So, I'm assuming that if you're doing a comic then you read them as well. Anyone want to share their favorites?

As far as manga goes I'd say my absolute favorite is Emma by Kaoru Mori. I think the drawings are beautiful and consitently so and I like that it's a story in 7 volumes. I just don't have enough shelf space to collect some of the other manga out there.

For western style graphic novels I go for Angel (cuz I watched the show and was really disappointed to see it get cancelled). Also The Dreamer by Lora Innes which is a webcomic right now, but there's plans to publish it, I think through IDW. And when that happens I am running out and getting a copy. It's about a modern girl who goes to sleep and dreams that she's in the middle of the revolutionary war and falls in love with a soldier. She ends up trying to juggle her real life and her dream life which is becoming increasingly difficult. (and George Washington makes a cameo because he's cool)

I have several favorite mangas (less for American comics).

A couple of my "must read" series for manga is La Corda d'Oro, a video game which was adapted to manga format by Yuki Kure (and the second season of the anime just started running). Then there's Shugo Chara! by Peach-Pit (of which the second season of the anime is still running).

Coincidentally, both the latest volume of La Corda (Volume 10) and the latest volume of Shugo Chara (Volume 6) make it to our local bookstore this month (though SC doesn't come out until the 28th). I'm going to buy the latest La Corda volume next week though, if I ever manage to catch up. Shugo Chara will be my reward for winning Screnzy.

I know very little about manga except for what has been adapted to westernized anime. (Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Princess Mononoke, Fist of the North Star, etc)

As for western comics, Batman Year One by Frank Miller is an excellent older title. Fear Agent, DMZ, Y the Last Man, 52, Planet Hulk, and The Ultimates (Vol 1& 2) are some of my favorite newer titles.

Well I adore Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne, by Arina Tanemura, and then Natsuki Takaya's Fruits Basket is a classic. I'm a huge fan of Svetlana Chmakova's Dramacon- SO freaking hilarious. Oh! And Bisco Hatori's Ouran High School Host Club is ridiculously funny (with obscenely hot fictional characters).

I don't read many western comics, but I do love Watchmen and Buffy Season 8.

I love this manga called Red River... it's about this girl who gets sent back in time and falls in love with a prince from an ancient empire...

That and Saiyuki... Saiyuki is wonderful.

Also... the Code Geass manga, which are actually based on the anime series and not the other way around. The ones I've started are Lelouch of the Rebellion and Suzaku of the Counterattack. I don't know about Nightmare of Nunnally... that one doesn't sound as... well... anyway. They're all alternate retellings of the anime, but with differences. The Lelouch one is more similar to the anime than the Suzaku one. The most significant difference is the lack of giant robots (knightmare frames). The Suzaku one is quite different, not only because of the point of view.

But yeah... as for non-manga comics... I used to be into Batman so much a while ago, but not really anymore. Dramacon was nice, as mentioned earlier, but it's kind of like an in-joke for anime fans.

The manga that imprinted me around 1990 were Akira, Appleseed, Nausicaa, and Lone Wolf and Cub, plus Heavy Metal Warrior Xenon by Masaomi Kanzaki and Grey by Yoshihisa Tagami. Later, Clamp's X had a massive impact on my style, especially once I stumbled on yaoi and yuri manga. My latest fave is Deathnote. But I haven't been reading too much manga lately, due to a really limited budget and having to save up for other things (latest acquisition: an electric guitar), so I've gotten somewhat out of touch in recent years.

It's funny how most people seem to be more interested in manga than in American comics. I'm one of those too. The only non-Japanese comic I read is Angel: After the Fall just because I loved the show and didn't want it to end.

Still, in my opinion, manga tends to be drawn better than American comics and that's what draws me to it. I recently found a comic called Peacemaker which isn't actually out in English but you can find it translated online at onemanga.com. At first I wasn't too sure about it and then I came across one page that changed my mind...

[link removed]

...so cool :)

I read the forst volume of Emma, and I have to agree, the art in it is lovely~

I love shonen and sports manga. I love Cromartie High School (most hilarious manga ever!) and a big obsession of mine right now is Slam Dunk. Also, I recently starting reading Dragonball again :).

The only Western comic I'm into is the Scott Pilgrim series, which I think is pretty creative and many forms of awesome (Wallace Wells is love!). If I read more Western comics/graphic novels, I probably have more on this list, but my cash goes mostly to manga, so XD...

When it comes to manga, I read a bunch of stuff for pure entertainment rather than artistic value. I like Trigun, Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya, Yu Yu Hakusho, and stuff like that. However, I absolutely loved Akira, because it's such a strong classic without having to be preachy or heavy-handed metaphorically.

Western comics are what I obsess about. Right now I'm extremely into Hellblazer, especially Delano and Diggle's runs. My all-time favorites include Astro City (superhero comics from a different perspective), Paul Dini's Detective Comics (this is what Batman is SUPPOSED to be, folks) Alan Moore's Swamp Thing (there's nothing like it), Ed Brubaker's Captain America (just plain fantastic), Superman: Red Son (Millar's only great contribution to comics), Plastic Man (slapstick priceless), Power Man & Iron Fist (showing us that there WERE gems in the 70s) and The Order (what could have been one of the few truly powerful mainstream titles if it hadn't been canceled).

I guess since I'm the only one reading western comics these days I'll mention Fell, Umbrella Academy and The Sword as other really good titles.

