Bastard

A home is supposed to be somewhere you can feel safe.

In Bastard, the person who makes home dangerous is the protagonist’s own father.

Written by Carnby Kim and illustrated by Youngchan Hwang, Bastard is a completed Korean psychological thriller webtoon about a teenage boy living with a terrible family secret.

The premise is disturbing without needing a supernatural creature: his father is a serial killer.

If you know these creators from Sweet Home, this is an opportunity to discover a different kind of horror from the same team. Instead of a monster outbreak, Bastard places its central threat inside an ordinary-looking family.

For a closer comparison, read Bastard vs. Sweet Home: Which Webtoon Should You Read First?.

Spoiler level: Premise only. This introduction does not disclose major twists or the ending.

Content note: Serial murder, family abuse and coercion, violence, and bullying.

On this page

Bastard at a Glance

Basic information about the original Bastard webtoon

Detail	Information
English title	Bastard
Korean title	후레자식
Original medium	Korean webtoon
Writer	Carnby Kim (김칸비)
Artist	Youngchan Hwang (황영찬)
Original serialization	2014–2016
Status	Completed
Official English webtoon	WEBTOON
English print publisher	Seven Seas Entertainment

The original serialization dates are documented by the Korea Foundation’s Koreana feature on Korean webtoon creators. The official English WEBTOON listing identifies the creative team and marks the series as completed.

What Is Bastard About?

The protagonist, Jin, lives under the control of a father whose respectable public appearance hides something horrifying.

According to Seven Seas Entertainment’s official description, Jin is a schoolboy who faces bullying while carrying the knowledge that his father is a serial killer.

The Korea Foundation’s account of the work adds an important part of the premise: Jin is pressured and threatened into becoming involved in his father’s crimes.

That makes the central conflict more complicated than simply escaping a dangerous person.

Jin is a child living under a parent’s authority, and that authority has been turned into a source of fear.

The story’s psychological horror grows from an unequal relationship in which obedience, resistance, and personal responsibility become painfully difficult to separate.

This is an explanation of the published premise, not a claim that coercion removes every question of moral responsibility.

What Does the Korean Title 후레자식 Mean?

The original Korean title is 후레자식 (hurejasik).

It is a derogatory expression, not a neutral way of saying “child” or “son.”

The National Institute of Korean Language explains the word’s dictionary meaning as a disparaging term for someone considered to have grown up without proper manners or upbringing.

The word also has a documented history connected with older Korean expressions about being raised without a parent. But that etymological history should not be mistaken for a literal description of the protagonist or for the word’s only modern meaning.

In contemporary usage, its force is insulting and judgmental.

The English title Bastard communicates some of that hostility, although the two expressions do not have perfectly identical histories or connotations.

There is an uncomfortable question suggested by placing this title beside the story’s premise.

A boy is being judged through the language of bad upbringing while the person responsible for raising him is also the source of his danger.

That is a possible reading of the title’s irony, not a verified statement about what the creators intended.

Understanding the Korean word helps make that tension easier to notice.

Who Created Bastard?

The writer is Carnby Kim, whose Korean pen name is 김칸비.

The illustrations are by Youngchan Hwang, 황영찬.

Bastard was their first collaboration, according to the Korea Foundation’s feature on the history of Korean webtoon creators.

The same writer-artist pairing later produced Sweet Home.

Both creators are credited on the official Bastard WEBTOON page, which also identifies Sweet Home among their other works.

This connection is about authorship, not a required narrative crossover.

You do not need to read Sweet Home before understanding Jin’s situation, and the existence of shared creators does not make one story a numbered sequel to the other.

For readers interested in the creators’ broader work, the comparison with Sweet Home is more revealing when approached through their different storytelling choices than through an assumed shared timeline.

What Kind of Horror Should You Expect?

The main threat in Bastard is human.

That does not make the story gentle or suitable for someone who avoids disturbing subjects.

The premise involves murder, coercion within a family, and the vulnerability of a teenager who is not in a position of equal power with his father.

The setting creates a specific kind of uncertainty: what happens when a person expected to protect you is someone you cannot safely trust?

The psychological pressure is inseparable from the family relationship.

In that sense, the horror is less about discovering what sort of creature is attacking and more about what a person can do to someone who depends on them.

If that subject matter is especially difficult for you, it is worth checking your own comfort with the premise before beginning.

Where Can You Read Bastard in English?

There are two confirmed official English options: the digital webtoon and collected print editions.

The official digital WEBTOON

The English WEBTOON edition of Bastard is marked completed.

Start with the earliest episode and follow the series in its published order.

The website may show only part of the episode list and direct readers to the app for additional chapters. Do not interpret the number visible on a browser page as the work’s full length.

Episode access and unlocking arrangements should be checked directly on the platform.

The English printed editions

Seven Seas Entertainment publishes Bastard in full-color English comic volumes.

These are printed editions of the webtoon, not translations of a separate prose novel.

The publisher’s catalog lists five volumes, beginning with Volume 1 in May 2025.

The Volume 5 listing gives a September 1, 2026 release date and explicitly identifies it as the final volume.

That makes the print collection a practical alternative for readers who prefer physical books over a scrolling digital comic.

Check the publisher or retailer for current availability and pricing.

Is Bastard Connected to Sweet Home?

The two works share Carnby Kim and Youngchan Hwang as their writer and artist.

They do not require a combined reading order.

Bastard introduces a teenager confronting a serial killer within his family. Sweet Home follows people facing a monster outbreak and struggling to survive.

Their official descriptions establish different central situations, and neither is presented as a numbered sequel to the other.

That is different from the relationship between Sweet Home and Shotgun Boy, whose prequel connection is explained in the Sweet Home and Shotgun Boy reading-order guide.

Sharing creative DNA is not the same thing as sharing a continuous plot.

If you’re choosing between the two, the more useful question is what sort of horror you want to read.

Our Bastard vs. Sweet Home comparison explains that distinction without giving away their endings.

Where to Start

If you want the original Bastard, start with the official English WEBTOON or Seven Seas Volume 1.

If you arrived here because you enjoyed Sweet Home, you can explore another story by the same creative team without needing a complicated crossover timeline.

And if you haven’t encountered either work, you can begin with whichever premise interests you more.

One story asks what happens when the greatest danger is already in your family. The other asks what people become when an entire community faces catastrophe.

Both begin with danger close to home, but they take that idea in very different directions.

For the other series, visit the Sweet Home hub.