American Comic Books versus Japanese Manga

2 responses to “American Comic Books versus Japanese Manga”

1. Jd Banks | September 18, 2014 at 9:39 am | Reply

   Nice table. Disagree with the audience, distribution, and comic book company characteristics. The audiences in Japanese manga usually come with the genres such as josei (aimed at young women), seinen (aimed at young men), yuri (aimed at boys and men), and boys’ love or BL (aimed at girls and women). The American publishing of mostly adult, shojo, and shonen manga only represent a small portion of comics available from Japan. In Japan and the States, manga is sold in tankoubon, or volume, format. The top comic book publishers and distributors in Japan are Kodansha, Shueisha, and Shogakukan. In the United States, they are Viz Media, Crunchyroll (who publishes manga directly from Japan digitally), Del Rey, Seven Seas, and Yen Press.

2. foxhugh | September 18, 2014 at 12:02 pm | Reply

   You are obviously a man who know his manga. I first fell in love with Japanese pop culture when I was seven and saw Astroboy in black and white on TV. I thought I had hit the mother lode when I lived in Japan for six months about six years ago but actually it just made me realize how little I really knew about Japan and Japanese pop culture. I do not know Japanese. I could stare at the manga covers but not understand ninety percent of what I was looking at. Your comments about the genres helps me understand some of the manga bookstores I visited. In hindsight I would have to say its more or less how the sections of the manga bookstores are arranged often by floor. The info about the US publishers of manga will be extremely helpful to anyone who wants manga in English in the US!