The difference between reading Manga and Comics

[thedan]

I have only recently entered the world of Comic Books, from where I drifted in Manga and I've noticed a single core difference so far...

I can read one of my Volumes of the manga Bleach in 20 minutes, however, reading an entire Volume of a Comic takes alot longer, between 30minutes and an hour and a half.

Maybe this is because the Bleach isn't inked, so each panel has a lot less to take in, or maybe it's because Comic's are a different style and I'm still new at viewing this style... Who Knows?

thedan

[Daemon]

what do you mean a volume of comics?

you mean a collected graphic novel? Cause those generally are about 10 or more comic issues collected into one volume.

a Volume of manga is generally 8-10 chapters collected together.

[thedan]

Yeah, with about 8 or so issues compared with a volume of manga with about 8 chapters.

Similar thing in my opinion...

[Inkthinker]

Bleach isn't inked? What's all that solid black about, then?

The difference you're noticing is that some Western comics compress more story into their pages than some manga. A series like Bleach is very decompressed, and something like Hellboy or 100 Bullets is less so. It's not as noticeable at the macro level, but when collected in volumes of similar length it begins to show.

There's not, so far as I've ever noticed, much difference in terms of page length between "chapters" and "issues" (they both produce about 32 pages a month) but it might be that the stand-alone nature of the traditional comic book leads to more self-containment than the chapter-by-chapter nature of many manga.

But mostly this is just one of the differences between the East and the West in terms of comics storytelling. That gap is rapidly diminishing, I think, as creators on both sides of the world are increasingly influenced by each other, but it'll probably never really homogenize.

Congratulations, you've moved up into the wider world of comics reading! There's a lot of really great stuff out there for you to discover... I'd suggest checking out DC's Vertigo imprint, Image and Dark Horse comics. There's some awesome stuff being done these days.

If you think American comics are heavy reads, try some European books. Guys like Herge or Moebius put a LOT of story into one volume.

[Daemon]

There's not, so far as I've ever noticed, much difference in terms of page length between "chapters" and "issues" (they both produce about 32 pages a month) but it might be that the stand-alone nature of the traditional comic book leads to more self-containment than the chapter-by-chapter nature of many manga.

Are you sure about that? I've generally noticed that Manga averages about 18-20 pages a chapter.

where as comics tend to have 20-24 pages an issue.

[Zero Hunter]

There's not, so far as I've ever noticed, much difference in terms of page length between "chapters" and "issues" (they both produce about 32 pages a month) but it might be that the stand-alone nature of the traditional comic book leads to more self-containment than the chapter-by-chapter nature of many manga.

.

Actully some you get 18 or so pages 4 times a month so your really getting 70-72 pages a month.

[Inkthinker]

Actully some you get 18 or so pages 4 times a month so your really getting 70-72 pages a month.

Example? I haven't seen anyone produce at this level, certainly not while maintaining a high quality of art. Even weekly magazines like Jump rotate their titles every two weeks, and we're back to the same average numbers.

And that's usually consisting of some decompressed, four-panels-per-page fight action. I love Tite Kubo, but that man stretches his shit out.

My point remains valid... if someone feels like they're getting more mileage out of a book, it's probably because of less decompressed storytelling. It's not an issue of quality of content, but rather panels on the page and the time it takes to read it.