Copycat manhwa is Carnby Kim and Youngchan Hwang's ongoing WEBTOON thriller, and the official English page had reached Episode 28 on October 13, 2026, with new episodes every Wednesday. It's mature-rated and it's nowhere near finished. Start on WEBTOON, read the opening run in one sitting, and you'll know quickly whether its art-theft hook works on you.
Reviewing
COPYCAT
Carnby Kim (story), Youngchan Hwang (art) · WEBTOON
What Copycat is about
A serial killer is staging corpses as "self-destruction art" and selling them to the ultra-wealthy. Suchan Kim, a failed artist, recognizes the concept as his own, stolen from an exhibition the world laughed into oblivion. His need to prove it turns into something darker: a hunger for the recognition he never got.
That's what separates Copycat from a routine killer-of-the-week story. Every crime scene is also a claim about who owns an idea, so the investigation keeps poking at Suchan's pride. He wants the truth, and he wants the world to admit the idea was his, and those two wants won't always point the same way.
Korean cover for 표절의혹 (COPYCAT). Image: AniList cover art.
Who made it
WEBTOON credits Carnby Kim and Youngchan Hwang, the same pair credited on Sweet Home and Bastard, both completed on WEBTOON. On AniList it's listed under the Korean title 표절의혹 (Pyojeoruihok), with Drama, Psychological and Thriller as its genres and a Korean start date of January 6, 2026.
Readers who know those earlier books ask whether this one is connected. Not so far. In an r/manhwa thread, one reader answered that it reads as a standalone: "there are no supernatural elements as of now. it more of a thriller , mystery with mature dark theme". Another, in an earlier thread, put the partnership more simply: "This youngchan hwang guy is pretty loyal to carnby ngl".
How to read Copycat
- Open the official WEBTOON page. It's the only official English home for the series, and it carries the episode list, the schedule and the creator credits.
- Expect the mature gate. WEBTOON flags the title for mature audiences and asks you to confirm before viewing. That's there for a reason: the premise is staged bodies, and even the cover shows blood.
- Read the opening in one go. The hook depends on Suchan recognizing his own rejected idea in a murder; that lands harder read straight through than one episode a week.
- Then switch to weekly. New episodes arrive on Wednesdays. If you'd rather binge, bank a few months of episodes before you come back.
COPYCAT's English poster. Image: WEBTOON.
Who it's for
It fits readers who like psychological thrillers where the lead has a personal stake in the evidence. If you came in through Bastard's slow dread, this is closer to that than to Sweet Home's monster survival. If graphic crime imagery is a hard no, skip it; the central concept is disturbing before the story even gets going.
Our Best Horror Manhwa 2026 list is the better next click if the body-horror atmosphere is your priority. Copycat belongs there by mood, but its authorship conflict gives it a different spine from a monster-survival story.
Our Take
Start it. Our Copycat review gives the opening 7.8/10, and the reason is the premise: a murder mystery where the detective's worst motive is wanting credit. What we can't tell you yet is whether the reveal will match the setup, because it's still early and still weekly. If you need a finished ending, wait. If you're happy to follow a story as it lands, there's no better time to catch up.
How We Checked This
For this update we reopened the official WEBTOON page for the episode count, schedule, credits, mature notice and synopsis; AniList for the Korean title, genres, start date and status; WEBTOON's Sweet Home and Bastard pages for the shared credits; and two r/manhwa threads (via Arctic Shift) for the reader quotes. The old version was a month behind on episodes and quoted an app-only count; the episode count is updated, and the app-only number was dropped because the page no longer shows it. We also removed the TL;DR, Step-by-Step, FAQ and the long "what makes it different" section, which repeated the body.
Last reviewed: October 15, 2026
Related Reading
- Copycat Manhwa Review: the spoiler-light verdict on the opening.
- Manhwa Like Copycat: alternatives with the same psychological pressure.
- Bastard Manhwa Review: the completed thriller from the same creators.
- Sweet Home Review: their monster-survival hit.
- Where to Read Manhwa Legally in 2026: official platforms and how app access works.
References
- COPYCAT on WEBTOON: episode list, schedule, mature notice, synopsis, credits.
- COPYCAT on AniList: Korean title, genres, start date, status.
- Sweet Home on WEBTOON and Bastard on WEBTOON: creator credits.
