Acception, initially published by Syndikaat Studio Hoekhuis as Acception #Losers, is an ongoing Dutchteendramedyromancewebcomic written and illustrated by Coco “Colourbee” Ouwerkerk, initially published in 2015, and online to Tapas and WEBTOON since 2017. Acception follows a group of misfit teenagers, in particular the rainbow-haired protagonist Arcus, the queen bee Iris, the goth Maud and her gamer older brother Gale, starting high school in the Netherlands. While nothing alike personality-wise, they are all brought together for one reason or another. The 54th episode of the series serves as a crossover with fellow webtoonZomCom.
Overview
Acception describes itself as while "may be Arcus’ story – but it's all OUR stories too - and it is for anyone who's ever struggled to fit in, find love, or thought that High School was pretty much the worst thing ever invented.", specifically describing main protagonist Arcus "With his rainbow-colored hair and love of all things fashion, Arcus is anything BUT your average teenager. He’s an upbeat independent thinker, proud fashionista and, like the rest of us, is just looking for a few friends to call his own."
Development
Andersen started developingAcception alongside yokaimanga seriesOYASUMI in 2015 as a television pilot. She was studying at the University of Hong Kong at the time, from which she graduated in 2016 to work on the webcomic full-time. Ouwerkerk noted in an interview that she was mainly fascinated by stories about "people who have yet to find their lives", and that she writes Acception so-as "to make stories for teenagers and take that audience seriously". Volume 2, subtitled #Friendship, began in 2019, with Volume 3 following in 2020. The comic was collected in a book independently published by Ouwerkerk with Syndikaat Studio Hoekhuis in November 2017, launching as Featured on WEBTOON in 2018 with over 1.4 million global reads and 115,000 subscribers.
Reception
Acception was nominated in the Netherlands for the Yieha Young Talent Award and the "youth album of the year" category by Het Stripschap, for Acception #Losers in 2016 and 2017.
