(A hopefully long post incoming)
0. Preface
1. America
-1A. Names to know
-1B. Manga near you
-1C. Kinokuniya
-1D. Importing
-1E. Scanlations
-1F. Mangafox
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0. Preface:
So, what is manga? When looking at that question, it is important to remember, that "Manga" is sometimes used as a blanket term, and comics from other parts of Asia, are sometimes added to this term.
Manga, like every form of entertainment is split into your typical genres, mystery, horror, drama, comedy, romance. And also is split into 4 demographics, Shonen, Shojou, Seinen, and Josei. Those demographic terms should not be used as black and white, as they only really act to categorize things. Take Cardcaptor Sakura or Sanzae-San. Believe it or not, manga was actually influenced by America, at the end of World War II, because of the American occupation. In fact, a lot of Japanese pop culture is influenced by America.
Manga, local to Japan at first, gained worldwide popularity, and now has a worldwide audience and a market as well.
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1. In English
I'm going to assume you, the reader, are American, because I can't say much about outside America or Japan. Now then I hope you know something about the process to books.
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1A. Names to know
In America, there are several large publishers of Manga.
Dark Horse Comics - They seem to publish some of the darker, and older Manga, as well as CLAMP titles
Yen Press - I think they have a monthly Manga magazine, like in Japan
Tokyopop - Ok, these guys may be defunct, I'm not entirely too sure, because, they did stop publishing, but beyond that, I am unaware of their future plans.
Del Ray Manga - Subsidiary to Randomhouse, they have quite a lot of titles liscenced
Viz Media - Who also sit on the rights to Bleach (Which is ending soon).
If you buy from these companies, you will help expand the R1 Market (America, and Canada). Less will go to the author, and more to the publishers. This in turn will help them make more money, to get licence more manga, make more money ect. ect.
I believe, you can also contact a company and request a title, if enough people ask for it, then they may attempt to get the licence, and start publishing. Similar to anime, the Japanese ask for ridiculous licencing fees, which is why, if you want to see something officially released in your region, buy from your regional publishers to help them.
Typically, manga in America is around $10, and in Black and white.
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1B. Manga near you
Ever been to your local library?
Bet you didn't know there was a manga section.
In every library I have been to, there has been a manga section (even the school libraries).
Publishers also will take requests for donations to libraries as well (Take Viz Media for example).
Look around, you may be fairly surprised where you can find Manga
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1C. Kinokuniya (Click title for site)
Kinokuniya, is a Japanese bookstore chain that has 7 Stores in America.
Everything they sell is in Japanese. It's a little overwhelming at first, but if you want to support the authors more, then buy from here. It's somewhat overpriced, but short of going to Japan, or importing, it's the next best place.
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1D. Importing
Importing is expansive, but the names for that are:
Dont use Amazon JP, scroll down to the bottom of this page to see why.
Now then, to pull a page from the buyfag guide:
I don't import, so you are on your own there...
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1E. Scanlations
I'm sure we all know what these are. Opinion seems fairly divided about it.
Well, use 'em or not, the choice is yours.
But this brings up our next point....
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1D. Mangafox and NOEZ
Read this Batoto thread to get a better grasp.
Mangafox and NOEZ are evil. Don't ever use Mangafox, unless you have an ad blocker, so that way they won't be making any money off of you, or scanlators.
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Thanks for reading!
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Oh yeah, for scrolling down to the bottom, see
"Kodansha Bilingual Comics" for a good reading and learning aid
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