoon, and shifting genres from horror (Stagtown) to comedy (Cinderella Boy). Additionally, Punko breaks down the inspiration behind Cinderella Boy Season 3, exploring the balance between real-world and fantasy, and the realities of the media industry.
The Shifting Landscape of the Publishing Industry
Punko has over twenty years of experience publishing manga, novels, and more. As the author of Bizenghast and The Elephant Book, she has shifted from print to digital as the industry has seen a rise in the vertical scrolling format. She delves into what the landscape looked like when she first began and how it has changed today, explaining that it was very difficult to get a comic published in the early stages of her career. There was no social media, nor was there a way to curate an online presence unless you were already well-known.
So it’s very different nowadays, where people have things like Webtoon, where you can just go onto Canvas and then take advantage of their enormous platform of all this huge audience that’s already built in, and then start producing right away. I wish I’d had that back then. That would have been fantastic.
Additionally, Punko mentions finding it much easier to switch from print to vertical scrolling. She says, “I actually think I like the webtoon format more now because I find that I can control the pacing of the story better. I have greater control over what information the reader sees at any given moment.”
From Writing Horror with Stagtown to Comedy with Cinderella Boy
Stagtown is Punko’s completed horror series on Webtoon. She has seen incredible success with Stagtown, even receiving the greenlight for a live-action film. However, Cinderella Boy came from a place where Punko no longer wanted to be known as just a horror author. During her panel at SDCC, she mentioned wanting to write a story that would provide relief and joy for people having a bad day.
The switch from horror to comedy was immediate, as this is something Punko was looking forward to creating.
I think it was, like, immediate because it was what I had been wanting to do for quite a while, and so I was just like, I can’t wait to do this. And I still had to work on Stagtown at the same time, so it wasn’t like I stopped one and started the other. Because Cinderella Boy ran on Canvas for quite some time while I was still working on Stagtown, so I was doing both of them at once.
Cinderella Boy is a two-season Webtoon wrapping up this summer. Although the series was pitched as such, Punko announced that a third season is in the works. Fans have more to look forward to outside of the main plotline.
Punko comments on the impact this series has on its fanbase. She loves seeing the amount of fan art and fan fiction coming out of the fandom. Not only that, but she also has fans reach out to say they are inspired to create their own comic. Punko says, “That is what I want to see. I want to be the kind of series where people will see it and go, ‘You know what? That gives me a really good idea for my thing.'”
You can read Stagtown and Cinderella Boy for free on Webtoon.
About Cinderella Boy
Punko describes the comedy boys’ love series on Webtoon:
When a fame-obsessed boy named Chase finds a key that allows him to walk into any storybook and take the place of a character in it, he’s offered a chance to earn a wish for anything he wants. The only catch? He’s always the heroine! Meanwhile, other forces are searching for his key…especially Chase’s rival, a handsome but malicious young man in possession of another key, who is determined to kick Chase out of the storybook biz for good.
