Compare and Contrast: Western Comics and Manga - Defining the Terms

In my career as an artist I have explored different media and different outlets for my creative expression. I landed on comics as a way of being able to blend artwork and storytelling. As I created more and more comics I began to expand my horizons and look at other ways of creating sequential art. One of the avenues I began to explore was difference between manga and Western comics. The first thing I realised was that I would have to figure out which definition of manga and comics I was going to use.

The first thing that people must realise is that both manga and comics are forms of sequential art. Second of all, manga merely means comic in Japanese. Over the years the term manga has evolved to refer to comics that are from Japan or have been heavily influenced by Japanese art and design. For simplicity's sake, I will be using the term manga to describe the style of sequential art. I recognise that this is a poor term to use but I have to start somewhere.

In the same way we have difficulties defining the term manga, we also have problems defining comics. Comics include manga by their very definition. A magazine made up of narrative artwork. In the same way I have to butcher the term manga I must also butcher the term comic which will refer to sequential art books not created nor influenced by Japanese sequential art and design.

Now that I have briefly defined the terms, we can now discuss the origins of manga and comics.