Compare-Contrast Essay

Comic vs. Manga

The Differences and Similarities

By: Nur Fatikh Rifana

        Sometimes when someone read a story which is told in form of drawing picture, they called it as reading a comic. Whether they are reading “Batman” or “Naruto”, yet they called it as reading comic. However, when someone who “knows” the difference between “Batman” and “Naruto”, they would like to say that they are reading “manga” when they are holding “Naruto”. The term “manga” itself is essentially a Japanese translation from English word “comic”. If that so, is there similarity and difference between American comic –in sort we said as comic- and manga? While both comic and manga is a term for a story which is told in a form of picture, nevertheless we also can find a few significant differences between them.

            There are some profound differences between comic and manga. The biggest difference –in addition to the fact that Japanese comic or manga is created in Japanese while American comic are originally created in English- is that the different drawing style between them. Comic are more realistic than manga. For instance: the way comic’s creator draw the characters is very similar to the picture of human as we can see on Marvell’s comic. Manga, on the other hand is a more whimsical, exaggerated and traditional style. Mangaka –the terminology for manga creator- usually draw the characters with large eyes, small nose and small eyes and this became one of the main characteristics of manga and anime –animation form of manga-.

            We also can draw difference between comic and manga from their form. Comic is usually printed in fullcolor. On the contrary, manga is mostly printed in black-and-white color. When comic is read from left to the right –front to the back-, manga is mostly read from right to the left –back to front-. It is because the influence of the culture of Japanese. The size of a Manga comic is rather different too. Manga is often made in a smaller size than an American comic. Even though a Manga is one-third the size of a traditional American comic, a Manga can be real thick and run up to one hundred pages in length. A complete storyline or even just a series can run a thousand pages (such as the famed comic “Detective Conan” and “Bleach”).

            Another different between comic and manga is about the creator in a creation process of making story. A comic is drawn by several people in one team. Each person has different task such as writer, penciler, inker, letterer, and colorist. However Manga usually just has one creator who does all these tasks except for coloring –the coloring pages usually just the cover and some special pages included inside the story-. For example the comic “Batman” and “Spider Man” is created by Marvell Inc while manga “Detective Conan” is created by single mangakaGosho Aoyama.

            Not only differences, we also can find the similarities between comic and manga. Both of comic and manga are effective ways of telling a story because it has interesting way of telling the story. Some comics story is remade as a TV serial even a movie such as “Spider Man”, “Superman”, “The Avengers” and many more. We could enjoy the story in an animated form. Similar to comic, some mangas also remake and produce in the form of animated serial –usually called as anime- such as “Detective Conan”, “Bleach”, “Naruto” and so on. Not only produced as TV serial, some mangas also produced as a movie such as “Death Note” which is produced into three sequel movies “Death Note”, “Death Note The Last Name”, and “Death Note L Change the World”.

            Despite the differences and similarities which have “briefly” explained above.Both comic and manga have some similarities, but they are vastly different. Both of themhavetheir own ways to draw interest from the readers. In the end it comes down to personal preference. Some people may like manga over comic or otherwise. It is alright to like one over other because everyone must has different preference. One thing to remember that difference preference does not make one is really superior to another.