10th Dimension Boys, also alternatively known by the titles of "Boys in High Dimensions" and "What Are the Teenage Boys Doing Now" (소년들은 무엇을 하고 있을까), is a Korean web manhwa drawn by the artist Cutbu.
It originally appeared on the artist's Tumblr and Facebook in 2013, but abruptly disappeared in early 2014 as Cutbu had struck a deal with the blogging service Naver and LINE Webtoon to do her work as a serialized web comic. This revised version ran from mid-2014 to early 2015, concluding in March. It is 118 chapters long, with an afterword by the artist.
The comic is heavily episodic and gag-oriented, revolving around the strange occurences experienced by two young Korean men, Ahn Ganhan and Hah Songjo. The two are sometimes friends, rivals, lovers, or a little of both. It's also well-known for its rampant Toilet Humour, a staple of Cutbu's work.
For the purpose of creating the English translation, Cutbu herself had to localize some of the puns that appeared in certain strips, creating jokes that could work the same in both its languages. Unofficial Thai, Spanish, and Polish translations of the comic by fans also exist.
10th Dimension Boys can be read here
on LINE Webtoon.
This comic provides examples of:
- Animated Adaptation: Some strips were adapted into motion comic shorts by LINE Webtoon's animation service. Cutbu herself originally had her own Flash animations of her old comics with both Korean and English dubs, which can be seen in saved copies of the videos. Note that these reference the original version, so there is no Songjo or Ganhan to be seen.
- Interestingly enough, the official LINE Webtoon shorts also reference some of the old strips, as the protagonist in the first short was replaced by Ganhan in the revised version of the comic. Two of the men in the last short would also be replaced by Ganhan and Songjo when Cutbu redrew the story.
- Expy: As explained by Cutbu in the comic's afterward, Ganhan and Songjo were two characters imported from one of her previous series "Somimu", though their designs were somewhat tweaked for the different format. The strip "The Future Lover" was even based off the first chapter of Somimu, where Ganhan was told of a prophecy about a soulmate.
- Disproportionate Retribution: In comic #9, Ganhan considers Songjo and another friend eating chicken without him to be an unforgivable sin, and performs a kancho on Songjo as punishment. He soon regrets it
after he puts his fingers back near his face.- Ganhan's girlfriend in one strip leaves him for a yoga teacher, causing him to murder an entire yoga class by appearing in an instruction video that instructs them to use a move that results in their deaths.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The ultimate fate of the world in a few comics.
- Negative Continuity: A staple of the comic. Songjo and Ganhan will play out different roles (though usually students), and wind up meeting each other for the first time several times. In some cases, the strips end in the death of one or both men before things are reset for the next comic. This is in part due to the revisions made to the comic in Orwellian Retcon, though it helps further enhance the surreal gag nature of the series.
- Orwellian Retcon: After she had signed the contract with Naver and put out the official webcomic, Cutbu redrew and revised the strips that she used in order to bring in a recurring cast of characters. Various different protagonists of the strips were replaced by Songjo and Ganhan, although in some cases, they were the only change made.
- Some of Cutbu's earliest drawn strips bear a more standard anime-esque style, which was swapped out to the more dry-looking character designs when they were revised for the Naver webcomic.
- Refuge in Audacity: The strip proudly embraces this, especially in the character of Songjo, who gets away with stealing, murder, and vandalism throughout his escapades.
- Strip #7 involves Ganhan employing this, with believing that he's due to die when he and other civilians are trapped in a room with a time bomb. Seeing the moment as his last chance to do whatever he wants, he spends the last minute beating up and farting on the other trapped people, and then farting in his own face.
- Running Gag: A situation will revolve around, or end with, bodily functions or the body part they originate from.
- Time travel and time paradoxes play a big part in some strips, along with the bald time travel agents.
- One of the men beating or chasing the other with a spiked baseball bat.
- Songjo or Ganhan will be confronted in a situation of them cheating on their girlfriend, or trying to interfere with the other's relationship(s).
- Songjo stealing and pocketing Ganhan's wallet.
- Songjo running a deadly restaurant.
- When not focused on scatological humor and general bodily functions, Cutbu also seems fond of giving characters outrageous body hair for the sake of gags related to said hair.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: A time traveler from the year 3000 shows up to ensure that Ganhan won't drive off a cliff and die. Suddenly, a time traveler from the year 4000 shows up in the car, announcing that it's his job to prevent the accident as the previous attempt was unsuccessful. More and more time travelers show up in Ganhan's car, to the point where he loses control and drives off the cliff.
- Toilet Humour: A huge theme of the series, and not without contention. Readers will be surprised when a comic strip doesn't end in a fart or poop pun, or have it as a theme.
