Gomanga.com, home of Seaven Seas Entertainment, has a number of comic series that are pretty obviously influenced by manga and anime art. Can we consider them to be manga though? Is manga just the animation style, or does a comic have to be produced in Japan to technically qualify as manga?

GoManga’s comics certainly compete with their Japanese counterparts in terms of quality. They’re also read from right to left, just like Japanese comics. Some would call that “pandering” in an attempt to draw in the otaku. :icon_cool:

The Lead character from one of GoManga’s titles, Destiny’s Hand.

Many of the series that GoManga publishes in print are also available as webcomics. I personally think web distribution of comics is the way to go. I never read paper comics now that comics.com is around, in addition to the variety of ways that one can get their favorite comics syndicated to them. One of the advantages of this new crop of American comics is that they’re not limited to just the print medium, allowing for more exposure. Penny Arcade is a prime example (although we can’t really call that a manga)

That’s not to say that American, manga-like comics, aren’t doing well in the traditional mediums. “Peach Fuzz” and “Van Von Hunter” are two series that are being run in newspapers across the nation.

Covers from Van Von Hunter and Peach Fuzz

So will American-made, manga inspired comics make it big in the States? Will the otaku accept them into the fold, or consider them to be cheap knock-offs? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?

Ahh, the mysteries of life. :icon_razz:

Tags for this posts: Anime, Manga, Peach Fuzz, Van Von Hunter, go+manga, Seven Seas Entertainment

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