Manga (Japanese Comics)

Manga is Japanese comics, although the name is about where the similarity ends with American comics. Manga range from 1-4 panel gag strips, to 20+ page per installment continuing stories. It is written for all ages, occupations, and subject matter. In fact, manga was originally for adults! However, like everywhere else, manga aimed at children and teenagers now dominate market which is fully half the publishing industry in Japan. How-to manuals are written in manga! Most pleasure manga is originally published in weekly or monthly collections the size of phone books. The largest circulation (at my last information) is Jump Comics, a 600+ page weekly that sells over 6 million copies each week. The top 5 or 6 comic magazines sell over 1 million copies each period (weekly or monthly). On the average, each copy is read by 2-3 people. They have enormous circulation! These weekly and monthly comic magazines are printed on very cheap newsprint-like paper, and are not intended to last. Popular manga are periodically collected into tankouban, which contain 150-200 pages of a particular title, and are are at least as durable as a paperback book (at a similar size and price).

My Favorite Manga

The following is a list of some of the manga that I've bought, in no particular order. Just like anime is now getting translated into English, so is some manga (english translated volumes that I have are marked): And more. Note that + after the volumes means that it is still being written. - after the number means that I don't have them all yet. You will notice that some of these correspond to anime that I like (but I haven't linked them).

For Further Reading

Here are some general references to manga that I've found:

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Scott Henry <scotth@sgi.com>
Last modified: Sun Feb 1 15:06:00 1998