Erma (webtoon)

Lore & Background

Erma Williams is the titular protagonist, a half-human/half-yokai hybrid called Hanyō, daughter of Sam and Emiko. The comic focuses on her supernatural life in the suburbs of Blairwood, her friendships with Amy, Terry, Connor, and others, and her battles with foes such as the demonic dummy Wittle Wallace and the Invisible Man. A prequel graphic novel, Spirit's Bloom, details how her parents met and fell in love, while a sequel, The Harvest, was set for release in late January to February. The series also includes anthology collections like Tales of the Outcast, which focuses on other characters from Erma's world.

Reader's Guide

Erma originated from a short parody one-shot of Ju-On and The Ring published on May 28, 2014. After going viral, Santiago developed it into a series debuting on Tapas on January 3, 2016, and on WEBTOON on April 14, 2018. The series has been released in print collections, a short film pilot, and an animated series on YouTube from July 2024. A point-and-click adventure video game, Erma: The Game, was released on Steam on January 30, 2026. The series is notable for blending horror and comedy while exploring themes of friendship and acceptance, and it has been praised for its originality and creativity.

Did You Know?

• The name 'Erma' was taken from the minor Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character Irma Langinstein.
• Erma was the most-viewed webcomic on Tapas in 2019 with 64.5 million views and 74.9 thousand subscribers.
• A prequel graphic novel titled Spirit's Bloom was published in October 2017.
• The series originated from a short parody one-shot of Ju-On and The Ring published on May 28, 2014.

From DeviantArt to the Top of Tapas

Brandon J. Santiago, a Mexican artist, first brought Erma to life in May 2014, self-publishing the webcomic on DeviantArt and Tumblr. What began as an independent project on smaller creative platforms eventually found a much larger audience when Santiago began distributing the series through major webtoon services like Tapas and WEBTOON starting in January 2016. The comic was made accessible in both English and Spanish, broadening its potential readership across the Americas and beyond. By the close of 2019, the numbers spoke for themselves: Comics Beat reported that Erma had accumulated 64.5 million views and 74,900 subscribers on Tapas alone, earning it the title of the most-viewed webcomic on that syndicate for the year. This meteoric rise from a niche DeviantArt posting to a top-tier webtoon property illustrates both the universal appeal of Santiago's storytelling and the growing legitimacy of digital comics as a global medium.

A Suburban Town Full of the Supernatural

Set in the fictional suburban town of Blairwood, Erma centers on a young girl—initially six years old—whose half-human, half-yōkai heritage (classified as a Hanyō) grants her haunting abilities she wields for everyday mischief, both harmless and destructive. Her daily life orbits a tight-knit circle: best friend Amy Thorn, prankster Terry, and Connor Hobson, with whom she shares a mutual crush. Babysitter Felicia Buford steps in after her predecessor Nancy was driven to a mental hospital by Erma's pranks, while fellow Warrior Unicorn Princess superfan Sidney and other classmates round out the ensemble. The world expands well beyond the neighborhood, pulling in the formidable Yureimoto clan in Japan—Emiko's family, where siblings embody different yokai types like oni, harionago, and rokurokubi—alongside the paternal Williams family. Antagonists range from Wittle Wallace, a demented possessed puppet seeking Erma's powers, to The Invisible Man, a recurring threat first introduced in the prequel. Even Siris, Erma's indestructible undead pet dog named after the Egyptian god Osiris, adds a layer of dark humor to the cast.

A Franchise That Keeps Growing

Santiago's vision for Erma has far outgrown a single webcomic strip. In October 2017, he released Spirit's Bloom, a prequel graphic novel tracing how Erma's parents—novelist Sam Williams and Emiko Yureimoto, an Onryō from the Yureimoto clan—met and fell in love before Erma's birth. That same period saw the publication of two anthology collections and a short animated pilot produced by Outcast Studios. The anthology concept evolved into Tales of Outcast, a spin-off spotlighting side characters in short stories, initially an 18-issue physical release (plus a bonus 19th issue with concept art) before migrating to digital distribution on WEBTOON and Tapas. Additional works include the stand-alone series Night Detective, Siris, and Warrior Unicorn Princess, plus an in-universe novel titled Yokai. In April 2020, a picture book called Meet Erma arrived for younger readers. The franchise's most ambitious leap came in July 2024, when an animated series began airing on YouTube, followed by Erma: The Game, a point-and-click adventure launching on Steam on January 30, 2026, with additional platform releases planned.

Horror, Comedy, and the Heart of a Child

What distinguishes Erma from typical horror or comedy properties is Santiago's deliberate fusion of the two genres through the lens of childhood. Erma's supernatural powers are not treated as grandiose or terrifying; instead, they are woven into the mundane rhythms of suburban life—haunting a babysitter, causing chaos at Blairwood Elementary, or simply being a kid who wants to fit in. The series foregrounds themes of friendship and acceptance, showing a half-yōkai girl navigating a world that fears her while building genuine bonds with peers like Amy, Connor, and Sylvia. The tone balances genuine scares—villains like the possessed puppet Wittle Wallace or the psychological menace of The Invisible Man—with lighthearted pranks and the warmth of family gatherings among the Williams, Thorn, and Yureimoto households. Santiago's Mexican heritage and the story's bilingual availability in English and Spanish further ground the narrative in a specific cultural perspective, while the Japanese yokai mythology of the Yureimoto clan adds a rich mythological layer. The result is a series that treats the supernatural not as spectacle but as a natural part of a child's identity, asking readers to accept the strange and the different as simply another facet of everyday life.

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