Manga 101

Manga, is the equivalent of western comics in Japan. That is not the only thing that separates comics from manga, here are a few comparisons:

1. Japanese books read right-to-left, not left-to-right like we usually do. It takes some getting used to as the reading style in manga is flipped. Once you get used to it though, you open a book from the back like you're reading a manga. (Yes, I do that all the time now.)
2. Manga has a wide span of themes, genres and titles to choose from. From supernatural to reality based genres. There's a lot, including sports, horror, fantasy, romance, ecchi (which is basically the letter "H" and the abbreviation of hentai which means weird, odd, perverted in Japanese) and some other genres you don't want to know (I'm talking about you yaoi and yuri.)
3. Manga closely resembles graphic novels, because mangas and graphic novels have endings. They don't just continue to live on or be replaced by a new character to fill in for the death of a former one (*cough*Marvel*cough*.)
4. Manga tells the story through action instead of dialogue like comics and graphic novels do. Some manga titles do have lengthy dialogues but they lean more towards action.
5. Manga is not just black and white comics, as it does not need color to tell a story. It does use screen tones to make it feel lighter and express feelings like shock and sadness.
6. Comics usually come out in volumes as trade paperbacks (or TPB.) Mangas do that too, they are called Tankobon.
• Most tankobons have more pages than TPB's (Tankobon's are usually in the 200 pages range while TPBs are in the 120 page range.)
• Tankobons are smaller but thicker while TPB's are larger but thin (duh, the pages.)
7. Some manga titles come out weekly and some are monthly. Most comics come out monthly.

Those are some of the manga and comic differences and comparisons. Hope you find that informative.