Manga

:This article is about the Japanese medium. For other uses see Manga (disambiguation)

Manga format

Manga magazines usually have many series running concurrently with approximately 20?40 pages allocated to each series per issue. These manga magazines, or "anthology magazines", as they are also known, are usually printed on low-quality newsprint and can be anywhere from 200 to more than 850 pages long. Manga magazines also contain one-shot comics and various four-panel yonkoma (equivalent to comic strips). Manga series can run for many years if they are successful. Manga artists sometimes start out with a few "one-shot" manga projects just to try to get their name out. If these are successful and receive good reviews, they are continued.

Related Topics:
One-shot - Yonkoma - Comic strips

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When a series has been running for a while, the stories are usually collected together and printed in dedicated book-sized volumes, called tank?bon. These volumes use higher-quality paper, and are useful to those who want to "catch up" with a series so they can follow it in the magazines or if they find the cost of the weeklies or monthlies to be prohibitive. Recently, "deluxe" versions have also been printed as readers have gotten older and the need for something special grew. Old manga have also been reprinted using somewhat lesser quality paper and sold for 100 yen each to compete with the used book market.

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Manga are primarily classified by the age and gender of the target audience. In particular, books and magazines sold to boys (sh?nen) and girls (sh?jo) have distinctive cover art and are placed on different shelves in most bookstores.

Related Topics:
Sh?nen - Sh?jo

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Japan also has manga cafés, or manga kissaten. At a manga kissaten, people drink coffee and read manga.

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Many things appear in manga format, including wanted posters for criminals.

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Traditionally, manga are written from right to left. Some publishers of translated manga keep that format, but some switch the direction to left to right, so as not to confuse the readers.

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