Manga or Comics: What’s the difference?

Now I have heard this question like a billion times. I’ve also been in situations where I could be reading a manga somewhere and I can hear someone nearby saying that she’s reading a comic book. But, I’m not its manga! Now to the untrained eye they may look similar, especially, if you’re not a fan of manga or comic books. But, there is a great difference between them and for me I think I can sum it all up in three major differences.

1. Manga’s origin comes from the Japanese. Americans made comics.

2. When reading a comic book it will always be in color, while reading manga you’ll rarely see it. The cover and first couple of pages might be in color, but don’t get your hopes up. Also, when you read a comic its left to right like your reading a book. For mangas its right to left.

3. Now what I think is the most important difference between the two is the drawn line on how far they will go. For comics they’ll go a certain extent of how much their going to show in it. Like for most comics, they won’t show too much. They will either censor it or not put it in at all, but imply that it did happen. Mangas, on the other hand, will do the exact opposite. They will show you everything that goes in the story as much as possible. You want to watch someone’s body get torn to shreds? You got it. You want to watch two people have sex? No problem. Do you want to agonizingly read someone get raped page after page? They’ll show that, too. The point is that mangas will go way, way further than a comic would and that’s what people like about it.

I guess I ended up telling you four differences than just three, but that’s okay. Also, I would like to let you know that I was not trying to say that manga is better than comics or vise versa. No that’s not the point I was trying to make I just wanted to explain the obvious differences between the two. Some people like mangas and some like comics, its not a bad thing. Both give joy and entertainment to its readers and that’s what its about. I hope you’ll enjoy both or one or the other to the fullest.

Thanks for Reading!