Delusion Webtoon: Read It Before the Disney+ Series

The Delusion Webtoon has been finished since November 2020, while the Disney+ vampire thriller with Bae Suzy and Kim Seon-ho still has no date, so you are probably wondering whether to wait for the drama or read the source. We'd read the opening now, three episodes tonight.

Reviewing

Delusion

Hongjacga · WEBTOON

WEBTOON

The opening page of Delusion Episode 1: a yellow dusk sky over a hillside of rooftops, with a boxed caption reading Gyeongseong, 1935 and a footnote about the name Seoul

Image: WEBTOON / Hongjacga, Episode 1 of Delusion. The story opens in 1935.

What is finished and what is not

Hongjacga's story ran on Naver Webtoon for 60 chapters, from September 26, 2019, to the finale on November 12, 2020, according to Naver's own episode list. WEBTOON's English page labels the series completed and shows 10.3M views and 295,380 subscribers. Its official synopsis sets it in 1935: a struggling artist, Iho Yun, is commissioned by the reclusive Madam Jeonghwa Song to paint a portrait, and a note warns him not to finish it.

The drama is a different matter. Portraits of Delusion is a 12-episode Disney+ original written and directed by Han Jae-rim, with Bae Suzy as Madam Song and Kim Seon-ho as the painter. Anime News Network reported on January 25, 2026, that Disney+ Korea confirmed the second half of 2026. Korean press in September 2026 still says only that it will arrive this year, and one explainer from early October states "no exact date yet". We found no day in anything we read on November 9. The second half of 2026 has 52 days left, a little over seven weeks.

Where to read it, and where the web list stops

The WEBTOON web list shows Episodes 1 to 7, and a banner says the rest is on the WEBTOON app. Print is the other route: Inklore's Volume 1, published September 1, 2026, is a 320-page paperback at $20, and Penguin Random House says it collects episodes 1 to 20, which is one third of the story. Where to Read Manhwa Legally compares the official routes if you want the app and print side by side.

One warning before you start: WEBTOON tags the series as unsuitable for children. The first three episodes we read contain blood and a direct threat of murder.

What Episodes 1 to 3 set up

Spoilers ahead for Episode 3. The premise is already printed in the publisher's blurb and in the Disney+ coverage, so we have not held it back.

Episode 1 is a job offer. A painter is behind on his rent, and a visitor tells him the commission will pay enough for the overdue rent "and then some". The patron has not left her hotel in decades. When he meets Madam Song at the South Gate Hotel, he is told not to turn around, and her demand is odd: paint her 20 years older than the portrait in the lobby, and then "as old as possible".

A page from Delusion Episode 1: a speech bubble asking why he turned around, a small panel of a framed portrait of a woman on a hotel wall, and Madam Song's instruction to paint her 20 years older than that portrait

Image: WEBTOON / Hongjacga, Episode 1. The commission: make her look older.

Penguin Random House's blurb adds the twist that makes the request strange: when Iho meets her he finds her "startlingly young and beautiful", yet she asks to be painted as though she were eighty. Episode 1 also shows him portraits of her at different ages and blood that someone has wiped from one of them.

Episode 2 is mostly dread in small doses. He hears tapping on the wall, finds bloodstains that look hastily cleaned, and then says he quits after she rages that he took her portrait down from the lobby. Her reply is "If you dare to say you want to quit one more time... I'll kill you." Episode 3 is where the series stops teasing. He finds a paint box the previous painter left behind, with a note tucked inside.

Two panels of a handwritten note on a page of Delusion Episode 3 reading To the lucky person reading this note: Do not complete the portrait, with a further panel below reading Else you won't make it out of this place alive

Image: WEBTOON / Hongjacga, Episode 3. The previous painter's note.

The note continues with one more line, "She is a bloodsucking vampire.", and the episode ends with him saying "I saw it with my own two eyes", calling her "a bloodsucking monster", and telling himself "I have to figure out a way to get out of here alive." The last panels show drops of blood turning into puddles and a portrait of a woman with blood at her mouth. That is the whole hook, and it arrives in the third episode. The format is the thing to notice: panels float on a lot of white space instead of filling a grid, so each page reads like a held breath.

What readers say

The English-language reader chatter is small but consistent. On February 9, 2024, the original poster of an r/manhwa thread, u/chahouy, wrote that "The artstyle, the white spaces, the layout, they all complement the story so well." Their one reservation reads like praise: "The characters just seem to have so much depth to them, but they're not fully explored, which just adds to the mystery for me."

A week later, on February 17, 2024, a different commenter in that thread, u/cinniqie, pointed readers who liked it towards the same author's earlier work: "Specifically if you like Delusion you should check out Hwaja. It has the same mystery feel throughout but is over a more sinister topic." And on September 14, 2026, u/OhShitBees, asking r/manhwa for recommendations after To Drown in You, wrote that "Hwaja and Delusion by Hongjacga and Taste of Illness by Ha Il-Kwon are a couple that feel similar to me." Penguin Random House's bio for the author lists Hwaja among his webcomics.

Our take

Read Episodes 1 to 3 this week, and make Episode 3 the decision point. The reason to read before the series is that the story is already complete, so there is no weekly wait and no risk of an unfinished ending. The reason to stop at three is also real: Episode 3 gives away the one reveal WEBTOON's own synopsis leaves out, so if you would rather watch the drama blind, do not read past Episode 2. For everything else on the adaptation slate, our guide to 2026 manhwa K-drama adaptations has the reading order, and the best vampire manhwa list has what to read next if the hook works on you.

What we don't know: the Disney+ release date; whether the drama follows the webtoon's ending or changes it; and how the webtoon ends, because we have not read past Episode 3. Wikipedia gives September 29, 2019, as the Naver start date while Naver's own list shows September 26, so we used Naver's. We have not seen a date for a second print volume, and Penguin Random House lists the series as two books.

How we checked this: on November 9, 2026 we read Episodes 1 to 3 in full on the WEBTOON viewer (text extracted from the episode images, key panels checked by eye), read the WEBTOON list page, Naver's episode list, the Penguin Random House and ICv2 pages, the Anime News Network and Korea JoongAng Daily reports, and the two Reddit threads quoted above.

References

Delusion on WEBTOON: episode list, counters, synopsis
Delusion on Naver Webtoon: the Korean run and chapter count
Delusion, Volume 1 on Penguin Random House: print edition, blurb
ICv2: Inklore Brings Three Web Series to Print, May 29, 2026: print date, cast
Anime News Network: Disney Plus Korea Reveals New Snippets of Webtoon-Based Live-Action Series, Jan 25, 2026: second-half 2026
Korea JoongAng Daily: Disney+ lineup, Nov 13, 2025: director and premise
K-Pulse Daily: Portraits of Delusion explained, Oct 4, 2026: episode count, no date
r/manhwa: "Delusion (Hongjacga)" thread, Feb 9, 2024: reader replies
r/manhwa: "To Drown in You" recommendation thread, Sep 14, 2026: reader replies

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