Is Shotgun Boy a Sweet Home Prequel? Reading Order Explained

Spoiler level: Opening premises only. This guide explains how Sweet Home and Shotgun Boy are connected and which one to read first. It avoids the major revelations, endings, and later connections in both stories.

You finish Sweet Home, look for another Korean horror webtoon, and discover something called Shotgun Boy.

Then comes the slightly confusing part: Shotgun Boy was published after Sweet Home, but it’s officially described as a prequel.

So are you supposed to read it first?

Not necessarily.

Both webtoons come from writer Carnby Kim, but they follow different protagonists and were created with different artists. They also begin in different settings.

The short answer: Shotgun Boy is an official prequel to Sweet Home. For a first-time reader, the recommended order is Sweet Home first, followed by Shotgun Boy.

That recommendation follows publication order and lets you discover the original story before exploring its earlier fictional history.

However, readers who prefer beginning with the earliest events in a shared world can choose Shotgun Boy first.

Here’s how the two orders differ, without revealing the surprises that connect them.

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Sweet Home and Shotgun Boy: Reading Order at a Glance

Question	Sweet Home	Shotgun Boy
Korean title	스위트홈	엽총소년
Writer	Carnby Kim (김칸비)	Carnby Kim (김칸비)
Artist	Youngchan Hwang (황영찬)	Hongpil (홍필)
Korean debut	October 2017	February 2021
Position in the shared story	Original main work	Prequel set earlier
Opening protagonist	Cha Hyun-su	Han Gyuhwan
Initial setting	Green Home apartment building	A school-related survival situation
Official English edition	WEBTOON, completed	WEBTOON, completed
Suggested order for newcomers	Read first	Read second

The most important distinction is between publication order and in-universe chronology.

Those are not the same thing.

1. Is Shotgun Boy Officially a Sweet Home Prequel?

Yes.

The Korean Naver WEBTOON listing explicitly identifies Shotgun Boy, originally titled 엽총소년, as a prequel to Sweet Home.

Naver’s accompanying description introduces a new protagonist, Han Gyuhwan, and places the work within the world established by the earlier comic.

When the new series was announced in February 2021, Korean reporting on Naver WEBTOON’s announcement also identified it as a story taking place before Sweet Home.

This is an official relationship between the works, not a fan theory based on similar-looking monsters.

The two comics share a creator and a fictional setting, but they are distinct works with their own opening situations.

What Does Prequel Actually Mean Here?

A prequel tells a story situated earlier than another work in the same fictional continuity.

It does not necessarily mean the prequel was written first.

That’s exactly the situation here.

Sweet Home appeared first and introduced readers to its world. Shotgun Boy came later, offering another story associated with an earlier point in that world.

The distinction explains why two perfectly reasonable reading orders exist.

You can follow the order in which readers originally encountered the works, or you can begin with the earlier fictional events.

Those choices create different experiences.

2. Publication Order: Sweet Home First

For most newcomers, this is the clearest reading path.

1. Sweet Home

Start with the official English Sweet Home webtoon.

Its opening follows Cha Hyun-su, an isolated teenager whose circumstances force him into a frightening survival situation at Green Home.

The comic introduces its atmosphere, characters, and supernatural danger on its own terms.

It is a complete story, and readers do not need to finish Shotgun Boy before understanding its premise.

If you’re deciding whether the original comic is for you, my Sweet Home webtoon review looks at Hyun-su’s growth, the monster artwork, and the tension that kept me reading.

2. Shotgun Boy

Continue with the official English Shotgun Boy webtoon.

The opening focuses on Han Gyuhwan, a student facing bullying who encounters another terrifying survival situation.

The series offers a different entry point into the fictional world.

Reading it second means you already know the atmosphere and central premise of Sweet Home, without requiring this guide to explain the later connections.

Why Recommend Publication Order?

Because a prequel written afterward may be designed with an audience already familiar with the original work.

A later story can draw meaning from what readers know, even when its fictional events happen earlier.