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle by CLAMP, as well as Cardcaptor Sakura (it's youngish but a cute read) by them, and xxxHolic by them.
And Dragon Knights by....I forgot the artist.....because it was the first manga series I ever read and for that it holds a special place in my heart. Plus it has unique art, beautiful by the last few books, dragons, comedy and its an amusing and interesting plot.

Oh my goodnesses, I still have my old Dragon Knights volumes...I pull them out sometimes for a little pick-me-up. :]

I like the series 'the walking dead' and the book called 'mouseguard'. The latter is very nice because it's a pretty serious fantasy story about mice living a more or less realistic medievil life, with little hats against the sun, and little towns in all kinds of secluded places. But the drawings are so terribly cute that it really clashes with the grimness of the story. I like it a lot.

I don't read too much manga, but two I really enjoyed were:

Buddha (by Osamu Tezuka)
and
Death Note

Buddha is really long and epic, it spans the whole lives of the characters. The whole thing takes place through 81 years. It's incredible, and I definitely recommend it to anyone.

Like most people here, I don't read American comics as much - I go over to that section in the bookstore, see one too many women in cleavage-baring armor on the covers, and start having panic attacks. ^^ I did start the Umbrella Academy, but I'd forgotten about it until someone else mentioned it here. Other than that, my favorite manga are Naruto and Princess Princess.

This ratio of manga to western comics is very interesting. I wonder if it has anything to do with accessibility. I work in a book store and the western style comic section is very much smaller than the manga section. But then I have to take into account that there are comics stores that specialize in American comics so that might be where most people go for them.

Lefty, my theory is that western comics are more popular with people over 30 and less popular with those in their teens. Vice versa for manga. I figure twenty-somethings are split between western and manga.

It also seems that women and girls prefer manga over western comics.

I don't have much evidence to support this, other than people I talk to, but it seems to hold true for the majority. It would be interesting to run a poll based on age and gender.

I'm over 30 and like Western comics and graphic novels way more than Manga because of the art work. Manga tends to be less gory and hosts way more teenagers than I care to deal with. However, I would bet that the buyers think they are getting more for their money with Manga because of the page lengths of the books. Also, Manga covers last longer than the Western comics and let's face it, the graphic novels are highly priced for those with a small entertainment budget.

I just purchased 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, the first one, and it was $17.99 U.S. dollars. There are several more in the series and the prices only go up from there. So for 5 graphic novels, I'd pay about 81 dollars not counting taxes. With 81 dollars, I could buy 10 Manga or more so you get more for your money in their eyes.

jade

My favorite manga series are: Ranma 1/2, xxxholic, and Fruits Basket. I don't read many, but those are my favorites of the few series that I do read.

I'm a 16 year old girl, and I vastly prefer Western comics to manga. I was a massive otaku until I discovered Western comics, and then I just sort of forgot about manga and anime for a while. A lot of people cite a preference for manga because of a dislike for the "universes" and large continuity associated with comic books. In my opinion, as long as you start reading at the beginning of the story arc, continuity won't slow you down that much (writers always keep new reader in mind). I think the comic universe can be very enjoyable, if you're knowledgable about it. I mean, it's always fun to say, "Oohhh, I see. This is ironic because it's similar to the first time he died..." And I also like being able to follow a certain character through decades and dozens of different titles. I get more attatched to them that way.

I don't really read Western comics that much... they're nice to browse through in the stores and can be entertaining, but I find manga to have longer and more solid storylines. I also find manga to be more exciting as far as battle scenes go... I think it has something to do with the paneling.

Anyway, my title preferences fall mainly into the shoujo category, mainly Magic Knight Rayearth, Fushigi Yuugi, Kaze Hikaru, Sailor Moon, Vampire Knight, Ouran High School Host Club, Tokyo Mew Mew, Loveless, and The Wallflower (Perfect Girl Evolution). As far as shounen goes, it's mainly Naruto, Rurouni Kenshin, and Tsubasa Resivoir Chronicle. (How bad is that? lol) There may be more, though, as I'm rather broke at the moment, and most of my budget goes towards shoujo. :p

I'm a big fan of Mignola's Hellboy and Usagi Yojimbo.I'm also reading Freak Angels, a webcomic written by Warren Ellis.

I have a bit of trouble pointing out any manga favorites... I like One Piece a lot, but it suffers from being excessively long for my taste. I'm currently reading Kekkaishi, which is a different flavor of shonen than the ones published on the Shonen Jump magazine; the basic concept is similar to Bleach, but there aren't endless fights and it actually explores the characters' relationships.

The shounen and shoujo stuff that comprises most of manga tends to fit with your description regarding violence and youth of the characters. But there's more to manga than just that stuff, and the seinen stuff, the stuff for older teens and young adults, gets a lot bloodier, particularly horror titles such as Hellsing, Elfen Lied, Blood+, and Monster.

I'm currently reading Black Lagoon, a seinen series inspired by the Heroic Bloodshed style of Hong Kong cinema. It follows a crew of modern-day pirates on the seas of Thailand, and a former Japanese businessman who joins the crew after his former company basically hangs him out to dry in the first arc. There's lots of gunplay and bloodshed, but also plenty of drama, particularly the conflict between the idealism of Rock, the Japanese guy in question, and the bitter, hard-edged cynicism of Revy, the primary shooter of the crew who's known as "Two Hands" because of her guns-akimbo style of shooting. If you've ever played the tabletop game Shadowrun, you've got a fair idea of what these guys do for a living.

I haven't read American comics since the Amazing Spider Man. XD So, I like those OLD comics. As for manga, my favorites have to be Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist, Eyeshield 21, and Solenin.