Terms and Definitions
Anime: animated cartoons produced mostly in Japan, often adapted from a manga series
Binding types: you'll here these terms to describe how books are bound together for sale
Comicbooks: (At the behest of Stan Lee at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con, I use the term "comicbook" as one word. These books can be, but are not always funny, so the space between the words creates a misnomer that comic books are funny novels.)
Creative Team: The team of individuals who put together comicbooks, which can include (adapted from How to Love Comics):
Crossover: when storylines jump between characters and/or across single-issues to create one cohesive story
Event: when crossovers happen on a large scale and cover multiple characters' storylines, or when an entire line of comics come together to participate in one storyline through all of their single-issues, and can have long-lasting implications
Graphic Novel: A story told with sequential, illustrated panels
Manfra: manga by French creators
Manga (pronounced mahn-gah): Japanese-style comics, usually read right to left if printed in original Japanese format
Manga Audiences (info adapted from Book Riot):
Manga Genres: Manga has some familiar genres, like sci-fi and horror, but here are some genres that are unique or have specific terms from Japanese (some info adapted from the NYPL)
Mangaka: the creator for a manga; can mean the writer, the artist, or both
Manhua: manga by Chinese creators
Manhwa: manga by Korean creators
Original Graphic Novel (OGN): a story that is published in a full-length graphic novel without being published as single-issue floppies first
Panel: one box within the page of a comicbook/manga
Splash page: a single panel that covers the entire page
Two-page spread: a splash page that covers both pages, across the split for the spine
Binding types: you'll here these terms to describe how books are bound together for sale
- Collected Edition: A collection of single-issue comicbooks bound together, often by series or storyline. There are several types:
- Hardcover: generally brings together several single-issues, often times more issues than a trade paperback, but not always
- Trade paperbacks: binds together several single-issues into a paperback collected book
- Omnibus: a book that collects multiple single trade paperbacks into a larger volume
- Single-issue/Floppy: comicbooks published in magazine-style issues, typically around 20-30 pages.
- Tankobon: traditional term for a bound volume of manga containing several chapters that were previously individually published in a magazine
Comicbooks: (At the behest of Stan Lee at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con, I use the term "comicbook" as one word. These books can be, but are not always funny, so the space between the words creates a misnomer that comic books are funny novels.)
- Comicbooks are sequential, illustrated stories told in a serialized format. These are usually presented in a single-issue, paperback format
Creative Team: The team of individuals who put together comicbooks, which can include (adapted from How to Love Comics):
- Writer: who actually comes up with the story
- Penciler: who draws the outlines of the art
- Inker: who finalizes the drawings with pen
- Colorist: who adds colors to the drawings
- Letterer: who picks out fonts and adds the story as speech bubbles and narration
- Editor: who checks everything once its put together
Crossover: when storylines jump between characters and/or across single-issues to create one cohesive story
Event: when crossovers happen on a large scale and cover multiple characters' storylines, or when an entire line of comics come together to participate in one storyline through all of their single-issues, and can have long-lasting implications
Graphic Novel: A story told with sequential, illustrated panels
Manfra: manga by French creators
Manga (pronounced mahn-gah): Japanese-style comics, usually read right to left if printed in original Japanese format
Manga Audiences (info adapted from Book Riot):
- Josei: books written and published with young women (20+) as the target audience.
- Kodomomuke: Japanese manga that, literally translated, means "directed at children." These stories have light-hearted storylines and can also teach life lessons we want kids to learn, such as sharing, working together, hard work, etc.
- Seinen: books written and published with young men (20+) as the target audience.
- Shōjo: books written and published with girls as the target audience
- Shōnen: books written and published with boys as the target audience.
- Yaoi/Boys love: books where the main characters or plot involves homosexual relationships between men, with young women as the target audience.
- Yuri: books where the main characters or plot involves homosexual relationships between women, with young men and women as the target audience.
Manga Genres: Manga has some familiar genres, like sci-fi and horror, but here are some genres that are unique or have specific terms from Japanese (some info adapted from the NYPL)
- Battle: stories that are centered around battles between good and evil and/or characters training to become better at fighting.
- Dungeons/Games: manga that includes elements of a role-playing game (RPG), and might include characters battling their way through dungeons like Dungeons & Dragons. This can also be combined with other genres, like Isekai or Food.
- Ecchi: "raunchy" stories that have playful, often sexual themes but are not entirely pornographic in nature
- Food: stories that include cooking, eating food, and often include recipes.
- Harem: the main character, generally a male, has an abundance of love interests (of the opposite sex or same-sex)
- Isekai: a storyline where the main character is transported to another world.
- Iyashikei: generally also crosses over into other sub-genres (especially slice-of-life), this sub-genre is meant to have a "healing" effect - its storylines are soothing, the art is soft, and everything is very peaceful.
- Magical girl: stories that focus on a main girl or team of girls who have power or a magical item that give them powers they use to fight evil.
- Mecha: storylines revolve around giant robots in battle.
- Otomoisekai: A subgenre of isekai where the main character, generally female ("otomo" means maiden) is reincarnated into a fantasy world, often based on a dating simulation, and often times, she is reincarnated as the villain. She usually retains all of knowledge of the game
- Reverse harem: the main character, generally a female, has an abundance of love interests (of the opposite sex or same-sex).
- School Life: stories that are set in a school, or focus mainly on the characters attending the school or being in school. This genre is often combined with others, like LGBTQ stories or Battle manga.
- Slice-of-life: chapters present small snippets of the life of the main character, generally of them doing normal, every-day tasks. Sometimes the storylines are connected to form a larger story, but not always.
- Tokusatsu: based traditionally in TV and movies, this refers to types of action storylines that require a lot of special effects, particularly actors in full-body suits and lots of models of cities. In manga, this has come to mean sci-fi action stories with heroes and villains in full power suits or fighting large aliens, kaiju/kajin, or other larger creatures.
Mangaka: the creator for a manga; can mean the writer, the artist, or both
Manhua: manga by Chinese creators
Manhwa: manga by Korean creators
Original Graphic Novel (OGN): a story that is published in a full-length graphic novel without being published as single-issue floppies first
Panel: one box within the page of a comicbook/manga
Splash page: a single panel that covers the entire page
Two-page spread: a splash page that covers both pages, across the split for the spine