That doesn’t prove every scene in Shotgun Boy assumes prior knowledge.

It simply makes publication order a sensible, spoiler-conscious default.

This is an editorial recommendation rather than an official rule from Naver WEBTOON.

You aren’t reading the series incorrectly if you choose a different order.

3. Chronological Order: Shotgun Boy First

If you prefer following fictional events from earlier to later, reverse the order.

1. Shotgun Boy

2. Sweet Home

This approach begins with the prequel before moving to the original main work.

It may appeal to readers who enjoy learning about a fictional setting before encountering the story that first introduced it to the public.

But there’s an important trade-off.

Reading an earlier-set story first is not the same as seeing the fictional world unfold in its original publication order.

Some connections may feel different when you discover them before reading the main story.

For that reason, chronological order is an option, not a requirement.

There’s no need to construct a complicated chapter-by-chapter timeline just to get started.

Read each completed webtoon as its own serialized work.

4. What Is the Difference Between the Two Stories?

Although the webtoons share a fictional world, their opening situations are different.

Sweet Home focuses on Cha Hyun-su and residents of Green Home, a building where isolation, fear, and unexpected cooperation become important.

Shotgun Boy introduces Han Gyuhwan, a boy who has been subjected to bullying.

The official English WEBTOON description places him in a frightening situation involving other students and creatures that attack people.

That means the prequel has its own immediate conflict rather than simply repeating the apartment-building setup.

Different Protagonists, Different Starting Points

Hyun-su’s opening is connected to withdrawal from ordinary life.

Gyuhwan’s opening places school bullying and a dangerous encounter at the center of the premise.

These are different ways of introducing a young person under pressure.

Both can support suspense and questions about human behavior, but that doesn’t make the protagonists interchangeable.

The shared fictional world is important. So is the fact that each story has a character whose problems deserve to be understood independently.

The prequel relationship should not reduce Shotgun Boy to a collection of clues about another series.

It is also a completed thriller webtoon with its own storytelling identity.

Is Shotgun Boy Just More of Sweet Home’s Monsterization Story?

It belongs to the same broader fictional setting, but you should not expect every scene to function as an explanation of Sweet Home’s supernatural system.

The official introduction presents Shotgun Boy as a story about Gyuhwan’s dangerous circumstances.

Its connection to Sweet Home provides additional context, not a reason to skip the story itself.

If you’re interested specifically in the relationship between desire and becoming a monster, read Sweet Home Monsters Explained: Desire, Monsterization & Humanity.

That guide covers the shared premise without revealing later monster identities or plot resolutions.

5. The Creators: Same Writer, Different Artists

This is an important detail that can get lost when readers see the same writer credited on both covers.

Sweet Home

• Story: Carnby Kim (김칸비)
• Art: Youngchan Hwang (황영찬)

Shotgun Boy

• Story: Carnby Kim (김칸비)
• Art: Hongpil (홍필)

The official English WEBTOON pages distinguish these credits, as do the original Korean listings.

The works therefore share a writer but not the same credited main artist.

That’s worth knowing before you begin.

Illustration shapes far more than what characters look like. It influences the rhythm of a scene, visual emphasis, atmosphere, and how suspense is presented.

Two comics connected through story can still feel different because different artists make different visual choices.

It would be misleading to assume that Shotgun Boy must look exactly like Sweet Home because Carnby Kim wrote both.

And there’s no reason to treat one artist’s approach as inherently better than the other’s.

The different art credits are part of what makes these two distinct creative works.

6. What Does the Korean Title 엽총소년 Mean?

The original Korean title of Shotgun Boy is 엽총소년.

It combines two words.

엽총 (yeopchong) refers to a hunting gun, commonly rendered as a shotgun in this title.

소년 (sonyeon) means a boy or young male youth.

Together, the words form a compact title centered on a boy and a firearm.

The official English title, Shotgun Boy, conveys that basic image directly.

There’s no hidden reference to a Korean historical event or cultural practice that readers need to decode.

The more useful detail is the title’s emphasis.

