books Manga vs. Comics

[sxp 404]

Seriously, why not both? I haven't read many mangas and comics, so I might not be an expert in this case. They are different, but I can't tell which is better.

[BritishBrony2012 803]

I'm more of a Comic reader, I do read few manga.

[Denim&Venöm 18,831]

Manga, just by my comics to manga ratio alone. I have a few stacks of comics, most of them MLP issues. I have shelves of manga, most of them a book or two from a different series apiece.  Like others have said, the manga art style and aesthetic is more appealing to me.

 

As has also been said, manga has more variety than american. There's something out there for everyone in manga. I usually read comedic, romantic or slice of life stuff. I don't own much that's primarily focused on action, and that's what dominates the american comics market. You have to dig pretty deep to find alternatives in america.

 

And as mentioned, I get more bang for my buck with manga. It's a read that last longer. The world and it's characters are more fleshed out. Comic stories feel rushed. You can only put so good of a story into so few pages, then wait a month for more of the same. 

 

It may be just me, but it feels like comics for the most part are a bit too serious. Yes manga, can get pretty dark, but it can also be pretty lighthearted. And this maybe just me, but manag offers more escapism, either to a different world, or showcasing fun with this one. Comics show our world and all it's problems. Sure they're being tackled by superheroes, but the fact that it still shows the issues doesn't help. 

 

 

...Or maybe all of the above is irrelevant and I just read for the cute girls. 

[superdogz1999 551]

Manga is way better than comics due to the lovely art style.

The only comics I read are the MLP comics.

[Gestum 2,493]

Both are good. Why do we need to chose?

 

Also manga is technically comic books.

[Chara 1,565]

I chose comics because as a kid I really loved the batman comics. I never read a manga before.

[Kivil 1,721]

The American comics are just about superheroes and action. Not my thing. I chose manga because my sister is into anime and stuff like that and I get all of her Bleach novels

[Dynamo Pad 11,286]

I have read some comics and manga and if I had to choose I would pick manga. I like the way to read them from right to left, some of the genres of stories, and the many story arcs in some manga. 

[Envy 6,159]

When I think of 'comics', I think of superhero stuff, and that really doesn't interest me whatsoever. So, since I do read manga, manga definitely wins for me.

[RAGESTAR 479]

Manga is better, imo. The plots are more diverse and unique, the characters are more deep and don't completely change, edit, or remaster their backstory/personality every few years. Also, 9.5/10, they are more consistent. Most mangaka, and their team, stay with a franchise until its done. With comics, its come and go, every few years, changing details about the story and traits of characters with revolving writers, like freaking clockwork.

 

That, and the art styles and fight scenes are better, as well. At least, that's how I feel about it...but hey, what do I know?

[Pastel 7,630]

Mangas, although I don't read anymore. They're still better and more interesting than comics.

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,302]

I never really got into collecting and reading American comics, but I've collected and read a decent amount of manga.  My favorite series being Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Death Note, and Dragon Ball; though I've also collected the likes of xxxHOLiC, Gunsmith Cats, Sailor Moon, Claymore, and Cardcaptor Sakura.  I prefer the art in manga, and I think many people can tell the work of Akira Toriyama from the work of CLAMP from the work of Hirohiko Araki from the work of Takeshi Obata with little trouble.

[KiteDarkness 5]

I'm around half and half when comparing the two. Maybe leaning more towards comics. My preference changes from time to time.

 

Disregarding some of the hilariously wrong generalizations being made in this thread concerning the whole "It's only superheroes and action" nonsense, Western comics do often have cohesive and interesting stories to tell. They're also more well paced due to not being hindered by crazy deadlines and release schedules that wind up forcing manga authors to constantly pad out their chapters/issues, causing plot progression to slow to a crawl, with half of the pages being filled up with nothing substantial(the Shonen genre is the one that mostly suffers from this). When there is action, it also tends to blend in with the storylines a bit better and doesn't take away the focus. The trade off is that you don't have a lot of panels dedicated to a bunch of really awesome choreography that one would find in a lot of action-packed manga, but it is a necessary sacrifice for the sake of good pacing and story structure.

 

Aside from decent pacing, one other great strength usually found in comics the dialogue in various interactions. While 30-40 decades ago, it used to be a bit too over the top and hamfisted, there's a sense of humanity and believability in the way comic book characters often talk in recent times, even when it's just some crazy villain making a sinister monologue. It feels like a really organic movie script put into graphic novel form. With manga dialogue, the quality usually varies, but it's often a bit more overly emotional and melodramatic outside of the more adult material. Sometimes it works in a particular series' favor, but it can get rather overbearing depending on the scene and type of story the author's trying to tell. Characters can also kind of just go into these random deep analyses about how they're/someone else is feeling(usually with the obligatory flashbacks) and going on and on about their life stories, as if they're doing a character study. It's essentially laying out all the themes, thought processes and developments on the table instead of letting readers interpret and find them on their own. I often believe this is why a number of people often fall into the illusion thinking "manga are more deeper" when the only difference is they're just being spoon fed all the stuff that gives those stories their depth through clunky exposition.

 

One aspect where manga prevails over comics is their accessibility. Even though they have similar release schedules with their initial issues, you can often grab a convenient compilation of chapters put together in various volumes, and keep up with their stories much more easily. That's not to say comics don't have paperbacks and hardcovers(they obviously do), but manga paperbacks often pack in a lot more and aren't released under random titles, just simple volume numbers. This makes it much easier to collect and keep up with the material.

 

Another positive aspect with manga is the variety of stories written, and the freedom of creativity. While one wouldn't exactly say their writers are more "imaginative"(and any implications from the people in this thread that say that are objectively wrong and bigoted), but because they're originally catered to their home country, which is a much smaller audience, it allows for a lot more legroom to write the most expressive and unusual stuff with a much higher chance to be worthy of publication and actually sell. Then they get localized and foreigners wind up enjoying them anyway, despite the extremely unusual material. This is in a direct contrast to up-and-coming Western comic book authors, who probably share very similar unique ideas and crazy character designs, but are forced by stifling publishers and head honchos to keep their projects more grounded in favor of catering to a larger audience that aren't turned off by outlandish and "silly" things. It's a really grating limitation that manga fortunately often avoids.

 

Comics and manga both have another difference in how they're written, and it hilariously brings about both negatives and positives on each side. With comics, you'd often get revolving writers with long-running series, so quality can be a bit inconsistent. For a year or two, you'd get an amazing writer, then another year you'd get an average or terrible one. This fluctuation can often hurt a series' enjoyment, but the gain from this is the fact that at least you'll know the bad stuff won't last, and that there's always someone able to pick up the pieces and rectify whatever screw ups some terrible author created for a franchise. The flawed writing is ultimately left in the dust, and their replacements begin paving the way for better and more interesting developments. Less long-running titles are often a bit more self-contained and usually keep the same writer(s) and artists.

 

Similar to those shorter comics, manga are also usually done the same author(or co-authors) all the way through(with a couple of assistants that change over the years), and they're usually the ones creating those new publications. From the start, this can turn out to be a tremendous positive and can be the best for a good deal of stories, but a lot of manga series often wind up getting into a slump after their publishers and editors push them to keep them going. The creators can get burnt out, and their series ends up hitting these pitfalls and become overly bloated and insufferable to read. The quality winds up getting so low, and they rarely recover from it.

 

Ultimately, both Western comics and manga have many different positives, flaws and limitations, but neither of them are really better or deeper than the other. Everything bounces about in quality, and it all comes down to preference.