Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels: About

At its most basic level, comics is a medium that expresses ideas using images, often combined with text or other visual information. This medium contains several formats, including:

• Graphic novels
• Comic books
• Comic strips
• Webcomics and Webtoons
• Political and Editorial cartoons
• Underground comics/comix

You might also see terms referring to comics by their language/country of origin. These include: manga (Japanese comics and comics done in a Japanese style); manhwa (Korean comics); manhua (Chinese comics); bandes dessinées (Franco-Belgian comics); and fumetti (Italian comics, though it sometimes also refers to comics made using photographs rather than pictures).

For help navigating the terminology of the medium:

• Wikipedia has an extensive glossary of comics terminology.
• Manga, manhwa and manhua are similar, but not identical. Here's an article explaining some of the differences including reading direction.
• And here's a glossary of anime and manga terminology that includes information about types of manga.