Unlike Sweet Home, which names a comforting idea and gives it an unsettling context, Shotgun Boy immediately places a young character and a dangerous object at the center of attention.

One title sounds reassuring until you encounter the horror.

The other announces a threatening situation from the beginning.

That’s a difference in how the two works introduce themselves, not a claim that their full stories can be understood from their titles alone.

What About the Korean Word 프리퀄?

Korean media often use 프리퀄 (peurikweol), a transliteration of the English word “prequel.”

This is the term used in the official Korean description of Shotgun Boy.

You may also encounter Korean articles using 속편, a broader word for a follow-up work, while explaining that the story itself takes place earlier.

The safest way to avoid confusion is to distinguish the two facts:

Shotgun Boy was published later, but it is a prequel in the fictional chronology.

That is the relationship relevant to your reading order.

7. Is Shotgun Boy Connected to the Netflix Sweet Home Drama?

The verified connection is primarily between the two original Korean webtoons.

Netflix’s Sweet Home is an adaptation of Carnby Kim and Youngchan Hwang’s original comic.

But the television series expands and changes material across its three seasons.

As a result, it’s not safe to assume that every continuity detail from Shotgun Boy can be transferred directly into the Netflix adaptation.

The comic relationship and the drama adaptation are different questions.

If you watched Sweet Home on Netflix first, you can still read both comics.

Just treat them as the original webtoon works rather than expecting their events to line up precisely with the television seasons.

For more on that distinction, see Sweet Home Webtoon vs. Netflix: 5 Differences That Matter.

For my response to the screen version, my Sweet Home drama review (Seasons 1–3) covers the human relationships and Season 1’s apartment tension I enjoyed, alongside my reservations about Season 2’s pace and the explanations. That review covers the Netflix series; the prequel reading order here concerns the two comics.

You don’t need to finish the Netflix drama before starting Shotgun Boy.

8. Where Can You Read Sweet Home and Shotgun Boy Officially?

Both works have completed official English WEBTOON listings.

Webtoon	Official English Edition	Original Korean Edition
Sweet Home	WEBTOON — Sweet Home	Naver WEBTOON — 스위트홈
Shotgun Boy	WEBTOON — Shotgun Boy	Naver WEBTOON — 엽총소년

The English listings identify both comics as completed.

However, “completed” describes the publication status, not a guarantee that every episode can be opened for free under every platform condition.

Availability, app requirements, and episode-unlocking policies can change.

Use the official listings rather than an unlicensed reposting site.

Both series include disturbing situations and violence. Shotgun Boy’s opening also involves bullying and the presence of a firearm, so readers sensitive to those subjects should consider the premises before starting.

Final Recommendation: Read Sweet Home, Then Shotgun Boy

For someone discovering this fictional world for the first time, Sweet Home → Shotgun Boy is the recommended order.

It follows the actual publication sequence, introduces the original story first, and leaves the prequel’s connections to be discovered afterward.

If you prefer chronological storytelling, Shotgun Boy → Sweet Home is also a valid choice.

What matters is understanding why the orders differ.

One follows how the works were released. The other follows the earlier-to-later relationship established in the fiction.

You don’t need to solve a complicated shared-universe puzzle before opening the first episode.

Start with the story that interests you, use the official editions, and let the other become another way to explore Carnby Kim’s world.

For an overview of the original comic and Netflix adaptation, visit the Sweet Home title guide.

Official Sources and Further Reading

• Naver WEBTOON — 엽총소년 — Korean creator credits, completed status, original opening description, and explicit prequel identification.
• WEBTOON — Shotgun Boy — official English edition, creator credits, premise, and completion status.
• Naver WEBTOON — 스위트홈 — original Korean Sweet Home listing, publication history, and credits.
• WEBTOON — Sweet Home — official English original and creator information.
• ZDNet Korea — Naver WEBTOON’s Shotgun Boy Announcement (February 2021) — contemporary Korean reporting on the prequel’s publication and its relationship with Sweet Home.