Learning to Read Differently

Reading manga isn’t simply reading comic books. It also involves getting used to the visual and textual conventions of another culture. Westerners are used to reading books and magazines from left to right, but manga are typically read right-to-left, with the story beginning at what Westerners would consider to be the back of the book. And on a given page, the storyline begins with the comic frame at the top right of the page, rather than the top left. Western publishers have typically flipped manga in order to have the comic read according to Western reading conventions, resulting in odd changes to the art. For instance, Gunsmith Cats is a manga set in Chicago, where steering wheel and driving patterns are the opposite to what they are in Japan. Flipping the manga puts the steering on the wrong side for the setting. Due to artist and fan demands for authenticity, publishers have recently begun offering manga unflipped, and in the process, they are training their readers to pay attention to how they move through a page layout.

Tokyopop’s authentic manga line advertises its unflipped layout.

Shonen Jump, published in the US by Viz Communications, is the western version of the popular manga periodical for boys. Shonen Jump’s US edition is a particular noticeable example of the proliferation of manga, with the monthly periodical being sold in neighborhood grocery stores.