Manga vs Graphic Novel: What’s the Difference?

So “manga vs graphic novel” compares a kind of comic with a kind of book. The table below shows where they differ in practice. If you’re planning your own book in either style, a comic book illustration team can draw it, including manga pages with screentone.

Manga vs graphic novel at a glance

	Manga	Graphic novel
What it is	Comics from Japan, and the art style that grew from them	A format: a long comic story in one bound book
Where it comes from	Japan	Anywhere
Reading direction	Traditionally right to left, back to front	Usually left to right in English
Color	Usually black and white, with gray shading from screentone	Black and white or full color
First release	Chapters in weekly or monthly magazines, then collected volumes	Often written as one complete book; some collect earlier issues
US size	About 5 × 7.5 inches for a typical US manga volume	Many sizes; often 6 × 9 inches or larger
Pages per book	One printer’s spec: 150 to 250 for a manga volume	Varies widely; a middle grade graphic novel typically runs 150 to 200
Art conventions	Expressive faces, speed lines, fewer panels per page	Wide range of styles

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

Sizes and page counts are summarized from our comic book size guide, which has the full sources.

Is manga a graphic novel?

A collected manga volume is a graphic novel by format: it’s a bound book of comics. US book sales data treats it that way too. In ICv2’s report on Circana BookScan’s graphic novel sales, manga sits in an East Asian category inside graphic novels; for 2025, ICv2 reported that “manga and other East Asian graphic novels were up 11% year over year.”

The difference is in how the story is published. A single manga series often runs for many volumes, each collecting a handful of chapters. A Western graphic novel is often one complete story in one book, though many are series too.

How manga is made and released

Most manga starts in magazines. Large, inexpensive anthology magazines, published weekly or monthly, run chapters of many series side by side. When enough chapters of one series are ready, they’re collected into a paperback volume on better paper, called a tankōbon. A long series can fill dozens of volumes: Inuyasha ran to 56.

That schedule shapes the art. Pages are usually black and white, with gray tones from screentone, and a page often has fewer panels than a Western comic page: writer Buzz Dixon puts a typical manga page at 3 to 4 panels, against 5 to 6 for an American comic.

In Japan, the most common volume sizes are B6 (12.8 × 18.2 cm) and A5 (14.8 × 21 cm). Many US editions use a trim of about 13 × 19 cm, close to 5 × 7.5 inches.

Why manga reads right to left

Japanese is traditionally written top to bottom and right to left, so Japanese books open from what an English reader would call the back. Manga panels and pages follow the same order.

Early US editions “flipped” manga, mirroring the art so it read left to right. Some creators objected to having their work reversed. In April 2002, the US publisher Tokyopop began printing its titles unflipped under a “100% Authentic Manga” campaign, which also saved production time, and the industry moved toward unflipped editions after that. Today, right-to-left editions are the norm for translated manga in the US, and some publishers add a short page at the back telling readers to start from the other end.

Manga, comic book, graphic novel and webtoon

Term	What it means
Manga	Comics from Japan, and the style that grew from them
Comic book	A short, stapled issue, often part of an ongoing series
Graphic novel	A long comic story in one bound book
Manhwa	Korean comics, usually read left to right
Webtoon	Digital comics made for scrolling on a phone, often in color; the digital form of manhwa

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

For the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel in more detail, see what a graphic novel is.

Making your own: manga style or Western style?

You don’t have to be from Japan to make manga-style comics. Comics in the manga style that are first published in English are often called original English-language manga, or “global manga.” If you’re planning one, decide these five things before any page is drawn:

Decision	Manga style	Western style
Reading direction	Right to left, like translated manga, or left to right; pick one and tell the artist before any layout	Left to right
Trim size	About 5 × 7.5 inches	6 × 9 inches, 6.625 × 10.25 inches or larger
Color	Black and white with screentone	Black and white or full color
Panels per page	About 3 to 4	About 5 to 6
Pages	Plan in volumes of chapters	Plan one complete book or a series of issues

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

Reading direction is the decision you can’t change later, because it sets every page layout and every balloon order. Screentone and other manga terms are explained in our guide to graphic novel terms. For the script, see how to write a graphic novel script.

When to get help

A manga volume is a lot of pages to draw by hand. If you have the story and want an artist to draw it in either style, an illustrator can work from your script, starting with character sheets you approve.

For a 24-page manga chapter, that’s 24 × $169 = $4,056 with screentone. The same 24 pages in full color come to 24 × $219 = $5,256.

Frequently asked questions

Is manga a graphic novel?

A collected manga volume is a graphic novel by format, because it’s a bound book of comics, and US bookstore sales data tracks manga as part of graphic novels. The difference is origin and style: manga comes from Japan, usually reads right to left and is often serialized in magazines before it’s collected into volumes.

Why is manga read right to left?

Because Japanese books are traditionally read right to left, so manga pages and panels follow that order. Early US editions mirrored the art to read left to right, but since Tokyopop began printing unflipped manga in 2002, US publishers have moved to keeping the original direction, which also respects the artist’s layouts.

Is a webtoon a manga?

No. A webtoon is a digital comic made for scrolling on a phone, often in color, and the format comes from Korea, where comics are called manhwa. Manga are Japanese comics, traditionally printed in black and white and read page by page, right to left. Some webtoons are later printed as books.

Can someone outside Japan make manga?

Yes. Comics drawn in the manga style and first published in English are often called original English-language manga or global manga. Decide your reading direction, trim size and use of screentone before any pages are drawn, because they shape every layout and are hard to change later.

Related reading: What is a graphic novel? · Comic book size · Graphic novel terms